Raiden Trad, short for Raiden Tradition, is the name given to some home ports of the classic arcade shooter. I am not sure why they did this, but it is what it is. Released by Micronet, Raiden Trad certainly continued the strong Sega Genesis home arcade ports tradition. There were a few changes but that was to be expected considering the source material.

Standing out in a crowded market

In the early 1990’s arcades were over run with vertical and horizontal shooters. It was a tough market to break into. Raiden was able to do just that and then some. We are still receiving new entries in this franchise several decades later.

There simply are not many scrolling shooters that can lay claim to that kind of pedigree.

The first title is still ported to newer platforms, now going well beyond what was possible in 1991. What Micronet did was impressive considering what they had to work with.

Raiden Trad arcade to home tradition

Sega knew they had an uphill battle when they launched their Genesis console. Nintendo still had a stranglehold on home videogames with their Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). That is part of the reason Sega pushed arcade to home ports so hard on their 16-bit console. It was incredibly clear they had a leg up in this area.

Raiden Trad continued that superior arcade to home port tradition. While not perfect, Micronet was able to give a very impressive experience.

Raiden Trad lost some detail in the trip

Graphics were downscaled a bit – the mega bomb being an obvious downgrade. This was to be expected as even the Sega Genesis was not powerful enough for 1 to 1 arcade home ports.

What fans got when they bought Raiden Trad was a great vertical scrolling shooter. The feel of Raiden was there and most of the graphics and sound were too. This was closer than the Nintendo NES ever could achieve with a similar port.

Raiden Trad on Sega Genesis was later showed up by the PlayStation launch title Raiden Project. Considering the power of the new Sony console it was to be expected. You can still grab copies of Raiden Trad on eBay or Amazon but there are much better releases since then.

Carl Williams

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