Radiant Silvergun is set to be released on PC via Steam, as reported by Gematsu.
Originally released in arcades in 1998, Radiant Silvergun is one of Treasure’s best shmups, and video games in their library. Story aside, the main hook of Radiant Silvergun is the fact that you start the game off with six different kinds of shots. You don’t get to upgrade or replace any of those shots. Instead, the whole game is built around those shots, in such a way that you can memorize and master the game by choosing the correct shots and finding the best attack patterns.
There’s a common misconception that Radiant Silvergun is a danmaku, or bullet hell game. Casual observers would see how tight the bullet patterns are, and they do have a visual similarity. But bullet hell games are made in such a way that only a very small part of your ship can be harmed. Allowing your ship to lightly touch bullets without killing you, also known as grazing, are a required skill to win these games. You can even earn points from doing so.
In contrast to those games, Radiant Silvergun is more of a classic shmup challenge, with enemies coming in from all sides. Sometimes the bullets and enemies force you to move in a certain direction, but in other situations, you can compel enemies to follow you or your direction as you move. So, there are dual layers of strategy and motor skills to master it.
Radiant Silvergun was first ported to the Sega Saturn in 1998, standing as one of the best games that was ever released on the console. It would then see a rerelease on the Xbox 360 in 2011. Most recently the game had a release on the Nintendo Switch in September of last year. This marks the first time that Radiant Silvergun will be officially playable on PC.
Of course, I am alluding here to the fact that Radiant Silvergun has been played for a quite a few years now on emulation, across a variety of systems. While no one can really control if consumers want to use video game emulation, FPGA, using copy discs, etc, Radiant Silvergun fans should note that the original developers at Treasure still have the copyrights to the game. In other words, all of these ports benefited the original developers, who had long since stopped making new games. Buying these ports does financially help those developers, even as they go through the current publisher, Live Wire.
Radiant Silvergun will be releasing on Steam on August 18, 2023. You can wishlist it on the Steam listing here and watch the Steam trailer below, also courtesy of Gematsu.
