661st played so far
Genre: Shoot-Em Up
Platform: Playstation 1
Year of Release: 1998
Developer: Irem
Publisher: Irem/Agetec/Sony
Today we go back to the world of R-Type, a side-scrolling shooter that is more or less just that. It was decent, incredibly difficult but with really good bosses… assuming you reached them.
We’ve now reached the fourth game in the series, made for the Playstation and so focused on something to play at home, which would hopefully rebalance the game to make it more playable.
Our Thoughts
So this game is still difficult, but the solution is, well, pretty much like how I played the original R-Type: the game gives you a lot more continues than you see anywhere else, hence giving you a lot more chances to make it through the game. You still hit a wall, but as you can push through, you get to develop more strategies. Obviously, earlier sections become easier as you play them more, so you get further. It seems like a good middleground between difficult and accessible, even if it is still fairly time consuming.
It’s still punishing, but at least you get to more bosses faster. I always feel like these are the most interesting part of these games – more than just dealing with enemies you learn to beat, there’s something unique and cool about them. It doesn’t always pay off, but here it feels like it mostly does. It pays off, and that’s great.
The game looks good too, and that helps. There are some of the PS1 era jaggy edges, sure, but it mostly hides it well and it makes it all fit together well. The futuristic looks help, smoother with some detail in background where it can be textured. It’s pretty effective and becomes its own treat to see new things.
Final Thoughts
I had a decent feeling about this game – the later shooters always feel more fun to play than the old ones that dominated gaming early on and feels like an improvement without sacrificing its difficulty.