Taito's MASTERPIECE! Layer Section & Galactic Attack Tribute (Rayforce) Shoot Em' Up Review! 

Update! I have SOLVED the mystery of the Japanese input lag tests! He was testing the MENU, not in-game. I can see why testing the menu is convenient, but it is not a good idea as many lag-inducing factors may not be present in the menu. www.reddit.com/r/ElectricUnderground/comments/u2ep2g/explaining_the_japanese_players_layer_section/

Will be great to see your take on this fantastic game. Was always my favorite in the trilogy. Haven't played or tried the demo at all yet and I already have so many ways to play it including on Saturn. But I'd love to see it's a decent performer for anyone wanting a good modern console experience. Although I do love how it looks on the CRT. I'll admit between this and Darius Gaiden in terms of my favorite Taito shmup, I gravitated to Gaiden because I love a brilliant hori shooter. But Rayforce was always not too far behind.

I'm happy you've found a use for your secret folder of sensual selfies in your thumbnail, Mark. I, too, am tempted to caress my neck thinking about the splurge of late-April shmup releases.

You’ve popped up my recommended for 2 years now....been shmup fan since the 90s, it’s fantastic to see all these retro-shooters coming back getting remade and sequels from past games, subbed👍

Agreed! Layer Section (and Soukyugourentai) are easily the best shmups on Saturn in my opinion. And the most affordable to boot! And that soundtrack - oh the soundtrack. In my top 10 of all time.

I started playing the Saturn version of this the other night. I am absolutely hooked. Probably the most fun I've ever had with a shmup. The challenge is perfect and really makes me want to improve my skill. The music too, absolute god-tier. 10/10 banger all day, lol.

Rayforce is awesome! Pretty much the gold standard for shmup stage design, they feel like actual spaces instead of just simple scrolling images. So much cool background-foreground interaction going on, and that last stretch where you're flying up a tower is really impressive. I think the hitboxes strike the perfect middle ground for me too, small enough to never feel like bullshit, big enough that all dodging has to be really careful and deliberate.

Seen this in Riccione in 1993 and fallen in love with it! A friend of mine had the saturn version and asked him to dump the CD soundtrack in a cassette tape for me to listen :) Zuntata at its best!

When I saw the Raystorm tribute weapon in ZeroRanger I let out a little whoop of glee, love the mechanics in this series, it's one of the first SHMUP series that really clicked for me!

My favourite shmup of all time! Thanks for the video

Tbh, I thought you would straight up hate this non bullet hell game, but im finding out you DO get it after all then lol. Its funny, as a kid, I remember looking up at 2 tv screens in WalMart, one featured this game above the Saturn section, the other featured Battle Arena Toshinden above the PlayStation one section. Needless to say, while most kids were stareing & gawking at Battle Arena Toshinden, pretty sure you would have been there with me, stareing & gawking at Galactic Attack lol. GREAT CHANNEL my guy : )

Nice to see this get attention it deserves. Somehow I missed it for years until I got the JPN Saturn version which was still pretty cheap couple years ago and I was immediately taken with the audio & all the cinematic pageantry you point out. I'd say it's the pinnacle of oldschool 2D games graphics, before 3D took over in the mid-'90s, and the subsequent 2D revival. It's also cheaply available on the PS2 and OG XBOX Taito collections (along with many others like Darius and Metal Black)

Layer Section might be my favorite Saturn STG.

Picked this one up dirt cheap when stores were clearing out their Saturn stock, and absolutely loved it. Random trivia: Taito actually started work on a direct sequel (called R-GEAR), but cancelled it in favor of RayStorm. There's footage of it on RU-vid (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1t5uOXGWgd8.html). If I recall correctly there were some rumors that a highly reputed MAME contributor was on the trail of a prototype board. Just imagine they finished that one up and included it in this release!

Basically to explain the naming thing, it’s effectively a case of they wanted to include both regional versions (Japanese and English), same thing happened with City Connection’s own Puzzle Bobble 2X & Puzzle Bobble 3 port where they also included Bust-a-Move 2 Arcade Edition and Bust-a-Move 3 in the package, then later with Inin’s Bust-a-Move SNES release, same with a number of Arcade Archives/ACA NeoGeo releases, its not uncommon to see multiple regional versions be included in one package

I’ll be there to watch. Excited about it.

