Razion
Developer(s)NG:Dev.Team
Publisher(s)NG:Dev.Team
Designer(s)Timm Hellwig
Artist(s)René Hellwig
Composer(s)Andre Neumann
Platform(s)Neo Geo, Nintendo Switch
ReleaseNeo Geo MVS
  • WW: December 1, 2014
Neo Geo AES
  • WW: July 2015
Nintendo Switch
  • WW: June 17, 2021
Genre(s)Horizontally scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Single-player
Arcade systemNeo Geo MVS

Razion is a 2014 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed and published by German indie team NG:Dev.Team for the Neo Geo. It is the fourth shoot 'em up title from NG:Dev.Team and their sixth game overall. Controlling a space fighter craft, the player must fight endless waves of enemies while avoiding collision with their projectiles and other obstacles.

First announced in mid-2014 for the Neo Geo, Razion bears resemblance to Fast Striker (2010), another shoot 'em up designed by NG:Dev.Team, due to its bullet hell-style approach. The music was composed by Andre Neumann, who previously scored music for DUX. Neumann was interested to score music for the game once he finished his work on Redux: Dark Matters, after René Hellwig told him that his brother Timm was looking for a musician who could make a psytrance soundtrack. A port for the Nintendo Switch under the title Razion EX was released in 2021, featuring several design changes compared to the original Neo Geo version.

Gameplay

Neo Geo version screenshot.

Razion is a science fiction-themed horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up game in which the player take control of a space fighter craft through six increasingly difficult stages in order to defeat an assortment of enemy forces and bosses.[1][2][3] At the start, there are three difficulty modes to choose from: Novice, Original and Maniac.[1][2][3][4] The player has only two weapons at their disposal: the main gun that travels a max distance of the screen's height and a powerful beam capable of dealing high-damage to any enemy caught within its blast radius.[3]

The player can slowdown the ship's movement to avoid incoming bullets more precisely by pressing the A button in the Neo Geo version, which also produces a focused horizontal autofire shot.[3] Tapping the A button enables the ship to fire bursts shots as well.[3] The scoring system revolves around collecting gold cubes from destroyed enemies to charge up the beam.[1] By shooting a charged up beam, gold cubes are turned green and grants higher score bonuses when picked up in this state.[3] Getting hit by enemy fire will result in losing a life and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the player inserts more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing.

Development and release

Razion was first announced by NG:Dev.Team in mid-2014 for the Neo Geo and slated for an Autumn 2014 launch.[2][4][5] NG:Dev.Team was responsible for the game's design, which bears resemblance to Fast Striker (2010) due to its bullet hell-style approach in contrast to Last Hope (2006) and DUX (2009), though the graphics were outsourced.[6][7] Timm Hellwig served as both programmer and designer, while René Hellwig acted as art director and graphist.[8] The soundtrack was composed by Andre Neumann, who previously scored music for DUX.[9][10] According to Neumann, René told him that his brother Timm was looking for a composer who could make a psytrance soundtrack when working on the project, and he was very interested to score the music after finishing his work on Redux: Dark Matters.[10] Neumann stated that he used FL Studio, a Korg M50 and the Virus TI2 analog synthesizer when producing music for the game by observing its visuals.[10]

Razion was released for the Neo Geo MVS on December 1, 2014, as two editions; a collector's edition limited to 100 units and a limited edition of 50 copies.[1][5][11][12][13] At 1560 megabits of data, it is one of the largest games developed for the Neo Geo platform.[4][5] The MVS release supports software updates via a USB port.[4][5][11] In July 2015, a Neo Geo AES version was also released by NG:Dev.Team.[13] Around the same time period, a music album was released by NG:Dev.Team and a digital album was distributed by Neumann through Bandcamp on September 12, 2015.[10][14] A version for the Nintendo Switch titled Razion EX was announced and originally slated to be released in May 2021 but was instead launched on June 17, 2021, while a digital release via Nintendo eShop is slated for a September 16 launch in North America and Europe.[13][15][16][17] The Switch version features several changes compared to the original Neo Geo releases such as reworked gameplay, redesigned stages and improved visuals, among other features.[16] Like the Neo Geo versions, the Switch version is available in both standard and limited editions, with the latter having 1500 copies manufactured and NGDEV announced a second batch of 700 physical copies for the Switch version in May 2021.[18][19]

