Games are often known by different names across international regions and Taito’s confusingly named shmup is a good example. Originally known as Layer Section during development, the 1994 game eventually debuted in Japanese arcades as RayForce, before being renamed to Gunlock for the European markets. By the time RayForce made its way to the Saturn a licensing dispute meant its name reverted back to Layer Section. Its name changed yet again for its Western release, to the rather pedestrian-sounding Galactic Attack. Thankfully, RayForce is amazing no matter what moniker you know it by.
The success of in arcades meant that the market was saturated by one-on-one fighters during the mid-Nineties. According to ’s informative making of, Taito’s arcade division was split into three teams at the time: one based in Yokohama, one in Osaka, while the team was based in Saitama as part of the Kumagaya Research Group. The company wasn’t interested in making an STG (Shooting Game) and told each team that they would be working on games based on other genres instead. Tatsuo Nakamura, ’s director, designer and programmer wasn’t happy with this decision and pushed ahead with his STG project. After presenting it during a meeting, Nakamura got the go-ahead to make his game.
