Night Raid is the fourth shmup by Takumi. Apparently a rushed-up job (in the sense that Taito forced the development in a few moments, to have more wiggling shmups,so to speak) it runs on G-Net hardware and features an interesting but a bit unpolished gameplay, questionable graphics and a great soundtrack. Night Raid employs a unique twist on the "sub-weapon that makes you invincible" system. The Hug Launcher must be shot at an enemy and only if it hits something do you become invincible: i.e., you can't use it as a last-ditch escape from pastel maelstrom death, you have to plan it?s use deliberately. And the Hug Launcher does not have a specified time over which it is effective. By repeatedly tapping the X-Button once you've released the attack, you can begin to build a combo, so long as there are enemies on the screen (you can get even higher combos by directing the Hug Launcher with the control pad as you tap X), at this point, your ship is invulnerable, so keep your eye on where the Hug Launcher is going. One thing that does irk me though is that both of the intros (the arcade intro and a new rendered home intro) are both FMV when its obvious that the original arcade intro was real-time The PSX version removed the 2001 arcade version's 2-player option.
