I dunno but i like the spelling Raiden more.

Originally it was Raiden, but when MK1 and MK2 came out for SNES and Sega Genesis they couldn't use that name, because of legal battles over the game titled "Raiden", a character from Fatal Fury named Raiden and another game called the "Raiden Project". So they used Rayden instead. But now we have Raiden again (since MK4) and that's the proper spelling.

Don't forget due to other copywrite issues the spelling Rayden is still to be used for movies and TV shows. Raiden is correct for the game but Rayden for other media. I hate lawyers that insist on confusing things.

I believe that it is Raiden because in his MK1 bio it said "Raiden" was japanese for thunder god. Have a nice day.

Raijin is the Japanese god of thunder and raiden reffers mainly to thunders and lightnings.

It is spelled Raiden in the arcade.

In console versions of games it is spelled Rayden.

In MK4 for the PC it is Raiden. I don't know about other PC versions of the games. I would guess MKT for PC has it spelled Rayden too, since its a copy of MKT for PSX and MKT for PSX had it spalled Rayden.

I consider Raiden the proper spelling because thats what it was in the Arcade and the arcade is the important one.

Raiden is the proper spelling, 'cause that's how it was converted from kanji notation and what the creators initially intended, not because of the arcade.

And Rayden was used in home versions (including PC), 'cause of the legal issues.

Rai means lightning, and Den means thunder, right?

But not MK4 for the PC. There it was Raiden.

And I say Raiden is right because its in the arcade because I don't think they care about proper translation or anything. They just pick something and go with it. I mean, isn't kind of odd to have a guy named Reiko too?

Yes, in MK4 for the PC there was Raiden, that's why I previously said "But now we have Raiden again (since MK4)". And later I meant MK1, MK2, MK3 and MKT for PC. Just a detail.

I think, they actually did some research and named the character Raiden intentionally. And that's why he was named like that in the original arcade version. There's no Rayden in Japanese mythology.

There was a Japanese hero named Reiko. He was well-known because of his various encounters with gigantic spiders.

Interesting, I've only ever seen women named Reiko.

And I know that Raiden is a good translation, and that Rayden wouldn't be, (although I've seen Raijen used usually, mostly from fansubs) but I don't think they care a whole lot because if they did, the name would have been pronounced correctly too.

In the end I always default to the arcade being correct when it comes to the old MK games, simply because thats what the MK team designed, with the ports coming later as copies.

Actually, both Raijin and Raiden are corrent translations and both are used in reference to god of thunder. So I still think, they did care about the correct name of the character. If they didn't, Raiden would have been called Jason


I didn't disagree with that. I just said they additionally did some research concerning the name. Not to say that's the other reason why I think Raiden is the proper spelling, 'cause like you said, that's what the MK team designed and what can be seen in the first versions of the games.

Wow, I never Imagined this much response

Ha, good point.

Legal issues or not, I like it like raYden better then raIden.

neither are improper, they're both used in the games, i prefer raiden because it doesn't look stupid

well i prefer Rayden b/c it's sounds good and raiden is also name of any Game,it's is also use in fatal fury character also name Raiden