R-Type is back and better than ever!
Here's yet another standalone release for one of the many games to be found on the Irem Arcade Hits collection and really, that's the best way to play this as you'll also have access to Gunforce, Vigilante, and a whole heap of other mostly decent titles. This one is actually part of the popular and massively influential shooter series, R-Type, and like its brethren it's a damn fine example of the genre. Things are very much the same as usual, with this being a horizontally scrolling shooter, the story here is at least a little unusual, with the player taking the role of a private security pilot who is charged with taking down autonomous vehicles that have been driven crazy by the evil Bydo Empire. The gameplay is familiar stuff though, with the usual sideways scrolling blasting action, although there are a couple of significant changes. The first is the weapons system which sees you armed with forward firing guns and a lock-on laser which can be powered up while you can also grab missiles with different types of ammo. The second change is that the scroll rate can be controlled by the player, with the further you are to the right, the faster the scrolling. Although these changes might seem minor they do at least help the game stand out from the rest of the series. The shooting action remains as tightly designed as ever, being challenging but tactical and highly exciting, thanks to the way the levels sometimes change direction, rather than being strictly horizontal, which gives it a real unpredictability. Throw in the stylish visuals and you have another classic shooter.
