is a shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Treasure. It was originally released in Japanese arcades in 1998 and subsequently ported to the Sega Saturn later that year. The story follows a team of fighter pilots in the far future who are battling waves of enemies summoned by a mysterious crystal dug up from the Earth. The player hosts an arsenal of six different types of shots to choose from, and a sword to destroy nearby targets. The stages are tightly designed to present players with scenarios that can be approached differently with the various weapon types.
Treasure was primarily known for developing action and platform games for home consoles before Radiant Silvergun. Despite the company's concerns about the financial viability of arcade games and the shooter genre, they felt they had a good premise for a game and decided to pursue it. Radiant Silvergun was developed by ten people, with Gonzo outsourced for animated cutscenes. The game was developed for the ST-V arcade board first and later ported to the architecturally similar Sega Saturn. Towards the end of development, the team recruited professional gamers that held high scores in shooters to play test the game.
Radiant Silvergun was first released in Japanese arcades in May 1998. Treasure president Masato Maegawa went in person to arcades to gauge the reaction of players. The Saturn port was released two months later in Japan. Despite its region exclusivity, Radiant Silvergun was imported by Western critics and received critical acclaim. Journalists agreed that the game revived the shoot 'em up genre, which had fallen by the wayside after the rise in popularity of arcade fighting games in the 1990s. In retrospect, it is considered one of the greatest shooters and Sega Saturn games of all time. It received a spiritual sequel in the form of Ikaruga (2001), and was ported worldwide to the Xbox 360 in 2011, to the Nintendo Switch in 2022 and to Windows in 2023.
Gameplay
thumb|left|A player using the spread gun
Radiant Silvergun is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up. The player is given a wide arsenal from the start of the game featuring three primary weapons: strong forward laser, weak homing projectiles, and a spread gun which fires pairs of exploding projectiles at a wide angle. Combining any of these weapons with another will result in one of three new types of attack: a rear firing laser (laser + spread), an auto-targeting plasma beam (laser + homing), and a close range missile targeting system (homing + spread). Using all 3 weapons together activates a sword that can be swung around the ship to damage nearby enemies and defensively absorb a common type of enemy projectile. Absorbing enemy fire charges up the sword for a screen-clearing special attack. The stages are methodically and tightly paced with carefully crafted scenarios that can be approached differently with the varying weapons.
The game's scoring system is based on enemy color. All enemies are one of three colors: red, blue, or yellow. Destroying three enemies of the same color in a row starts a bonus scoring chain. Destroying another set of the same color continues the chain and increases the bonus, while shooting another color resets it. Unlike Ikaruga, switching colors between sets breaks the chain. In addition to gaining a higher score, chains contribute to leveling up the weapon being used, increasing its effectiveness. The weapons stay powered up for the remainder of the game. There are also hidden dogs that when shot, will give the player bonus points and unlock more game options. Sega had repeatedly asked the company to develop an arcade game for them, but Treasure president Masato Maegawa was concerned the shrinking arcade business would be too risky from a business perspective and arcade goers would not appreciate the effort placed into their game. Despite this concern the team had wanted to develop a 2D arcade style shoot 'em up for some time. Although the team was eager to develop the game, there were still concerns. Maegawa believed that the shoot 'em up genre was dying, and was risky from a sales perspective. Iuchi was also concerned there would be no place for a 2D shooter in an arcade space that was advancing more towards large and specialized 3D game machines. The team was anxious about whether it was going to be received well in arcades since it was such a unique shooter and their first arcade game, so Maegawa went in person to arcades to gauge the player reaction. He later said they observed people playing the game for a very long time, which made them happy.