100. ESP Ra.De. Psi (Cave, Arcade (PS4), 1998)

ESP Ra.De. Psi is an update of Cave's 1998 arcade shooter ESP Ra.De. in the M2 Shot Triggers series of old shooting games updated and rereleased on modern consoles. This is the 4th (of 5) M2 Shot Triggers release that I've played, after Battle Garegga, Dangun Feveron, and most recently, the first game I played this year, game #1 Mahou Daisakusen. What I  love about the series is that it takes these old games and includes all kinds of extras to help showcase what makes these old shooting games great. From a huge volume of information displayed on screen (most of which was secret in the original arcade releases), to new easier modes, the M2 Shot Triggers series succeeds by making shooting games accessible to everyone.

With all that said, I had very high expectations going into ESP Ra.De. Psi (pronounced "S-prayed-sai"), despite knowing basically nothing about the game. Overall, the game is a straightforward vertically scrolling shooter that plays out over five stages. Each stage has a mid boss and final boss, and the order of the stages and general shape of your shots depend on which character you choose.

In addition to your normal shot, each character has a "power shot" that has limited ammo, but charges up every couple seconds, so you are ideally constantly switching between the two shot types to maximize your damage. There is no genre-standard life-saving bomb system in ESP Ra.De., instead, you have a barrier shield. The shield can be extended for as long as you hold the button, and when you release it, the shield fires a huge laser with proportional damage to how long the shield was held. The downside here is that you have a fixed amount of shield and enemies very rarely drop more barrier energy, so the barrier shield becomes a last resort, but if feels so good to let it rip once you do.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is typical Cave, which is to say best-in-its-class shooting action. My favorite small (but absolutely crucial) touch is that if you are tapping the main shot button, you character travels quickly but if you hold it down, you move much slower, which is useful for navigating tight spaces when the screen is 80% filled with enemy bullets. Switching between 2 speeds and 2 shots seems overwhelming at first, but when you're in the zone, pulling off dodges you didn't think were possible, it feels amazing, that's why I play shooters in the first place.

In addition to the base excellent arcade game as well as multiple variations therein, ESP Ra.De. Psi also offers the M2 Shot Triggers typical super easy mode (which makes you use an auto barrier instead of dying, when possible, while reducing enemy fire) and custom mode (which gives you free reign to customize almost anything about the game you your liking), there is also a special mode called Irori's Room, where you can take on various short challenges taken from the game in order to decorate a room and dress up characters for the game. I don't care so much about the dress-up and decorating, but this is a great way to introduce new scoring techniques and learn the game in a nice guided way.

If I had a single negative things to say about ESP Ra.De. Psi, it's that the game's soundtrack is hit or miss. With previous M2 Shot Triggers releases, either the base game had a banging soundtrack to begin with, or there was a new soundtrack remix that blew the original away, but in this case, there are tracks I love and tracks I don't, and in a 5-level game that's meant to be replayed over and over, I really want to love the music.

5/5, Cave just knows how to make a challenging game that feels great to play.