Also, I love Cave, but for this I'd avoid them. Pretty much all their games are $400+ for just the board because they're hotly in demand and the games can be pretty overwhelming if you're not already pretty attuned to the genre.
Being a Cave fan sucks for the wallet, that's for damn sure. It's pretty ridiculous and in the end is totally screwing with their exposure. Ranting...anyways...
+1, again, on Cave games not being the best titles to expose novice players to. I find most non-hardcore players have 1 of 2 reactions to most bullet hell shmups: they either think it looks awesome and want to step up to the challenge...or they think it is complete bullshit, utterly ridiculous and begin backing away from the genre.
Early Raiden games kinda suck. I'm sorry, they do. Raiden 1/2/DX get a free ride because of their name and nostalgia, and there are way better games that can be had for less. If you're interested in the series, start with Raiden Fighters and work your way forward.
Not to be "that guy", but Raiden Fighters is pretty different from Raiden. I'm just mentioning this for others looking to work their way through the Raiden series with Fighters first (or visa versa) For those that don't know, Raiden Fighters is actually only attached to the Raiden series by name alone. It was originally titled Gun Dogs, but they thought it
would be better from a marketing standpoint to attach the game to the Raiden universe.
Sorry Raiden fans, but I think regular Raiden is inferior by a large margin. The Raiden Fighters series is so much more entertaining, deeper and infinitely replayable in comparison. The scoring system is awkward at first, but really cool once you get your head wrapped around it, which in turn unlocks how well thought out the enemy layout design is. The large cast of jets to choose from also makes it incredibly replayable in comparison.
Great series of shmups. As an added bonus, they released the entire series on a 20 dollar disc for the 360. A cheap alternative to paying 100+ per Seibu SP-1 cart/board.
Cool site about the series