Great game! I was very happy to hear it is coming to Switch even when I got it on my Saturn. I really love these series. Love the visuals and the lock on mechanic! Spot on review as always

Now all we need is Elevator Action Returns

oh so this is the game crimson clover is trying to be

I always wish the lock-on reticle could move independently in games like this. Makes me wonder if eye tracking software would be useful for that (since the hands are busy with the rest of the controls).

nice review man ! btw RayForce , RayStorm & RayCrisis are still my favour iPhone game nowadays 📱🤗

...?! Did not expect the cyborg voice at the end!

I'm just here to learn and absorb what I can. Hope I don't bsod and crash myself from overload.

I was so happy to finally get a modern port of this. RayForce is somewhere in my top 5 for sure.

Thank you for the video of this game.

Bought this game when it came out on the Saturn, after really getting into shmups at the end of the 16-bit era. Anyway, it was a very low-key release, published by Acclaim (of all things). Everyone wanted 3D out of 32-bit games but I wanted accurate ports of gorgeous 2D arcade games like this. It mean, the 32-bit era was the first time when the mass market home hardware had finally caught up to arcade boards when it came to 2D graphics. Galactic Attack and Darius Garden were the two best 2D shmups released in the West during the 32-bit era. Those Zuntata soundtracks are awesome.

Levels 3, 4 and 5 are examples of superb level design - so entertaining. Level 6 is great too - but it's super tough! Level 6 always breaks my 1CC attempts. 😀 The rank can get out of control too - it makes even thinking of a no-,miss run a scary proposition. First game I TATEd and I've never gone back. The Saturn port is brilliant - I play that and on MAME and there's isn't much difference as far as I can see.

I’ve been playing it on the Saturn for the last 6 months and it’s quickly become one of my faves. I ordered it for the switch on limited games or strictly limited or whatever over a year ago like a shmuck lol.

Ah 6 frames, thats a shame. A big fan of both the arcade and the Saturn port, it's a challenging one. It would be awesome to have a remake with tweaks (like a smaller hitbox and maybe an arrange mode) but I guess that's asking for quite a lot. Lots of nostalgia for this title though, one of my first v.shmups.

I always cringe a bit, because I played these shooters on mame, I have for years. Input lag is something I'm aware of but hasn't really taken away from my enjoyment. I think it can be ignored to certain extend and you can still clear. Probably even better clear with better input lag. But isn't like a placebo effect to certain limit?

Excellent showing!

2:33 You missed one game that used the same system, which coincidentally Heralded as the most prominent love letter to Rayforce *Siter Skain's KAMUI* Here's hoping your Patreon's gonna pick that game soon. It is *highly* praised for a reason

Great vid thanks!

I'm a little confused; the Japanese player's chart shows 5-6 frames of input lag for the switch. It has 3 frames on PS4.

Just started playing this on import saturn hardware on crt.... so dang fun, i keep getting to the final boss and havent quite pulled it off yet but IM SO CLOSE.

Didn't know Rayforce = Gunlock!! I just beat the game for the first time the other day, you are right, it is absolutely wonderful. Great music too.

Really looking forward to this one, I hope a Raycrisis and Raystorm release come later, the Ray series is such a delight to play through, this is really exciting.

Thanks so much for the info.

Rayforce is the first shmup I've played that really feels like you're part of a story. In terms of aesthetics, presentation and music, it's way up there. Gameplay-wise though, it didn't age well IMO. The foreground-background split makes it really overwhelming to play, especially when you don't get bombs in this game. Enemies can fly really low on the screen, and it's hard to take out a group of enemies when you're so slow and your shot is so narrow. The power up comes out in a random direction, then tries to home in on you like an aimed bullet, except you're trying to dodge aimed bullets at the same time. So powering up can be inconsistent. And I'm not a fan of chaining systems. Then again, I only played it during Calice, so I didn't have much time to play with it. In any case, it's definitely one of the most creative shmups, and I would like to revisit it someday for a 1cc. Also, the dipswitch autofire is quite slow. True 30Hz autofire (set it externally and turn off the dipswitch) is much stronger, and you can tell by testing it on the tanky enemy near the start of stage 2.

