Still waiting anxiously for September 8th, when Raiden IV hits the 360? Yeah, so am I. Hell, I’m waiting for it to hit the shelves like Zack Morris waiting for the bell to ring on the last day of school at Bayside. “Fare the well Mr. Belding!”

While September 8th is still a good 6 weeks away, UFO Interactive has revealed to us that the first shipment of Raiden IV will ship as a Limited Edition bundle and will include an exclusive soundtrack at no additional cost. In addition, there will also be a GameStop Limited [variant] Edition of the game that will include a “Secret File”  cd packed with “enemy and boss data, concept art and other secret material.”

I think my 6 week wait just got a little longer. Perhaps I will take a trip to the land that time forgot (AKA my closet) and return to my shmup roots. Perhaps occupying myself with some old-school shooters will help pass the time. “Anyone for some Life Force or Alpha Mission? No? How about some Area 88?”

What do you plan on doing to help pass the time?

If Raiden Fighters Aces wasn’t enough to quench your appetite for fast-paced twitch gaming and mind blowing bullet hell action then fear not shmup fans as the time to rejoice is near. In exactly two months time, on September 8, 2009 UFO Interactive will be blessing Xbox 360 owners will Raiden IV. Fans of the series can expect to see new stages, exclusive weapons and bosses along with online features that include leaderboards, replays, downloadable themes, art and even unlockable ships (Fairy, Raiden Mark II)! That should be more than enough to keep your thumbs mashin’ away.

We’ll have more on Raiden IV soon, so be sure to keep it tuned to DDN.

It is safe to say that Ultimate Shooting Collection from UFO Interactive is far from the Ultimate Shooting Collection that most shoot ‘em up (shmup) fans dream of (a compilation disc that features Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga and Mars Matrix to name only a select few). However, in a time where most shmups seem to be XBLA or PSN bound it is nice to see a publisher paying some respect to the genre starved Wii. Even if those shmups just so happen to have been previously released on last generation consoles.

Ultimate Shooting Collection for the Nintendo Wii features three top-down shmups from Japan-based developer Milestone: Radio Allergy, Karous and Chaos Field. Chaos Field as some may recall was previously released a few years back on the Nintendo GameCube, whereas Radio Allergy and Karous; this is the first time they are setting foot on US soil…’er flying around in US air space. But like Chaos Field, all three have been previously released in Asian territories on the Sega Dreamcast. So in essence, it really should be called Milestone Shooting Collection. At any rate it is what it is so let’s move on and take a deeper look into the depths of bullet hell.

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