R-Type

aka: R-Type Complete CD
Moby ID: 5960

Arcade version

Sadistic game i.e sadistic creators

The Good
Graphics and sound/music are very good, I like that when you enter the enemy base in stage 1, the lights come on, the idea probably taken from Konami's Gradius. The idea of an indestructible droid that you can affix to your front or rear and use as a shield against (basic)bullets...it's an excellent thing to have in most scrolling shooters. Of course having unlimited use of a powered-up, pulse beam is great too. Stage 3 being one massive boss...another good, original idea. And I like the idea of an underwater cave for stage 5. All of these things would make it superior to a lot of other shooters, except.....

The Bad
..that it really doesn't play that well. To stay alive you have to be lucky or spend time(and money) learning the order of attacks and the moments they occur. So they've made up for having the protection of a droid and unlimited pulse laser beams, by making the enemy stronger, attacking you from all sides. To its credit, the game goes fairly easy on you in the first stage, you're allowed to enjoy the game a bit before it crushes you in stage 2. I think it's a serious gameplay problem when you get so far because of having built up good firepower, then the enemy gets past your defenses and you're stripped of everything and find that you can barely stay alive, you're not given much chance to regain the firepower that got you this far.

The Bottom Line
I think the game would be bearable if you found a way to have infinite lives, which would keep you from being sent back to the beginning of the stage after game over. But basically I think the game's good graphics, sound and overall theme were ruined by the gameplay.

by Andrew Fisher (697) on October 11, 2018

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