R-Type

R-Type (アール・タイプ, Āru Taipu) is a side scrolling shoot-em-up arcade game produced by Irem in 1987. The player controls a space fighter named the R-9 to defend humanity against a mysterious powerful alien life-form known as the "Bydo".

Gameplay

The game is made up of several sequential levels, with a boss enemy at the end of each. The player controls a small spacecraft and must navigate terrain and fight enemies using the various ship weapons.

The player's spacecraft has, by default, a weak but rapid-firing main gun, which can take out waves of weak fighters; and a more powerful gun called a wave cannon, which requires the player to hold their fire to build up power for the cannon. When released, this fires a concentrated bolt of energy which can do more damage to larger enemies.

During the game, the player can obtain an auxiliary device called a Force. This resembles a glowing orange ball. The Force can be attached to the front or back of the player's spacecraft, or detached to fly freely. When attached, the Force provides one of three different powerful weapons, in addition to the main gun and the wave cannon. When detached, these weapons cannot be used, but the Force will instead resort to a secondary set of guns, which can be fired by the player even if the Force is at a distance from the spacecraft.

R-Type III: The Third Lightning

R-Type III: The Third Lightning (アールタイプ・スリー ザ・サード・ライトニング, Āru Taipu Surī: Za Sādo Raitoningu) is a 1993 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed by Irem.

Description

R-Type III was originally released only on the Super Famicom/SNES, but later ported to the Game Boy Advance. It was the first game in the series to introduce new Forces. As well as the original Force (which was now named the Round Force, later named as the Standard Force in R-Type Delta), the player could choose from two other Forces: the Shadow Force and the Cyclone Force. These both had new, different weapon sets and special enhancements.

It also refined the weapons and charging system. It reverted to the original Red-Blue-Yellow weapon system, and the Diffusion Wave Cannon from R-Type II was replaced with a more standard wave cannon. Charging this cannon to full beam strength results in a massive, powerful beam that passes through all enemies and obstacles. A new weapon called the Hyper Wave Cannon was also added to the ship, which the player could use instead of the normal wave cannon if desired. By switching to Hyper mode and supercharging the wave cannon, the ship temporarily gains the ability to use the Hyper Wave Cannon, which is unique among wave cannons in having a rapid fire capability. The shots fired create damaging explosions, and if the player has collected one or two Bits, they spin around the ship burning with energy. However, this Hyper mode causes the ship to overheat after a short while, and it must subsequently spend seconds cooling down, during which time the wave cannon is inoperative.

R-Type Final

R-Type Final (アールタイプファイナル, Āru Taipu Fainaru) is a horizontally scrolling shooter video game by Irem for the PlayStation 2 video game console originally planned as the last game in the series; however, R-Type Tactics was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2007.

Story

Final takes place after several long wars against the Bydo, the main antagonist in the R-Type series. The player's first mission is to investigate a mysterious enemy inside a crashed space colony, the remnants of a large battle codenamed Operation Last Dance, a previous attempt to wipe out the Bydo once and for all. This investigative theme is incorporated throughout the game as each level is considered 'research' on the Bydo and unlocks a gallery of in-universe artwork and additional playable ships. Levels are prefaced with hints of the R-Type universe in the form of poetry.

Gameplay

Final provides 101 playable ships, including altered versions of ships appearing in previous R-Type games, together with many original ones. They are unlocked through a branching system accessed via the R Museum, which was originally featured in R-Types. The PlayStation 2's internal clock is incorporated into each ship's development history (shown through a commemorative plaque) when certain in-game tasks are completed. For example, ships unlocked in 2008 will be seen in the game as having been rolled out in 2168.

Super R-Type

Super R-Type (スーパー・アール・タイプ, Sūpā Āru Taipu) is a shooter game for the SNES, developed and published by Irem in 1991. It is a remake of R-Type II in a manner similar to the SNES version of Gradius III. The game has been re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan, North America, and PAL regions in 2008.

Gameplay

Super R-Type borrows four stages from R-Type II and adds three new ones. The game is known for its high difficulty (even compared to other games in the series), particularly because of its lack of checkpoints, since dying means restarting the level from scratch. Also, this game suffers from slowdown, which was also a problem in many early games for this system. But unlike the others Super R-Type slows down to virtual standstill when there are many things on the screen. However, this proved useful for players when there were many obstacles on screen because it was easier to avoid them.

Weapon types