Highlights
- Radiant Silvergun, a classic arcade shoot 'em up game, is finally coming to the PC via Steam. The game has received praise for its gameplay and helped revive the genre's popularity in the West.
- The PC port, based on the Switch version, retains all the features and gameplay elements of the original. It has minimal system requirements and offers various difficulty levels to cater to both beginners and experienced players.
- The game includes a secret mode that changes the mechanics to resemble Ikaruga, another game by the same team. Players can compete in online leaderboards and enjoy the story mode in single-player or local co-op.
Classic Treasure arcade shoot 'em up game Radiant Silvergun is finally coming to the PC platform via the Steam storefront. This game was one of Treasure's most recognizable games alongside its action platformers like Gunstar Heroes. In recent years, the developer has been doing some remasters of its older games such as Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier. One of the most acclaimed games in its library, Radiant Silvergun, is finally getting a modern PC port as well.
Radiant Silvergun is a 2D shoot 'em up game that was released in arcades and ported to the Sega Saturn within the same year. It would receive the title of being one of the greatest Shmups ever made, which helped bring the genre's popularity back in the West after its decline in the 90s. It would remain a Saturn exclusive until 2011 when Radiant Silvergun got a port to the Xbox 360 marketplace. It would remain stuck on these two platforms for another 11 years, up until its release on the Nintendo Switch in 2022, where gamers new and old can re-experience what made the original game such a beloved classic. This classic game coming to the PC makes the game even more accessible.
This PC port appears to be based on the Switch version of Radiant Silvergun that was released last year, with its porting work having been done by Live Wire. The game's requirements are rather minimal, requiring a modern version of Windows and only 4 GB of RAM to run. The features are all the same as well, where it has 23 bosses, six highly challenging stages, and a scoring system that requires a ton of strategy to get the largest amount of points. While the Steam platform currently doesn't have a release date set yet, the official trailer for the game states it will launch on August 18, 2023.
This version of Radiant Silvergun features five difficulty levels, with them all being fine-tuned to allow beginners of the 2D shoot 'em up genre to experiment and try out. Players of the Steam version can also check their scores against other players in an online ranking leaderboard, or tackle its story mode in both single-player or local co-op.
The game also features a secret game mode, which changes the mechanics of Radiant Silvergun to play more like Ikaruga, the game's spiritual sequel that was developed by the same team. This means giving the player the same polarity mechanics seen in Ikaruga, which would go on to influence games in ways like the True Final Boss of Sonic Frontiers, Nier's bullet mechanics, and more.
Radiant Silvergun is available on Sega Saturn, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox 360, with a PC version launching on August 18, 2023.
Source: Gematsu