Radiant Silvergun exhibits my theory of Total Gaming. This is where a game is not merely good in one area, but excels in all areas. It blasts all of our senses and afterwards we're left wowed. Tetris is a piece of genius game design, but aurally or visually it doesn't stun the senses, even though we might agree the melody was catchy and the aesthetic as simple as the game required. Radiant Silvergun has the genius design, all of the action beautifully choreographed so a player can learn the game quickly yet take years to master. But while you're doing so the game throws searing colours at you, and backgrounds which aren't static, but rotating, tilting, changing your perspective so that your ship appears to zoom into and out of the screen. Bosses galore, as many in one stage as other shooters fit into a whole game; all cleverly designed polygon behemoths made of various beautifully animated segments rotating and connecting and firing in 10 different ways and colours. A bombastic, catchy orchestral score makes every battle, every shot, every dodge, an epic moment. There are even characters, and an intriguing story of time travel (there are six stages; the game begins on stage 3 and ends on stage 1), narrated with the help of an animated intro and outro and voice-over interludes. It's all frankly more than a shoot-em-up requires, but Treasure did it anyway out of love, and the bar is still up there where they set it 15 years ago.