In that sense, it’s somewhat similar to Game Arts’ classic PC / Sega CD shooter Silpheed. Although the viewpoint is still overhead, it now features a horizontally oriented playfield, rather than the vertically oriented one of its predecessor. Admittedly, it has not aged quite as well as the brighter and smoother sprite-based visuals of RayForce, though it’s certainly not ugly for what is essentially early PlayStation technology. RayStorm runs on Taito’s rarely-used FX-1B graphical processor (same hardware as G-Darius), rendering everything in full-on 3D. You do get a note of when and where you start out each level, but other than that, all you need to know is that you’ve got a lot of polygonal enemy machines to blow apart. The plot is more so what you’d expect of shoot-em-ups as opposed to RayForce‘s “Skynet” setup, but even if it’s not as engaging, it is essentially gravy to what you’re seeing on the screen. To counter the looming rebel army threat, Earth sends out a covertly-developed fighter codenamed the R-Gray in hopes of penetrating the Secilian atmosphere and obliterating Secilia’s base of operations, the Juda Central Core.
However, Selicia intends to obliterate the earth and all the people on it, good or bad. Anyway, the important thing is that the year is 2219 and the rebellious colony of Secilia successfully overthrows the government of the Earth-based Star Federation (which may or may not be a nod to Star Trek). Either RayStorm takes place in a different continuity and is primarily a sequel in name only, or humankind REALLY bounced back from being reduced to a mere 0.02% of its former self. In RayStorm, Earth is doing well and humanity has prospered enough to expand space colonies all the way into Orion. However, there’s a possibility it may not even take place in the same continuity as the first game, as humanity was nearly obliterated in RayForce and the Earth irreversibly corrupted by science gone wrong. Thankfully, a sequel was indeed conjured to preserve the Ray- prefix in the form of RayStorm, and while not quite as awesome as its forefather, it nonetheless stands as a venerable example of what a space shoot-em-up embodies. With the considerably high amount of quality that went into RayForce, it was just too good to let fade away into arcade obscurity.
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