It's IMHO the greatest shmup ever made

Excellent news, I didn't know that this fabulous shmup was going to be brought up to date on our modern media. On the other hand, I would have preferred M2 at the controls instead of City Connection. I hope this port will live up to the arcade version. In any case, the game options will be quite numerous. While waiting for the 28, I will try the demo. Thank you for this review.

does any one remember rayforce ps1 demo? i played that soo much before i actually got the game. That space level, the music. the battles happening in the background mixes with the music. there is nothing in my honest opinion that is so perfectly crafted as that level. also the end boss them is sooo god damn lit on that ps1 game. but i prefer that as just music audio. the space level you have to have those ships massive energy beams in the background being launched up with that crazy charge sound and such. it just some how adds to the music. level is literally flawless

Definitely one of the best vertically scrolling shooters of all time -- better than Raiden II, which I hold in high regard. While I always hated the name, Galactic Attack, I'm so glad I had picked this game up for my Saturn back in the day, and it was cheap! Still holds a prominent place in my home game library. Pretty close to a perfect old-school shoot 'em up.

Rayforce is one of those titles that makes you think that a shmup doesn’t need bombs to be great.

If you think about it, Rayforce/ Layer Section is the sequel to Axelay Konami never made. The two games have similar mechanics. They also both have killer soundtracks. I just finally picked up Layer Section for Saturn last year and have had RayStorm and Raycrisis since the 90’s for PlayStation. I love this series! Raycrisis is the easiest of the trilogy. Thank you for this video man! I had no idea this was coming out. I hope they sell a physical version!

seen these on playasia for preorder for switch, raiden 3, raiden 4 & 5 in one, crisis wing, and Ray’z Arcade Chronology, which is rayforce-raystorm & a remaster-raycrisis & remaster. Good time to love shmups!

Taito Egret 2 Mini tabletop console has RayStorm and other great Taito classics. And no lag whatsoever. 😄

I just found out there's going to be more S- tribute games later on. And one of them is going to be Elevator Action Returns! One of my favorite games on Taito Legends 2 on PS2

I have Galactic Attack on Saturn and also Layer Section II on Saturn and many more shmups, but my two favorite shmup games on Saturn are Galactic Attack and Rardiant Silvergun.. The soundtrack was redone for the SATURN edition... It sound better than ther arcade version.

I feel like the fact it had 4 different names made it harder to properly remember it. Hopefully we'll get the trilogy eventually.

Raystorm is the one I really got into, I loved the trippy cyber world!

I could be wrong but I was pretty sure that they are actually emulating the Saturn port with this like they did with Cotton instead of the arcade version so my hopes for them fixing the lag is pretty low.

This game had space halo rings in a shmup and that's pretty sick

I glad there porting some great Saturn games to the ps4 and switch i have the original on Saturn but still want a ps4 version.and I'm happy to see there giving it a new life on these consoles

Great to hear this is being handled by professionals now. Bought Dragon Blaze on PS4. Would love your frame rate skills on it to see if it's better than the Switch port.

All 3 of the Ray games are amazing imo, I have em all on my ipad. You should do a RayCrisis/Raystorm review!

What did you think of the M2 “Ray’z Arcade Chronology” version? More games + gadgets was why I went with it.

One tip: don't trust all what emulators say about FPS. Virtua Racing, for example, runs at 30, but the 2D backgrounds runs at 60 and the emulator, I supposed, picks up the highest signal. This doesn't mean that Layer Section doesn't work at 60, of course, I'm just mentioning it for information ;)

I’ve now gotten my hands on it. I had wished for the quality of an m2 port as the Darius Collections. It’s still worth playing because RayForce is always worth playing but the lag is there. My Saturn via ossc Setup still does perform way better. I like the slow mode feature, and therefore I will play it to practice the last two stages, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth somehow.

The saturn version is only 7$ more, I recommend getting that :p

Excellent! One of the best shmups ever created! About time it's coming out on newer consoles. I don't get why you don't mention the Xbox if it's coming out on it too. You just ignore that console?

