Radiant Silvergun shines brightly as it comes to the Xbox Live Arcade

The latest in the line of retro shooters getting the XBLA make-over is Radiant Silvergun.

Radiant Silvergun was a classic shooter hailing from the days of the Sega Saturn. Until now the game has been somewhat of a rarity and would set you back a few hundred Euros just for the honour of playing it. But now the game has been given a makeover and anyone with an Xbox 360 can buy the shooter and find out what hardcore fans have been raving about for years.

The updated game features slick new graphics (saying that all you retro game lover can still play the game with its original aesthetics), numerous difficulty levels and an interesting online co-op play mode.

Now while the changes have been for a positive, the game still has some quirks. The in-game dialog hasn’t been touched and is still in Japanese with English subtitles. The game’s learning curve is still crazily short and asks players to master several different guns from the get go. Truthfully, I seriously had a few screaming sessions, when I forgot which button fires what type of gun. Even the most experienced gamer will have a few issues figuring out which weapon to use against each enemy, boss. So yes, the game can feel overwhelming at first, it doesn’t do much to welcome you and it’s seriously not a shooter for newbie’s but you should stick with it.

The game has some RPG elements in that you can level-up each weapon. The mechanic is simple, you level-up each weapon by using it against enemies, and you can speed up this process by attacking only one colour of enemy ship at a time to buff your score.

Even with these quirks, the game is still beautifully designed, if somewhat unyielding. While some of you may see the game and laugh hysterically at the graphics, this release is a perfect example of how to take a hard-core classic that interests modern gamers happy while not annoying the purists too much.

Radiant Silvergun is available now on the Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 points