Here is what GUTS said about Rayxanber 2 back on August 24, 2003:
DAY ONE (August 24, 2003)
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Played the first couple of levels last night, and so far it's alright. The graphics are definitely pretty tight for a regular CD game, but there's no intro cinemas so that was a letdown. There's plenty of parallax scrolling (even in the foreground on stage 1), the enemies range from your size up to freakin huge, and they all explode really nicely. The bosses (the two I've seen) are HUGE and take up most of the screen. Through all this there's barely any flickering or slowdown, if any. Now about the meat of the game...
There are no speed power ups, so you're stuck moving at a medium pace, which isn't bad when you're powered up, but when it's just you and your pea shooter it sucks. And about the powerups, all TWO of them. So far I've only encountered a wide shot thing, and a more powerful fire shot. Neither can be upgraded more than once, which I suppose could be seen as bonus since you'll be dying a lot. When powerups appear they rotate clockwise, and whichever direction its facing when you snag it is the direction your secondary weapons will fire.
Hitting the B button will give your ship a split second speed boost in whatever direction you're holding, but if you use it too much it overheats and has to cool down before you can use it again. This is pretty useful for getting behind enemies or dodging bullets, its just tough to remember its there, it'll take some getting used to. I haven't been able to destroy any enemies with the thrusters that fire when you use this, but maybe I just haven't been close enough.
Things I dont like about it- R-Type style checkpoint system when you die, no cinemas (at least so far), slow ship speed, and your main gun never gets any more powerful (it always a pea shooter). Mainly the checkpoint system is the only thing that really bugs me, everything else I can deal with easily.
Overall I feel it's a pretty solid game, but nothing really sets it apart from all the other shooters out there, but this may change once I get good enough to beat a couple more stages. I can see this game really giving you a sense of accomplishment if you beat it since it's all about skill, no BOMBS or invincible options to absorb enemy fire.
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DAY TWO (August 25, 2003)
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Ok well I'm pretty much done then, the game is just too damn hard and not fun enough to make all the practice worthwhile. Checkpoints really suck.
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DAY THREE (August 26, 2003)
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I have better things to do than waste all my time practicing a game that isn't much fun to begin with. Like play HALO JIGGA YEAH.