Reception

Prior to launch, Razion was compared by gaming outlets such as RetroManiac and Retro Gamer with both Pulstar, Blazing Star and DUX due to its pre-rendered graphical style and bright color palette.[4][6][7][21] Reviewing Razion EX, TouchArcade's Shaun Musgrave regarded it as a "high-quality shoot-em-up" on Nintendo Switch in vein of Blazing Star, commending the balanced difficulty modes, scoring system, vintage-style visuals and soundtrack.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Priestman, Chris (September 7, 2014). "Neo Geo Hyper Shooter Razion Starts Limited Edition Pre-Orders In October". Siliconera. Curse LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  2. 1 2 3 Bouzo, Oscar (June 3, 2014). "Un vistazo a Razion, el nuevo shmup de Neo Geo que cuesta tan solo 400 euros". Vida Extra (in Spanish). Webedia. Archived from the original on 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Razion user's manual MVS LE (Neo Geo MVS, WW)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "NG:DEV.TEAM presenta por sorpresa RAZION, su próximo shooter para NeoGeo". RetroManiac (in Spanish). June 4, 2014. Archived from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Hannley, Steve (June 4, 2014). "NG:DEV.TEAM Announces New Neo Geo MVS Game, Razion". Hardcore Gamer. Hardcore Gamer LLC. Archived from the original on 2017-06-25. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  6. 1 2 Cube_b3 (September 4, 2014). "News » NG:Dev.Team shares Razion Trailer 2". Dreamcast Scene. Archived from the original on 2014-09-14. Retrieved 2021-05-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. 1 2 Williams, Carl (September 14, 2014). "New Game- Razion Coming to Neo Geo, Possibly Dreamcast Also". retrogamingmagazine.com. Retro Gaming Magazine. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  8. ↑ NG:Dev.Team (2014). Razion (Neo Geo). NG:Dev.Team. Level/area: Staff roll.
  9. ↑ Greening, Chris (June 4, 2014). "Andre Neumann scores indie shooter Razion". Video Game Music Online. Archived from the original on 2020-04-28. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Neumann, Andre (September 12, 2015). "Razion Original Soundtrack". N-Trax. Bandcamp. Archived from the original on 2016-10-16. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  11. 1 2 Verdin, Guillaume (September 3, 2014). "RAZION en précommande sur Neo·Geo AES". MO5.com (in French). Association MO5.COM. Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  12. ↑ "RAZION MVS starts shipping next week". NG:Dev.Team. November 25, 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-08-14. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  13. 1 2 3 "Games". NG:Dev.Team. July 2015. Archived from the original on 2021-08-01. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  14. ↑ Kotowski, Don (March 3, 2015). "Razion Original Soundtrack". Video Game Music Online. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  15. ↑ McFerran, Damien (April 28, 2021). "This Insanely Expensive Neo Geo Shmup Is Coming To Switch In Physical Form - Raze hell for Razion EX". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  16. 1 2 Doolan, Liam (May 5, 2021). "Razion EX Launches On Nintendo Switch This Month, Here's Your First Look". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Archived from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  17. ↑ Richards, Brian (September 9, 2021). "Razion EX launches on Switch next week, new trailer shared". Nintendo Everything. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  18. ↑ "Razion EX gets a physical release - coming in May 15th 2021". Games Press. May 10, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  19. ↑ Verdin, Guillaume (May 15, 2021). "RAZION EX, un shoot 'em up Neo·Geo ce soir sur Switch". MO5.com (in French). Association MO5.COM. Archived from the original on 2021-05-16. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  20. 1 2 Musgrave, Shaun (September 20, 2021). "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring 'Razion EX' and 'Boulder Dash Deluxe', Plus the Latest Releases and Sales". TouchArcade. Archived from the original on 2021-09-24. Retrieved 2021-09-25.
  21. ↑ "Razion announced for Neo Geo". Retro Gamer. Imagine Publishing. June 4, 2014. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
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