Foregoing the polygons and bitmaps of traditional shooters, Milestone takes a lighter touch with Rajirugi where the graphics consist of clean and crisp line art with simple colors and designs. Everything is drawn in the same style from the quaint ships to the big bosses to the puffy explosions. Even the shots from enemies are colorful blobs that spray throughout the screen.

   New to the Playstation version is a Score Attack Mode and a Okawari Mode. In the Score Attack Mode (which must be unlocked), players may select which stage to play with the goal of obtaining as high a score as possible. The Okawari Mode is playable at the outset and features new music tracks for the levels and a higher difficulty level that might give beginners pause but old hands to Rajirugi might not even notice.

NCS Game Notes
» Before the game starts, players may toggle between three mechs with different weapon systems as follows:

1) Silver mech with green vulcan scattershot that covers roughly a 60 degree arc in front of it at full power.

2) Aqua mech with red hunting laser fire that reaches approximately 60 degrees worth of firing area at full power

3) Blue mech which blows out a steady stream of big and smaller bubbles.

» Press START and the following options appear:

/ ARCADE MODE / Standard arcade mode
/ SCORE ATTACK MODE / Must be unlocked before playing
/ OKAWARI MODE / Play the game with a different soundtrack, difficulty
/ OPTION / Set difficulty, battery life, extend, screen modes, sound, key config, ranking, etc
/ EXIT / Return to title screen

» The default controller settings are as follows:

D-PAD / Movement (The L-Analog pad may also be used)
O-BUTTON / SHOT (Blast away with default projectile weapon)
X-BUTTON / SWORD (Used for offense as well as defense)
SQUARE / SKIP (as in skip the messages that one receives)
TRIANGLE / ABSNET (Shot absorption barrier)

   All commands may be mapped to any of the face or trigger buttons on the Dual Shock 2. Playing Rajirugi with a joystick is preferable for easy access to the buttons so that simultaneous sword swishing and shooting can be pulled off with ease.

» Players may shoot and slice at enemies by tapping at the SHOT or SWORD button. For thick enemy armor, it's possible to soften up the target with a few shots before homing in for the kill with a SWORD swipe. If no buttons are pressed, the mech automatically raises a shield with its left arm which reflects shots and changes them into harmless green/yellow canisters which fly off into the top of the screen. The ABSNET throws up a circling barrier around your mech which changes shots as well as armor that it comes into contact with into the green/yellow canisters for mass points. Once the ABSNET is activated, one has to wait for the gauge on the lower left corner of the screen to fill up again before it can be used again. To fill up the gauge, destroy enemies and they'll drop blue radio capsules which fill up your ABSNET gauge on the bottom of the screen.

» In the first level of the game, the appointed mech bursts out of a metal hatch and zooms into action while chipper music plays with a sprightly beat. The drums are heavy and thumping. The enemies attack immediately in a lazy flowing manner as they mosey down the screen. Their shots aren't particularly aggressive and sort of meander through the screen in measured trickles that can be avoided with ease. Although the shots fly in thick and heavy, they're also spaced in such a manner that allows a fleet flyboy to map the shots and maneuver through them without catching a single bullet. The first level boss is a massive mechanical contraption that blows out a lot of buckshot but never gets too aggressive and like the minions in the level, sort of plays it cool even as its being destroyed.

» In the Arcade and Okawari Modes, the following records are kept on the right side of the screen:

Point
Item
Crush
Playtime
Extend
No Extend

» Circular shots cannot be swished back with the sword but shots with radiating edges may be swatted with the sword or shot with your laser, bubble shot, or vulcan.

» The Gamecube and Playstation versions of Rajirugi are similar to the Dreamcast version with the addition of an exclusive new arranged music mode for each conversion. The PS2 version features an Okawari (Japanese for second serving) mode which plays exactly like the Arcade mode except that the music tracks for the various levels have been changed and is slightly more difficult. The GC version features the Manpuku (Japanese for full belly) mode which plays exactly like the Arcade mode except that the music tracks for the various levels have been changed and a potential 256X score multiplier has been added.

» Rajirugi is also known as Radilgy, Radirgy, Ragiruji, and perhaps even Radoggy.

» This was probably unintended by Milestone but if you start a game and don't touch any controls, you can watch the proceedings as the mech glides through the mad barrage of buckshot that flies at it. The standard left-arm barrier keeps most of the shots from destroying the mech. At the time of 2:24, you'll lose 1 battery bar from getting hit. When you reach the end-level boss at 3:11, its second wave of bullets will rob another battery bar but it's not until 4:13 that your ship is finally destroyed just as the boss is leaving and its last barrage of buckshot clips the mech. Not a bad performance for an unpiloted ship...
 

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