In the late 80s, beginning 90s, R-Type the name was almost synonymous to "craft games" and was one of the greatest successes in the genre and is available in almost any platform game of the season.
The first title in the series, launched in 1987 by IREM (Innovation in Recreational Electronic Media), brought to gérnero innovations that would be copied by other shoot-em-ups. While in most shoot-em-up's point of the mission was to survive and find a strategy to deflect the attacks of the enemy, R-Type goes further introducing a greater variety of weapons, upgrades, etc. .. items that totally transformed the gameplay.
The story of R-Type was not very different from the other shoot-em-ups, one ship was launched to combat successive waves of enemies. The player, who was the only information given about the story was a simple line: "Blast off and strike the evil Bydo Empire", however throughout the game, we have realized what is happening in the universe of R-Type. R-9, the ship that control, Bydo faces a race of biomechanical enemies, monsters, half organic, half machine, willing to annihilate or absorb any other life form. However the full story is frightening and the remaining games of the series saw discover that humanity is the creator of this scourge.
"The Bydo were created by humanity in sec. XXVI as weapons of ecological destruction against our enemies within the galaxy. Unlike conventional weapons of defense, Bydo were designed as a weapon of limited range for the purpose of destroying all forms green in their path.
The Bydo were placed inside a container almost as big as the moon, which consumed everything and continuiram to evolve. A combination of physical, genetic engineering and black magic resulted in man-made evil creatures.
Humanity sent Bydo the black hole to the solar system of the enemy in order to annihilate their planet. Everything seemed to be going as planned, however hove a slight error and Bydo were activated within our own solar system. During 150 hours they fought until they were taken to another dimension by a special weapon. Everything pointed to that humanity was saved in sec. XXVI.
However, the Bydo were alive and continued to evolve into another dimension. After vagear for what seemed an eternity, they reappeared in sec. XXII to demonstrate their power against the earth. "
Defeat what appears to be the endless army of Bydo is constant across all games in the series, only marked by another characteristic that defines R-Type: difficulty. 99% of the players who have finished games in the series was certainly with cheats, but this factor appeals to most fans.
The R-Type series consists of several titles, available both in the arcades or the consoles and computers:
- R-Type (1987)
- R-Type II (1989)
- Armed Police Unit Gallop (1991)
- Super R-Type (1991)
- R-Type Leo (1992)
- R-Type III: The Third Lightning (1993)
- R-Type Delta (1998) / version of the USA (1999)
- R-Type Final (2003)
- R-Type Tactics (2007)
- R-Type Dimensions (2009)
R-Type and R-Type II were quite innovative, with great success, something that the series would only repeat with R-Type Final for PS2.
In R-Type Final, we can control / unlock 101 different ships, many of them present in previous titles. R-Type Final is a real tribute to the series, but not the only one.
R-Type Dimensions , which had already mentioned here in 8BR , was recently released on Xbox Live Arcade is a remake of the arcade version of the first two (and iconic) R-Types.
If there is a formula for making remakes of old games, R-Type Dimensions it definitely applies. Dimensions can play on two titles in the original mode or 3D and can switch between two modes "on the fly", which shows how the games are still faithful to the originals. We can also see playing games in an arcade or a different perspective in the 3D mode, or even apply filters to the image that simulates image modes or 8-bit retro. A real delight for lovers of the series and an excellent opportunity to know the universe of R-Type.
Personally I recommend these two titles, Final R-Type Dimensions and for those who want to know or remember R-Type, but I can not help the R-Type Tactics ( already mentioned here ) to a different style of R-Type.
If they are fans of emulators, most titles in the series are playable in Mame or SNES9X and then recommend R-Type Leo, for the arcades.
Trivia
- Did you know that when they left the first versions of the original R-Type for computers, the Spectrum version was considered one of the best ports?
- Did you know that the first version of R-Type (Arcade) which came out in the U.S. was the "hand" of Nintendo?
My favorite shmup, R-Type! Great post, destrinchou the series without being tiring. My favorites are the R-Type in the port of the Master and R-Type Final on PS2. The idea of droid was remarkable, it is a wonder to discover how it works, is effective in the right during the game. Is your best friend, indestructible ... it makes you to feel some affection for the droid, just imagine!
Big hug!
For me R-Type defined the genre seriously ... is certainly at the top of my favorite shooters.
In the next panel in the videocast 8BR review is the NEC TurboExpress, guess one of the games I'm going to show? That's right, R-Type, the Japanese version in Hu-Card
Hug!