[Review] Super R-Type

REVIEW # 00000000  01001100

Super R-Type is the name of the SNES port of R-Type II, released for the arcade in 1989. The other ports of the game, developed for Amiga and Atari ST all carries the original name of the game. The game was also ported on Game Boy but, due to the limited hardware capabilities, massive compromises had to be made to fit the game in the timy GB cartridge. The R-Type Saga, created by Iren, is one of the most important of the genre and begun in 1987 in the Arcades with R-Type, ported on an immense number of platforms. The later installments of the franchises were developed for PS2 and PSP.

My heart says…

My space shooter fever couldn’t live without R-Type that I consider probably the best space shoot ’em up series, at least amoung the ones released in the golden 80s. After completing Burai Fighter recently (even though that is a diversion from the standards of the genre) I developed a big passion for scrolling shooters so I picked up the Super R-Type cartridge from my SNES games collection and fired it up. Since my thirst of shoot ’em up is far from being over, you can expect other dives in the genre soon 🙂

Splash screen

Graphics

While it could be questionable having a game with impressive graphics but turtle-speed gameplay we can’t help but admit that the graphics in Super R-Type are wonderful, colourful and give to the setting a wonderful atmosphere. All the enemies are brilliantly designed, all the effects of the damges and explosions are vivid and intense and the different bullets and laser beams that cross the screen are dazzling. This is easiest the best port of R-Type II, at least visually speaking and, even comparing the different technologies, is probably better than all the original R-Type ports ever developed, thanks to the great capabilities of the SNES.

Narrative

When you develop a space shooter you really don’t care too much about the plot and Super R-Type is no exception. If you also consider that this is a sequel you can easily understand why the plot is just a blatant copy-paste of the first installment. The evil Bydos are back, more powerful and way more pissed off and is our task with our R9 spacecraft. The new boss of the Bydos is Womb which is…well…a womb…with a baby-Bydo inside. Kinda disturbing. Anyway, we have to complete seven stages in order to free some allied spacecrafts and kill the baby-Bydo.

However is not a plot that we’re looking for in a space shooter, isn’t it? I mean Space invaders doesn’t have any plot but it’s a great game!

Gameplay

There are several things that don’t work in Super R-Type but in my opinion two of them are the most annoying.

First of all the difficulty. A good game should be both easy at the easiest level and hard at the hardest lever. Super R-Type is ridiculous in Novice mode, since you have unlimited continue and only a few enemies. Ok, during the later levels the amount of foes on screen is insane but so it is the attack/defense weaponry of the spaceship. And ok, once you die you have to restart from the beginning of the stage but with all the power-ups earned since then. This means that in the final stages the amount of enemies is balanced (and sometimes unbalanced in favor of the human player) by the sheer amount of powerful power-ups. On the other hand the hard difficulty is really hard, at the point is almost impossible, at least for a “normal” person like I believe I am, to just get past the first stage. Fire everywhere. Everywhere.

The second thing that really affect the gameplay is the immense slowing down od the action once the screen is filled with bullets, fire and enemies. There are points in which I  deliberately stopped to fire with the possibility to get hit by someone just to make the scrolling more fluid.

Apart from these deficiencies the game if a rather straightforward one, with a spaceship constantly firing to destroy enemies and cannons which gets some power ups on its wayt to the end. The power ups are sometimes really powerful: for example the orb-like thing that can stand in front or on the back of a spaceship, instantly kills everything with which comes in contact. As far as I’m concerned this is one of the most powerful power-ups and you’l get it in the middle of Stage 1 and this means that you can carry it until the end of the game.

Controls

The controls of the games are smooth and responsive. but sometimes can be difficult to maneuver the spacecraft during the (frequent) slowings. It’s like when you’re in a hurry and you have to move the mouse quickly and suddenly you are out of battery and you move glitchy. But aside from this moments everything’s ok.

Sound

The problem is that you’ll be firing constantly throughout all the game so you can’t really care about the background music. However if you want to listen…

 

Longevity

This is an average between the longevity of the novice stage and the one of the hard stage. By the way you have to consider that, to see the real ending, you have to complete the game twice. This is definitely possible in the easiest mode but it becomes impossible on hard mode.

Final score 77/100

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Year: 1991

Developer: Irem

Publisher: Irem

Genre: Shooter, Shoot ’em up

Game Mode: Single Player

Original Platform: SNES

From same developers/editors:

• Moon Patrol (1982)
• Kung Fu (1985)
• Dragon Breed (1989)

Inspired to:

• Defender (1981)
• Gradius (1985)
• Salamander (1986)
• Darius (1987)

If you liked it you can also try:

• Sagaia (1989)
• Thunder Force III (1990)
• Gun Nac (1990)
• Metal Black (1991)
• Tubular Worlds (1994)
• Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994)

Other chapters of the saga:

• R-Type (1987)
• R-Type II (1989)
• Armed Police Unit Gallop (1991)
• R-Type Leo (1992)
• R-Type III: The Third Lightning (1993)
• R-Type Delta (1998)
• R-Type Final (2003)
• R-Type Tactics (2007)
• R-Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate (2009)

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