I will never forget the first time I saw the lock-on purple Plasma weapon in the arcades! Raiden 2 expands on the original shooter with enhanced graphics and two new weapons - the Plasma Beam, which can lock onto targets but does damage slowly; and the Cluster Bomb, which does less damage than regular bombs but strikes a larger area. There are eight missions in the game, with bosses (unofficially) called Death Walkers, Ichneumon, Shadow Submarine, Fort Cyclops, Dread Bomber, Manticore, Whisper and Cranassian Headquarters. The Raiden series is held with a very high regard as one of the best SHMUPS ever made, and certainly a stand-out SHMUP before CAVE and R8zing introduced the 'Bullet-Hell' era of SHMUPS. Other machines made by Seibu Kaihatsu during the time period Raiden II was produced include: Olympic Soccer '92, Seibu Cup Soccer, Raiden, Double Dynamites, Dynamite Duke, Zero Team, Raiden DX, Battle Balls, Viper Phase 1, and Raiden Fighters