R-Type

R-Type

Manufacturer	Irem
Year	1987
Emulated	MAME, M72, RAGE

R-Type is regarded by many as the best shoot-em-up ever made. These people are wrong, however, as the Nemesis/Gradius series is clearly better. For my money, R-Type relies too heavily on 'learning' paths through the levels, and less on reacting to things as they occur. Having said that, it easily sees off most other shooters, and features some outstanding graphic design.
The sequel, R-Type II, was something of a disappointment, being more like an extra set of levels rather than an advancement of the concept. A third game, R-Type Leo, was better but was released just as arcade owners decided no-one wanted to play games other than beat-em-ups or driving games.
However, 1999 saw the series return to form as the PlayStation-only R-Type Delta was released. Whilst this is an excellent title, it was never an arcade game and so falls outside the remit of this site.
Irem released R-Type Final for the PS2 in 2004. As the name implies, this is to be the last game in the series. It is a worthy end to the saga featuring 101 unlockable ships, many culled from other Irem shooters such as Image Fight & X-Multiply.

Controls

As usual, a joystick guides your intrepid craft, the R-9. You can unleash a stream of death by tapping the fire button, or hold it down to charge up a devastating plasma bolt. The second button is used to detach or reconnect your main power-up, the blob-like 'Force'.

Weapons

R-9 comes equipped with a nice selection of bolt-on extras. Most unusual of these is the Force. This is an indestructible unit that can either float freely around the screen, or be attached to the front or rear of the ship. It is the Force that carries your main weapons, and it has 3 stages of upgrades :-

Level 1	Fires single bullet when separated.
Level 2	Fires twin shots when separated.
Level 3	Fires four shots up, down and forwards when separated.

These are your weapons:-

Speed Up	Alters your ship's speed. Don't get more than one.
Missile	Fires two rather nice homing missiles.
Bouncy	Blue lasers bounce around the screen. Very nice.
Curly-Wurly	Wide red laser beam, similar to the chocolate snack of that name.
Squirly	Yellow things that track along the floor and ceiling. Limited use.
Bit	Blob that acts as a shield. You can have two of these.

You can only use Bouncy, Curly-Wurly and Squirly when the Force is connected to your ship, and if you connect it to the rear of the R-9, the weapon will fire backwards. Much of the skill of this game is knowing when to rear-connect your Force.
If you have Curly-Wurly, any Bits that you have will fire the dreaded Sperm Cell laser - sure to terrify any invading alien.

Emulation

The all-conquering MAME now emulates R-Type, and is the emulator of choice for this game. M72 and RAGE emulate R-Type pretty well, although there are sound problems. Unfortunately, development of these DOS-based emulators seems to have stopped (the author of M72 is apparently working on MAME drivers for other Irem games). An arcade-perfect version of this game is featured on the R-Types CD for the PlayStation.

Level Guide