Radiant Silvergun
Ok apart from the fact that there will be a lot of owners of the real original Saturn disc pissed off that this release might devalue their prized possession, I'm pretty sure most people who love shmups are very happy today, as, finally, Radiant Silvergun has come to XboX Live Arcade.
I'm extremely happy with it, certainly beats running SSF on my i7 (it amazes me how difficult Saturn hardware is to emulate that it's only now becoming really playable on fast PC's). It has the intro movie, complete with subtitles. It also has 5 different rendering/filter options, the new updated version is quite nice, but it is really cool to be able to have a totally un-filtered looking 'sharp' rendition of the original pixels also - the 'Lo Res 1' option is completely unblurry on my 1080p, which is great.
I never really played it properly before as the emulation annoyed me and also, though I have a Saturn, it is not chipped and, well I never really had the spare cash to buy an original Radiant Silvergun disc. In fact I played it so little that although I could see the chain in the top left, I never really realised that there were three types of chain (red, blue and yellow) unlike Ikaruga's two (black and white).
The intro movie being included really makes me wish that some of the earlier XBLA conversions, when Microsoft was being very strict about download sizes, could be updated to include missing content now that the size limit is way higher. In particular I'm talking about my beloved Soul Calibur - I love the intro movie for that and really miss it on the 360. It's all in-engine so I don't see how it could take up too much room, it would be great if Namco released an update with it in it.
Much as I am loving playing it, Radiant Silvergun reminds me of the fact that no matter how much I love them, appreciate them and collect them, I'm really not that great at actually doing well in shmups. Similarly with 2D fighters - I have most King Of Fighters/SNK/Last Blade/Samurai Shodown/Street Fighter/Fatal Fury games and love playing them, but emm I'm just not very good haha.
Anyway, it's great to see yet another classic SEGA hardware based game coming to my 360, this along with Ikaruga, Garou: Mark Of The Wolves, Street Fighter III 3Rd Strike and Trigger Heart: Exelica are all there, and although the only stick I can use on the 360 (Hori EX-2 (or sticks based on it)), is not quite as good as my Hori Real Arcade Pro or Dreamcast Agetec Stick (Sanwa parts), which I can use on PS3, PC, Dreamcast and Wii/GC, just having them all there on the 360 in one place is great fun.
If you have never played this game and have even a passing interest in Shoot Em Ups, I recommend it completely. When I say 'a passing interest' I mean even if you just vaguely remember enjoying R-Type the odd time in the arcade, or liked Xenon 2 on your friend's Amiga.