R-TYPE DIMENSIONS Posted by Alec Hilton on Feb 11, 2009 15:21 (Feb 11, 2009 15:21) |
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R-Type and R-Type II originally hit in the late 80s in an attempt to take the side scrolling shooter crown from Gradius. Unfortunately I was not around when the two R-Types where first released, however I did manage to find out what is so special about the series when it hit the PS1.
This version of the game offers a large selection of options, first of course you have the option of which game you wish to play, R-Type or R-Type II. The rest of the options are fairly normal for an arcade game, you have the single player campaign and then the multiplayer, which are the two standout features. But of course you have a few leaderboards to compare yourself on along with your own solo stats shown in the Statistics option.
The basics of both R-Types starts off in the 22nd century with you taking control of the R-9a nicknamed “Arrowhead” to protect the Earth from an attack by the evil Bydo Empire. From there it is the normal side scrolling shooter of old, using the directional stick to move your craft on four planes (up, down, left and right) and tapping A to fire while holding A will fire a stronger burst shot.
 As I said there have been releases of the two games before so what is the point in buying it on just another platform? Well, other than it being now on a current-gen platform games, SouthEnd Interactive have made a quite large change to the games to bring them up to date. This change is essentially revamping the visuals of the titles, but what they have done is taken the 2D visuals and not only given it a high-def facelift but changed the 2D into spectacular 3D. Possibly the most exciting feature of the combo is being able to change the graphics settings on the fly, a single tap of the Y button allows you to change from the jazzy high-def graphics to the older coin-op style and back again.
Another addition to the titles is that of co-op play. This isn’t a massively important addition as it seems that most new games coming out for Xbox Live Arcade nowadays have it. But nonetheless it is a welcome extra, especially as there is both local and Live multiplayer fun to be had which does add a further edge to this interesting Arcade release.
R-Type Dimensions has a few flaws, primarily that you can’t change the controller layout and there are a few hit-detection issues in certain areas. But overall, the set is worth a purchase by anyone who enjoys old-school shoot-em-ups. The only thing that may put some off is the price tag which is quite steep at 1200 MS points.
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