Raiden Fighters

Raiden Fighters is something certainly different from the original Raiden games, mostly because it was originally conceived as a totally different game called Gun Dogs. However, it has enough familiar elements with its parent series that makes it worthy to bear the Raiden title. Essentially, Raiden Fighters is to Raiden as Mega Man X is to Mega Man. It chucks out the Crassanian Empire and the somewhat sci-fi feel of the classic series to focus more on a modern military atmosphere not entirely unlike Capcom's 19XX series or Psikyo's Strikers 1945 games. You are apparently waging war against an anonymous dictator and you fight through the leader's armada of land, sea, and air units using one of several modern fighter jets. If anyone who thinks the pace of the old-school Raiden games is relatively docile compared to later overhead shoot-em-ups, here comes Raiden Fighters to kick you in the ass at sonic speed.