The steam page says "yer Section, the home console port of arcade game RayForce is back with new features and online ranking. Use the new lock-on laser function to defeat multiple enemies at once for a higher score in this gorgeous 2D vertical shooting game!". So it's the home port? Glad they aren't just dumping the rom into an emulator.

So long story short buy the Switch version?

Is this the full game or just the demo? I downloaded the demo in japan eshop. It said it comes out on the 28th? -before the premiere

Great video but I feel the need to clear something up about City Connection, and also touch on some of the issues associated with ports of ports. I don't think it's necessarily fair to use the Switch Psikyo games as an indicator of what City Connection's quality is like. I know if you go to the EShop right now you'll see their name all over them, but these ports were actually done by ZeroDiv BEFORE it was purchased by City Connection. And I think this explains why the PC ports have less latency, since those were done after the merger. Secondly, I know the Saturn Cotton ports were very bad on release, but after the update patches, are they actually that much worse than the original? I know the original STV board for Cotton 2 had like 7 frames of latency, if the Saturn added, say, a frame, then the City Connection ports should be basically identical now. I haven't actually seen a lag test of the two different versions compared. But, I do think there's a problem with porting Saturn versions compared to the arcade originals. I'm not very familiar with Rayforce but my understanding is that version actually has different level design/bullet patterns. There's a similar issue with Game Tengoku Cruisinmix (also by City Connection but this was one of their older releases so they subbed the actual development out to another company). Cruisinmix is a very accurate representation of the Saturn version, however being an old Jaleco game that not many people play, no one seems to realise that the Saturn version has problems - Yoko mode is quite difficult due to the edges of the screen being cut-off, and the arcade version's brutal 2nd loop has been replaced with an identical repeat of the 1st loop. This means if you're looking for an arcade perfect experience, you won't get one, even though the port quality is high. With this in mind, I don't think you can just judge the port by comparing it to the latency of something like Ketsui - the 6F delay is not that useful for discerning the port quality until it's compared side by side with the source material. And I know, it sucks that they are porting the Saturn version instead of the arcade original. But when we get into mid-90s STGs we get into this awkward period where most of them are are too hard to port/emulate on an Arcade Archives timeline/budget, yet don't have enough brand power for a full M2 Shottriggers release to be financially viable (even if everyone who watches this channel would snap it up in an instant). That said, I'm not buying this either, but purely because the Saturn version it's based on has problems. I'll probably get the next releases in this series, Metal Black and Elevator Action Returns, I'm not aware of any issues with them.

Fantastic game... i love Rayforce/Galactic Attack/Layer Section/Gunlock xD i have the japanese SS port and, recently, i completed the EGRET II mini ARCADE emulation....about the same as this City Connection port, input lag wise if im correct

Experiencing sound issues on steam version, some kind of lag (and an awfully glitched welcome screen). The whole thing seems a bit amateurish, wich is a shame for such a great source material... I too prayed for an M2 port.

❤️

Does the game have scanline options? Without those I think emulation has to be superior.

How you going to charge $25 with input lag that Bacall? All I needed to hear was "unfortunately" for the input lag. Wtf!! There has been a spate of bad ports recently. Square just shat out another turd of a "remaster" with Chrono Cross that runs WORSE than the ps1 version that has some low quality emulation. I wish these companies cared just a little bit. They're constantly getting bettered by fan made mods or emulations of their own games and they still don't seem to mind that fact.

Rather than comparing it to games which came later, I tend to see Rayforce as more of a spiritual descendent of Xevious, which was a massively influential game in Japan in its day. It really feels like an updated take on those mechanics, with a multiplier-based scoring system. I own this game and while I like it, I've never managed to love it. I think the movement is the biggest reason why, it feels like the game desperately needs a speed-up. Just one would do! But I suppose the speed is deliberate; combined with the fixed reticle it doesn't allow much room to recover from being out of position, making this a game much more about strict routing. That often seems to be something players hold against a game, but I guess it works for people here. And the music - I wish I could love it as much as others seem to, it just lays kinda flat for me. In the end my Saturn lock-on game of choice ends up being Sōkyūgurentai. Now _that's_ a game I can really get into.

