Raiden is the game character, Rayden is the film character. Don't ask me why the hell the name changed...

Raiden was the name in the arcade, but when MK1 and MK2 came out for SNES and Genesis, etc. they couldn't use "Raiden" because of legal battles over the game titled "Raiden." So they used "Rayden." I assume years later it was resolved.

So they're the same character ?

Yep,thats it right there.

Yes they are the same character,just the name had to be slightly changed because of some legal problems.

any doubt?!?

Wow, I was way off target. I think that is what I heard somewhere, though.

By the way, the reason why there were legal battles were because there was a character in Fatal Fury named Raiden also (the really fat wrestler guy) and a game called the Raiden Project.

Rayden also fits the pronunciation better. Raiden would be pronounced rye-din. But the MK team was never very good with names. I beleve Hotaru and Reiko are both girl's names also. At least, I've met japanese girls with these names. Maybe the names go both ways.

in Shintoism, Rayden is the actual name of the thunder god. though he is a big red demon dude with drums instead of a rice field worker. in MK1, the team wanted more mythological stuff, I guess.

Raijin is the deity of the thundering. There is at least 3 different deities for thunder and thundertsorms. But Raiden is something different. But somewhere you may come across with Raiden as the thunder god.

Reiko is a girl name, Hotaru can be both, but it means Firefly in japanese.

Sweet, thanks for the info!

well just on a side note... i like the spelling of "RAIDEN" better than "RAYDEN"

Reiko was also the name of a Japanese mythological hero who fought demonic spiders.

Just FYI.

Yup, thats true, and there is at least 20 sumo wrestlers who use the artist name Raiden too.