As you know if you read my recent look back at Einhander, shooters are one of my favorite genres. However, they always seem like they're about to die and never come back, because of crappy shooters like Mobile Suit Gundam Seed.
Then the marketing people are like, "Oh, I guess people just don't like shooters, we should never make one ever again." News Flash, people don't like ANY type of bad game. Try making it good and people will buy it.
Irem made R-Type good...and they're still alive and kicking. Every time I pick up a new R-Type game, people see me put it in and wonder aloud, "Irem? Aren't they out of business?" Nope. They make 1 game every 2 years or so, it rocks, it a shooter, and guess what? They're still in business. Make quality stuff, people reward you with cash...it's really quite a simple concept.
I don't know if this R-Type is the last one (people in Japan throw out terms like "Final", "Complete" and such all the time, that I don't think they fully understand what they mean most of the time.) but it's definitely the best one, and I'm about to drop the reasons why.
Gameplay
If you've ever played an R-Type game before, you know how this works already. It's 1 player, and it's not your standard shooter. While most shooters nowadays have you dodging through a hailstorm of bullets, and smart bombing like it's your main weapon, the enemies in R-Type make you think a bit more. There are definitive patterns and ways to dispatch every enemy in the game. If you take the time to learn them, you don't find yourself in tight situations, and you're able to progress much farther.
If you see no way out of a flurry of bullets, that's probably because there isn't one...you weren't supposed to be there, and now you're paying the price.
Sometimes, though, you get some reprieve in the form of your "Force". The Force is a part that attaches to your ship, and increases your firepower. It absorbs energy from bullets, enemies, and all the like. If you see something glowing, though...odds are, you can't absorb it, and that's going directly into your ship.
The Force can remain attached to your ship, to enhance your firepower after you've picked up the Red, Blue, and Yellow power ups that the little pod guys give you. Red is usually my favorite beam weapon, a strong attack that generally combines a red beam and a blue one to make a sleek looking ray of death. Blue will fire a spread type weapon, generally one where the beam will bounce around if the damage wasn't absorbed by something. The Yellow almost always will do something retarded. Just like the yellow Sour Patch Kids...this is my least favorite of the 3. Ostensibly it fires a crawling spread generally, though on the "Principalities" I can't tell what the hell it's trying to accomplish, other than getting me killed. Granted that IS the ship with the flamethrower...
If you detach it, it'll spray bullets around in different manners, and inflict damage on enemies it comes into contact with, depending on your ship type. Also, once the Force has achieved 100% Dose, it'll be capable of being used as a smart bomb.
As for your ship attacks themselves, tapping Square will fire your rediculously weak main gun in single shot mode. You main gun is honestly going to be a charge shot. When you charge, you'll have different levels depending on your ship. Most will have 2. After you unlock a few extra fighters, you'll notice some have a third level, and others a fourth. I think the most I've seen so far is 7.
The resultant attack from the Charge Shot is different depending on the fighter type. The "Powered Silence" will lock onto targets, and send a guided burst of energy at them. My current favorite fighter, the "Northern Lights" will fire a 3-level charged shotgun blast. Concentrated and deadly...my style of play. Others are totally lame though, like the "Stayer". It fires a wall in front of you...It's almost entirely useless. Another ship, the "Hasukan" has a big pneumatic spike. Don't get into ranged combat if your big gun is a spike. That's just common sense.
The big difference between this and other R-Type games? 101 different fighters to use. That's right. More than a hundred. Usually there are something like 3-5. I've only currently unlocked around 30 or so, but for the most part, they handle and attack very differently.
You'll start out with 3 basic fighters, and acquire modified versions of those three. The game unlocks models that you enjoy playing more, so if you stick with the "Arrow Head" early in the game, you're going to start unlocking fighters based on that design, rather than the other two you start with.
There are also secret missions you can unlock that will change the level dramatically. For example, I usually go through Level 2.2. But after doing something or other, I ended up in 2.1, the same map as 2.2, except the water level in the level had lowered. I didn't have to go underwater to do certain parts of the game. That's the only variant I've discovered so far, but it leads me to believe that there's a lot of replay in this title.
In addition, if you're feeling like writing up some AI, you can write scrpits for your ship, and then have them compete against other ships to see which gets the highest score. Irem really went all out for this game, and put far, far more than you'd ever expect from a shooter into this game.
Graphics
Simply superb. The screenshots on the net don't do it justice...most of those are either from Level 1 or 2, and not even the interesting parts of those levels. My screenshots aren't that good either, but I don't have any equipment to really get too much better of a shot.
Starting with the Intro, you know you're getting into an incredible looking game. Seeing all the various R-Types in a colossal battle at the beginning of the game, though...if that doesn't get your heart pumping, you don't like video games.
Some of the levels are phenomenal. I felt a rush when playing the first level, the ruined city, as these huge beams would come through and scorch parts of the remanats. Level 3 has you taking on a giant battleship above a city. As you blow of bit after bit, you can watch it fall to the ground below. Really, really cool stuff.
Level 5, where you're going through hyperspace is trippy, too. The background distorts in a wavelike fashion, and you really have to watch how you're dodging...give yourself a lot of space.
Level 7, though, is incredible. Your ship leaves little trails in the watery background as you move around. Every shot leaves a little "wake" and if that's not enough, in the background, you also have the first sex scene I've ever seen in a shooter. (Dude, don't ask me what it's doing there...it's really surreal, and you can't "see" and nudity or anything, it's just well...you'll have to see it.)
This isn't even covering the weaponry. The fully charged up Red "DNA" beam on the "Lady Love" looks absolutely fantastic. The enemy weapons are awesome too...just don't get too caught in watching them, they're trying to kill you.
Ship models too are amazing. I wonder if there are any model kits of these things available..or a bunch of collectible action figures or something. I'd pick them up.
Sound
Probably the only thing I can call lacking in this game. The music gets fairly repetitive, especially since you're going to be listening to it as you replay sections of the game over and over again. The sounds for the weaponry are cool, and varied, but it just isn't enough to get me going. The ending theme didn't do anything for me either.
Overall
The game's great, and you know the guys at Irem really dig their fans. Open up the case, and the first thing you see in the manual is a bunch of the R-Type fighters and the words, "Thanks for SHOOTING!" Heck, the ending theme song is called "Proud of You". If that's not knowing your market right there...then maybe Blockbuster does actually not have its head up its own ass.
If you haven't clicked on somewhere to buy this game yet, I don't know what's wrong with you. Eidos has published this Stateside, so you now have no excuse not to be playing or have played this already. Aside from some minor translation errors (and the horrible, horrible choice to change the ending song from "Proud of You" to some Blue Man Group song that doesn't fit the tone of the ending.) this seems to be pretty much a straight port from the Japanese.
The menus are all in English, so don't fear the Japanese or anything. The first time I get to use the Editor's Choice button. Maybe when Gradius V ships, I'll be using it then, too.