I may pick this up on pc when it comes out.Have u seen that CC is bringing out Akai Katana this year?Hopefully it'll be at least as low lag as their Deathsmiles ports and thus completely playable for this average Joe!

Thanks as always for your awesome videos and for the warning on this one. I'll just stick to the saturn version. I have a bit of a stupid question for you, though. So in a 60 frames per second game one frame takes about 16 milliseconds to render, according to my reading. Does this mean that the input lag must exceed 16 milliseconds for it to be noticeable? And in this case the lag is equivalent to like 100ms?

Switch always gets the short end of the stick with input lag in games like these.

It is nice to make this game known. Gunlock/Layer Section/Galactic Attack is one awesome game. However I would like to make a friendly suggestion. Often in your content you speak to the audience but you are not looking at the camera. It is fine but it looks weird. I would suggest that you put your talking head to one of the corners of the window, ideally bottom left, an let the viewer see more footage, plus the angle from which you are looking would seem kind of normal. Alternatively, you can look at the camera, it is more natural for the viewer. All and all, it is your content and it is good content, so you can do as you please. I just find it a bit weird for how easy it is to make it look more natural.

I hope the port is great. I will buy it if it is

Did you already played the demo?

I'd love to hear city connection explain why their (laggy) rom of a saturn port of an arcade game is worth $30 when Crimzon Clover World Explosion is $20.

But it's another name for this it's called Raystorm which one is better 🕹🎮😀👍🏾

wish there's a new ray schmup game and also a ray series collection of all titles for Nintendo switch including physical release..

I personally prefer raystorm over gradius. Just spotted layer section II for the sega saturn and I thought "isn't this just raystorm". I'm perplexed that I never looked so deep into this and at such a good moment of release.

Slowly starting to learn what what in this hobby. I only played counter strike for the most part as a kid… I don’t know how I missed shoot em ups as a kid but I got a Sony fw900 and I’ve fallen head over heals for these games. So far Batsugun is my fav I’m slowly trying them all. I’d donopachi or how ever it’s spelt supposed to have such bad ripple and digital looking sprites? I have everything set up right and still happening but my buddy said it was like that in the arcade as well…. Maybe just shit choice of game engine? Didn’t the Saturn not have a sprite limit per line? Anyways love the channel

Will this be included in tne the Taito trilogy M2 announced for 2023? Great review 👌

This game, man, this game. 👍

What do you think about the Sega Saturn port of this game do you think the one on the tatio collection is better🕹🎮😀👍🏾

BEST SHMUP OF ALL TIME.

SHOOTING AGAIN.

So is the recent m2 port of this game any better?

I don't understand these developers. City Connection is putting out a very niche port for a very hardcore group of gamers. SHMUP fans care about performance, and 6 frames of input lag is just not within the range that I would pay 25 dollars for.

So how many frames of lag on Switch vs PS4?

promisses kept are promisses received.

Hey Mark, just wondering what the input lag for the original Saturn is? If it matches up then it's not really a problem from the standpoint of a faithful port or emu. If it is worse than the saturn version then yes chalk another fuck up from CC!

This is a different release than "Ray'z Chronology" right??

But yeah, naming it like that is very sneaky and misleading, making it seem you are getting 2 games.

Acclaim galactic attack will dump on MAME final burns neo And finally Extend EVERY 50000 80000 SUPER EASY AUTOMATIC FIRE

Instead of Layer Section AND Galactic Attack, I’m thinking Layer Section/Galactic Attack or Layer Section (Galactic attack) or some shit might have been more honest. Idk that’s just me.

$25.00 for one game with six frames of input lag... I'll have to pass on it. By the way, City Connections is still trying to patch out their 11 frames of input lag on the Sega Saturn Tribute games (that's not going to work). An interesting note, since day one there has not been ANY sales on the Sega Saturn Tribute games in the Playstation store. I'm wondering if City Connections knows the games are crap so they are trying to discourage people from buying the games as a form of damage control so they have fewer people ticked off if they are passing on the games because they are always at full price. Just a theory.

!! JEYEAH!!! *... Yes

As soon as you said City Connection my heart sank. They've completely botched another classic.

if you want a game just like this but it plays better, play kamui fromt he alltynex series. its heavily inspired by rayforce and fixed a lot of the problems it has