History YMMV / RaidenFighters

* PolishedPort: The ''Aces'' CompilationRerelease is regarded as the best version of the trilogy, featuring many options to tune the gameplay, highly responsive controls, and the option to play at 60 FPS or the games' native 54 FPS with options to smooth over the uneven refreshing (making it one of the few arcade shmup ports to actually consider the original game's framerate[[note]]a lot of arcade shmups don't run at ''exactly'' 60 Hz, they might run at something like 57, 61, or even 54 Hz like with the ''Raiden Fighters'' series. This causes debates over whether the target game should be forced into 60 Hz at the expense of timing accuracy, or leaving the game at its native framerate at the expense of some visual stutter.[[/note]] versus that of common household televisions).

* PolishedPort: The ''Aces'' CompilationRerelease is regarded as the best version of the trilogy, featuring many options to tune the gameplay, highly responsive controls, and the option to play at 60 FPS or the games' native 54 FPS with options to smooth over the uneven refreshing (making it one of the few arcade shmup ports to actually consider the original game's framerate versus that of common household televisions).

* PolishedPort: The ''Aces'' CompilationRerelease is regarded as the best version of the trilogy, featuring many options to tune the gameplay, highly responsive controls, and the option to play at 60 FPS or the games' native 54 FPS.

%%* HighTierScrappy: The Slave, which is so overpowered that there's just no point to using the other ships unless you want to compete on ship-filtered leaderboards. (Zero-context example: what makes it overpowered?)

** Most notable is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_aMmpG9LPU final stage theme of the first ''Raiden Fighters]]'', unofficially titled "Invade Your Mind". Sadly, its official title is just "Fort(ress) Stage".

** Most notable is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_aMmpG9LPU final stage theme of the first ''Raiden Fighters'']], unofficially titled "Invade Your Mind". Sadly, its official title is just "Fort(ress) Stage".

** Most notable is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_aMmpG9LPU final stage of the first ''Raiden Fighters'']], unofficially titled "Invade Your Mind". Sadly, its official title is just "Fort(ress) Stage".

* TierInducedScrappy: This series features a very large number of playable ships, and that of course means that some ships are going to be much better or much worse than others.
** Raiden mk-II and Raiden mk-II Beta. The former is more infuriating by being ''slower than in the ''Raiden'' series.'' The Beta is faster, but has a very crappy Bomb and no rapid-firing capabilities.
*** Their slower speeds were latter carried over into ''Raiden IV'' where they're slower than standard Fighting Thunder ME-02.
** The Endeavor in the first game may have an instant-charge Laser and the only subweapon that can absorb enemy fire, but its main gun has a very low rate of fire and its Laser weapon does not cover the front of the craft. The Missile weapon's bullet-canceling property does not make up for its low damage and its charged version's long charge time. This craft is barely used in serious scoring runs.
** On the high-tier side of things, the Slave, which is so overpowered that there's just no point to using the other ships unless you want to compete on ship-filtered leaderboards.

* GameBreaker: The Slave ship, with its tiny hitbox and incredible firepower, is the ship of choice for the high score leaderboards everywhere.

*** Amusingly enough, their slower speeds were latter carried over into ''Raiden IV'' where they're slower than standard Fighting Thunder ME-02.
** The Endeavor in the first game fits this trope to a T. Sure it has an instant-charge Laser special and the only subweapon that can absorb enemy fire, but its main gun has a very low rate of fire and its Laser weapon does not cover the front of the craft.

* ScrappyMechanic: Micluses require [[GuideDangIt hovering your ship over nondescript spots or f ulfilling other requirements that are not hinted at at all]]. You can't ignore them if you're playing for score, as you need to find four to raise the medal value to 100,000 points and thus make Micluses the best sources of points, and each Miclus you fail to uncover (or worse, are unaware of) is 1 million points lost.

