Super R-Type

[EdenMaster]

<i>Super R-Type</i> is a scrolling, kill-everything-in-sight game. You know the kind. The game details very little, but I'll sketch together what I can remember from the manual. Apparently an alien known as the Womb has captured four ships, and you are the fifth ship that must come to rescue them. Accompanying you through this is a large glowing orange ball of goodness which can fire any number of weapons, from a barrage of fireballs (I call them cheese-balls), to reflecting lasers. Also available are what are called "pits", which hover above and below your ship when found to protect from more angles. Also available are different sorts of missiles which can either be dropped on the ground, or sent out to home in on random enemies.

This game has four different levels of difficulty, Novice, Easy, Normal, and Hard. I prefer to think of them as Easy, Hard, Impossible, and shouldn't-even-be-allowed-to-be-this-difficult setting.

Graphics take full advantage of everything the SNES can do, creating stunning backgrounds, meticulously detailed bosses, and realistic looking weapons. Music is also very catchy, especially in the very first level, gets stuck in your head. I usually don't care for scrolling games, but this one was an exception, very well done.

This game takes a bit of strategy too. You have to maneuver minefields, jets of water, shrapnel from exploding enemies, and a million other threats to your weak little ship, even a minor hit from a weak foe and you and your ship is a cloud of smoke. So it takes a bit of skill to get the feel for how that ship moves and to steerit out of danger. Level 4 consists of a huge Battleship which you must maneuver through. Its difficult by itself, but the ship is moving and you aren't moving with it, also with enemies and bullets flying everywhere, it makes for a great challenge and overall great game.

<i>Super R-Type</i> has been a recurring favorite of mine for many, many years, and I never tire of playing it. The game sucks you in, and the fact that you can die so easily makes it all to easy too say "well, lemme just try that again". Addictive, fun, and challenging. My kind of game. I rate <i>Super R-Type</i> an 8.0 out of 10!

[A Black Falcon]

This is one of the games I got for SNES. Looking into it, it's a port of R-Type II, minus one level and plus two new ones (levels 1 and 6). It's classic R-Type gameplay... which means a very high difficulty level, lots of environmental puzzles, and enemies that, while annoying, are a bit easier to deal with than is average for a shooter. It's a decent shooter... except for one thing: that when you die you have to start the level over. Big, big mistake. Other R-Type games, including the arcade and Game Boy versions of R-Type 2, don't force you to do this. When you're at a boss, die, have lives left, and have to start the stage from scratch it's just painful... if not for that teh game would just be cruel hard at anything above Novice (which isn't too hard, I finished it on Novice earlier today), but as it is... ouch. Just ouch.

The other problem of note is the massive, extreme slowdown -- seriously, start firing your guns with a special weapon on an otherwise empty screen and it must get cut in half -- but that's expected for a title that came out close to launch, sadly... and I must admit, it makes the game easier moving so slow. :)

The only other "issue" is that I've always preferred Gradius's style of shooter gameplay to R-Type's, but that's not R-Type's fault, really...

This game has four different levels of difficulty, Novice, Easy, Normal, and Hard. I prefer to think of them as Easy, Hard, Impossible, and shouldn't-even-be-allowed-to-be-this-difficult setting.

And if you finish it on Hard and loop over, or use the level-select cheat and choose the level past '7', there's one more difficulty level, Pro! Aren't they nice?