Gamespot changing it's opinion a few years later, again.
Its been for a good while now that reviewers and game players have been trying to convince detractors that video games are an art form. However, in everyone's zeal they have yet to realize that they are all shooting themselves in the foot in their own goal with how they review games.
For starters, if something is truly to be viewed as an art form, then cost should never, and I repeat never, be a factor in a review, to do so is to treat said item as nothing more than a good or gadget. Art by its nature has it value deemed from what feelings it incites in the viewer/user and how it relates to everything else. Cost on the other hand is just an arbitrary value determined from supply and demand and is by no means a determinant of artistic quality.
Another thing is, if games truly are art, then it doesn't matter how one item compares with the changing times (and with impatient gamers this can be as a short as a year), true art doesn't diminish in quality just because everything else being released is "prettier", or "deeper". For example, lets look at movies which are generally accepted as an art form. "Citizen Kane" is often cited as being one of the greatest movies ever made, now I seriously doubt that most contemporary reviewers actually enjoy watching that movie and yet its perceived quality has never changed.
It is for these reasons that despite people's desire to have games treated as art, that they are doing nothing but contributing to games being viewed as only a commodity; something only worth how long people care about it until the next more "relevant" game comes out.
Now for the actual review, Raystorm was a shoot'em-up originally released for the Playstation in 1996. It separated itself from most shooters at the time, in that you could lock on to multiple targets on the ground (off the gamefield) and air (on the gamefield) to create "chains" that would provide higher points then if you were to just use your normal direct fire to kill enemies (and only work for air targets). This mechanic created an additive incentive to rack up more points that was fun, spectacular to watch, and provided an epic feel to the game as almost nothing can stop you on your mad bomber spree. With lasers, of almost every conceivable variety, flying everywhere from your ship the action gets even more frantic if you get a second player to join in on the fun. Now, being a member of that now almost forsaken genre known as the shoot'em-up, Raystorm is both oldschool and HARD, not as hard as some shooters but definitely beyond the pedigree of most games released today; and yes I know this will turn off most people but there are no perks (although the laser super attack could be considered a killstreak). It is for these reasons that most people nowadays (sad that I have to say that, 14 years doesn't exactly qualify as a generational change) will look at this game and say "meh". However, its qualities in what it set out to do and what it stands for still stands, and it will still appeal to those who understand that time doesn't make a game become spontaneously bad and who also enjoy challenging games. To quote the great Gamespot (before they did a complete 180) "Those thirsting for an amazing old school shooting experience can relax - your game has arrived". - http://www.gamespot.com/ps/action/raystorm/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Bread-review