** ''VideoGame/RaidenV'' takes cues from the ''Raiden Fighters'' series. The former game has a story and in-game mission briefings. ''Raiden V'' even took that further by adding [[DesignItYourSelfEquipment customizations to ships]]. [[HilariousInHindsight Even better]], ''Raiden V'' was released on the same year as the [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] of the ''Raiden Fighters'' series.

* ScrappyMechanic: Micluses require [[GuideDangIt hovering your ship over nondescript spots or fulfilling other requirements that are not hinted at at all]]. You can't ignore them if you're playing for score, as you need to find four to raise the medal value to 100,000 points and thus make Micluses the best sources of points, and each Miclus you fail to uncover (or worse, are unaware of) is 1 million points lost.

* CommonKnowledge: Contrary to popular belief, and the fact the games have ''Raiden'' in their name, the ''Raiden Fighters'' games are not part of the ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}'' series. The first game began development under the name ''Gun Dogs'', then Seibu changed the name before release when they discovered the game gained more attention during market tests when it has ''Raiden'' in its name.

* TierInducedScrappy:

* BestLevelEver: Stage 6 in the first ''Raiden Fighters''. It starts out high in the sky over an ocean, with the sun reflecting off the surface. As you fight waves of enemies, you notice a [[{{Foreshadowing}} giant looming shadow of a giant plane on the ocean]]. The ocean and shadow disappear under cloud cover, and later, you enter a thunderstorm. Moments later, you fly right past the giant stage boss, while the thunderstorm's intensity increases immensely. Many players agree that the presentation of this stage is one of the best in the series.

** In Real Battle missions, getting killed in Phase 1 would lead to [[spoiler:a bunch of RightWingMilitiaFanatic dropping a bomb on an entire city. What they contained is not specified, but if they are Crystals...]]

* DemonicSpiders: [[FanNickname Sniper Tanks]]. And if you think it's safer over the ocean where there's fewer Sniper Tanks, we have [[AquaticMook Sniper Gunboats]] that perform the same role.

** Most notable is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_aMmpG9LPU final stage of the first ''Raiden Fighters'']], unofficially titled "[[EarWorm Invade Your Mind]]". Sadly, its official title is just "Fort(ress) Stage".

*** On that last note, however, it should be noted that it allows the player to avoid enemies that project heavy firepower to their direct rear (and there are quite a few of them that do so).
*** The developers probably realized how much the Endeavor was [[{{TheScrappy}} reviled in general]] that, in a cameo appearance in ''Raiden Fighters 2'', enemy tanks '''refused to run over a bunch of them''' sitting on an airstrip.

** ''VideoGame/RaidenV'' takes cues from the ''Raiden Fighters'' series. THe former game has a story and in-game mission briefings. ''Raiden V'' even took that further by adding [[DesignItYourSelfEquipment customizations to ships]]. [[HilariousInHindsight Even better]], ''Raiden V'' was released on the same year as the [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] of the ''Raiden Fighters'' series.

** ''VideoGame/RaidenV'' from main series to entire ''Raiden Fighters'' series. Both have storyline set and in-game mission briefings, as well as featuring multiple different ships. ''Raiden V'' even took that further by adding [[DesignItYourSelfEquipment customizations to ships]] as well as some other RPGElements. [[HilariousInHindsight Even better]], ''Raiden V'' was released on the same year as the [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] of ''Raiden Fighters'' series.

* MemeticMutation: "Falsificare," a shmup lingo term born of a {{troll}}'s comments (and the ensuing responses) claiming that ''Raiden Fighters Aces''[='=]s 100,000,000-point achievement is [[BadExportForYou impossible to obtain in the US version]], [[WhatAnIdiot never mind replays of US version players proving otherwise]].
** Said troll has made so many attempts at preaching their case in different sites, you could make a drinking game out of it. Heck, it'd be simpler to list where they haven't posted yet.

** Subverted with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0YvV9vtXOo the music]] for Simulation Levels 35 and 50 in ''Jet'', because while the track itself is awesome, the situation it's played in is ''not'' awesome (specifically, [[NoFinalBossForYou you just screwed yourself out of the two Real Battle stages]]).