Raimais (Arcade) (Japan Version)

Released in arcades in 1988 by Taito, Raimais is a maze-centric action game for 1 or 2 players (2 players alternate taking turns when a player loses a life and play their own game). This is the Japan version of the game, which features cutscenes and plot details that were removed from the Export Version, which involves a woman heroine driving a 3-wheeled cycle into a mad scientist's factory to rescue her kidnapped brother and escape before it self-destructs.
The game consists of 32 mazes where the objective is to collect all the colored dots and avoid enemy vehicles. Loosely based on "Arkanoid", the dots are different colors, each awarding different point values, while gray "metal" dots must be passed over multiple times to collect them. Sometimes powerups will be dropped, which award armor (A arrow, protects player from a deadly collision for one hit, you can have up to 12), a laser gun (L arrow, can be stacked up to 4 times for more shots-lasts until the end of the current maze), quickly clearing out dots (C arrow), opening a portal to the Otherworld (O arrow, warps you to a battle against a giant insect-like robot with 4 L items) and more. In this version, completing an Otherworld battle causes a cutscene to play, and how many such battles you find and complete helps determine your potential ending if you reach the end of the game.
After each level is cleared, 8 doors open and you must pass through one to proceed. The doors are just for show and changing the background color of the next stage-there is no "randomizer" element with mazes. There are also several different types of enemy vehicles, each with their own behaviors such as playing coward with you by pursuing but turning away if you get close to them, moving around parts of the maze in a set pattern, relentlessly pursuing the player and more. Later in the game you have to watch for green/white clones of your vehicle which not only drop dots that you must collect to continue, but they can steal powerups and use lasers against you!
In this version, after stage 32 is completed, you advance to a final confrontation against the mad scientist. The possible ending depends on a few factors, including how many Otherworld stages (accessed by picking up "O" items) you found and completed. To have a chance at the best ending, you must find and complete 4 Otherworld areas. In this playthrough I only found 3 so I got a "mixed" ending that clearly wasn't the best possible ending (which you get by default in the Export version). There are also some different maze layouts compared to the Export version.

The game was released for the Famicom (NES) Disc System in Japan in 1988 as "Yuu Maze", with the "O" areas removed. It was also released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 and PSP in 2005 as part of "Taito Memories Gokan" and "Taito Memories Pocket", respectively, for the Xbox, PS2 & PC in Europe in 2006 (as "Taito Legends 2") and for the PSP in Korea, Australia and Europe in 2006.

For the Export Version video, click below:
   • Raimais (Arcade) (Export Version)