I REMEMBER games from the 1942 series, in which you play a fighter plane set in World War II, from the top-down perspective.

Scrolling shooters were popular years ago but declined rapidly in popularity in the arcades, eventually becoming a niche market.

Raiden IV is one of the more accessible games in a genre overrun by games featuring 'bullet hell', where enemies just spew bullets and hope one hits you. Here, enemies actually aim, delivering sniper-precise shots, while you dodge and spam the screen with missiles and lasers.

Simply put, Raiden looks normal enough and simple enough such that casual players won't feel turned off.

The craft you control in the game fires two weapons at a time: your main weapon, which can cover a good deal of the screen; and sub-weapons that supplement your enemy-busting by firing forward.

Depending on your play style, you can choose from a machine gun that fills the screen, a blue laser offering concentrated firepower or a snaking purple laser that locks on to enemies.

Unfortunately, you can't casually toggle between your weapons but can do so only when a power-up gem dropped by an enemy is picked up.

This game comes from the arcade but new features have been added to the console port, such as the Xbox 360 mode that offers different play styles, allowing you to control two crafts with one controller. Here, you use both analog sticks to move the crafts around and the bumper buttons to fire.

This play style is perfect for showing off your dexterity and ability to multitask, as you have to remember which side of the controller controls which craft.

Difficulty has also been tweaked, with eight levels ranging from practice, where enemies don't fire at you, to ultimate, where shots come at you so fast your reflexes get challenged.

Raiden IV looks fantastic, with vivid colours and plenty of things going on at the same time.

It also supports rotating your display 90 degrees, which is a huge plus for those playing on monitors. Otherwise, the main gameplay takes up only one-third of a widescreen television. What a complete waste.

This is an excellent shooter that sticks with the tried-and-tested formula of the Raiden series. If you are a fan of shoot-'em-ups, you should try this out.

By Valentine Chua, a gamer and freelance writer

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life, on 5 November 2008.

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