PlayStation

R-Types

Zum Shooter-Klassiker "R-Type" muss, so denke ich, nicht mehr viel gesagt werden. Ergänzend sei an dieser Stelle aber noch erwähnt, dass Irem die ersten beiden originalen Arcade-Spiele der Reihe in einer kleinen Compilation auf den Markt brachte. "R-Types" heißt das Kleinod für die Playstation, das man auf jeden Fall in seiner Spielesammlung stehen haben sollte, sofern man nicht eine andere gelungene Konvertierung eines der R-Type-Erstlinge z.B. für die PC-Engine oder für den Commodore Amiga sein eigen nennt.

In a nutshell - if you want a shooter with next-gen graphics then give Einhander a try, but if you crave for another shot of highly addictive, 1980's arcade magic then look no further than R-Types.

What R-Types does offer is a chance for purists to play the original exactly how it they remember it. If you want to "go back to the days," R-Types is one way to get there. Acid flashbacks are another. For most people, R-Types still isn't worth more than a couple of quarters.

R-Types does have a history feature, and the two games do make a nice package for completists, but they should be warned that these games may not be as fun as they remember.

In any case, while thin on the options (Dual-Shock compatibility not withstanding), R-Types offers plenty of gaming time, considering the sheer difficulty. For gamers less enamored of the past, you'll definitely want to rent before you buy.

Shooters were a big deal in the mid-Eighties. It was almost a benchmark to system power back then – today, it's how many polygons you can push, but a decade ago, it was how many moving objects are on the screen. And back in the eighties, you couldn't get a shooter with more quality graphics and gameplay then Irem's R-Type series. And now, you can get the two biggest R-Type games released in arcades in ASCII's compilation pack, R-Types.

The graphics and sound are respectable, even by today's standards, but the lame bonus material is limited to screens describing technical details about the ships and enemies. I was disappointed that they didn't include more R-Type games on this disk, since several other editions of the game were previously released.