R-type

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R-type
R-Type Logo.jpg
developer Irem
First title R-Type (1987)
Last title R-Type (2011)
Platform (s) various
Genre (s) Shoot 'em up
A child plays R-Type on an arcade machine

R-Type is a series of shoot-'em-up games from the manufacturer Irem , the first title of which was released in 1987 . The R-Type games are the best-known representatives of the genre .

Gameplay

The player controls a futuristic combat spaceship which, as can be seen from the game R-Type Final , goes back directly or indirectly to the legendary ship R9A "Arrow-Head" , which the player controls in the first part of the game series. During the game the player flies through levels scrolling sideways . He tries to shoot down as many of the enemy objects and opponents as possible and at the same time avoid collisions and enemy fire by moving the spaceship within the frame. At the end of each phase of the game, the player has to face a particularly powerful and great boss .

Quirks of the game

BEAM weapon or wave cannon

What is remarkable is the fact that the R-Type, unlike in many other genre representatives, only has a weak on-board gun, which in general cannot be improved by collecting so-called "power-ups". However, this weapon can be charged by holding the fire button and then emitting a considerably stronger, single burst of fire, with a "BEAM" display at the bottom of the screen providing information about the charge level. The height of the charge level determines the size and damage effect of the subsequent burst of fire when the fire button is released.

In the later parts of the series this weapon was varied. In the second part of the series it is possible to fill a second "BEAM" loading bar by holding the fire button for even longer after the full capacity has been reached. If this is also full and if the fire button is then released, the on-board gun ignites an area-wide firestorm, which is not only able to hit almost every enemy on the screen, but can also cause so much damage in the event of a direct hit that the most bosses can be overcome with a single shot of this weapon. In Part 3 of the series, R-Type III - The Third Lightning , the player can even choose between two fire modes for the on-board gun: the classic "BEAM" beam, which is, however, much larger and more powerful than in the previous games, and the "HYPER" mode, in which the gun does not emit a burst of fire forwards after fully charging and releasing the fire button, but rather bundles the energy in the R-Type itself, so that it is able for a short time to fire effective "BEAM" shots in normal fire or rapid fire mode, which provides the player with considerable firepower for a short time. However, the player's ship overheats due to this massive overload and can then only use the on-board weapon for a short period of time for single shots until it has cooled down.

In even later series representatives, such as R-Types and R-Type Final , the “BEAM” weapon was renamed “Wave-Cannon”. With this on-board gun, it was then partly possible to charge up to seven increasingly powerful charging bars one behind the other, in order to make the subsequent burst of fire increasingly powerful.

FORCE module

The genre-typical power-ups to be collected by the player appear in the form of crystals and provide the player with a conditionally controllable probe, the so-called force . By collecting more crystals, it can be strengthened up to two times and - depending on the type of crystals (defined by different colors) - each time it releases a different attack. The Force is indestructible and can be docked either in front or in the back of the spaceship to provide protection and to change the direction of fire of the attacks accordingly. Detached from the ship, it can be used as an autonomous additional gun. Many levels and bosses of the R-Type games can only be mastered through the targeted use of the Force probe, which sometimes requires a tactical approach and exact timing.

This additional Force module was a unique selling point of the R-Type series and was later adapted by other genre representatives - also in variations.

More power-ups

  • Bit probes float above or below the ship and protect it from direct attacks. In some Force weapon systems, the bit probes carry out independent, but also partially triggerable or controllable attacks. A maximum of two bit probes can be equipped, whereby the first always hovers above the ship, the second then below.
  • Missile launchers allow the ship to add a (guided) missile or bomb-based attack to the active arsenal.
  • Accelerator jets lead to increased movement speed in the 2D parts of the game series. In the 3D series parts, the speed of movement can be changed manually.

R-type design

In the first three series parts, the R-Type was presented as a small, stocky ship with stubby wings and a large, downward-curved, blue-glazed pilot's cockpit. The name of the first type of ship, "Arrow-Head" , goes back directly to this appearance. In later parts of the series, Irem changed the design significantly. From the R-Type part for the Sony PlayStation, the wings disappeared and the cockpit was given a shape similar to a test tube. This design was standardized, which made it possible to add a large number of fundamentally similar and yet varying ship types or generations to the R-Type universe. Alone in the series part R-Type Final have been from Irem added over a hundred more playable versions of the R-type vessel with different weapons configurations of the series. Most of these ships were gradually available to the player as the game progressed, others had to be unlocked as bonus ships through special actions of the player.

chronology

Integrated into this series:

Ports

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jan Wöbbeking: R-Type Dimensions EX: Implementations for PC and Switch published. In: 4Players . November 29, 2018, accessed September 8, 2019 .