To explain we need to go back a number of years to the late 80s. During this period, whether in the arcade or at home, the scrolling shooter was king. Whether horizontal or vertical, nothing came close to the popularity of this type of game until the late, great Street Fighter 2. People would regularly huddle two or three deep waiting for their chance to play the latest cabinet or to see a master of the 'twitch' art annihilating wave after wave of enemies, nipping between scores of bullets (and the scenery) - avoiding death by mere pixels every hundredth of a second. It was around these titles that the first generation of truly 'hardcore' gamers developed.
Of these games, there was an undisputed 'daddy', Irem's classic side-scrolling shooter R-Type. Jumping into your fragile single-seat fighter, it was you against the mighty Bydo empire - biomechanical horrors that swarmed across the screen in ever greater, bullet-spewing numbers. R-Type and its sequel are, even today, considered by many to be the quintessential shooters. The beautiful graphics, tight structure, simple yet effective power-up and weapons systems and the insanely addictive yet punishingly tough gameplay make a fine argument for this being the case.
Hopes were high for this (sadly) final iteration of the classic franchise and, in most ways, fans were not disappointed. All the R-Type staples were there; massive weapons, complex scenery, hordes of enemies, massive 'guardian' battles, gorgeous graphics and a difficulty curve akin to climbing K2. If you love R-Type, you probably don't even need to read anymore. In fact, you probably already have this.
For the uninitiated, however, here's a quick overview of the game. While presented in pseudo-3D, it's still really a horizontal 2D shooter; going left to right you obliterate everything in your path while attempting to avoid getting shot/crushed/blasted/fried and generally abused by the swarms of enemies, bullets and laser-fire the game throws at you.
R-Type's weapon and upgrade system is an oft-copied, never bettered classic: you start off with a simple cannon which fires single shots but, when the button is held and released, also charges a larger 'Force' attack - the strength of which varies according to how long you hold down the button (a bar at the bottom of the screen indicates its strength). So far, so same as a hundred other (copycat) shooters then. But, when you receive your first power-up (after the first couple of enemy waves), things make a change for the tactical. This is when you receive a small pod that's impervious to enemy fire and enemy contact and floats around your ship, firing when you do. "Ah" you think "an orbiting cannon, excellent". Oh, but it's better than that - at the press of a button this pod attaches to either the front or rear of your ship, effectively making you immune to bullets and contact (only from small enemies) from that direction.
The cunning amongst you will have already figured out how invaluable this is in the tighter sections of the game where you have to negotiate scenery corridors. The careful deployment of your little guardian is the difference between life and death - sometimes you need to send it on, sometimes keep it close. In fact, to really progress you need to be constantly monitoring its location and switching its position to one above, below, behind or in front of the ship. This really does add a tactical element to the game and, combined with the fact the orb increases in size as you power it up - along the numerous other weapons available (rockets, lasers, strange coloured beams, orbitals) - really helped R-Type: Final stand out from the crowd upon release.
The gameplay remains as tight as ever too - the ships are responsive, the controls accurate and collision detection is spot-on (vital when there's so many bullets being thrown at you). The eagle-eyed will have noticed I said 'ships'. Yes, that's right - there are a variety of ships for you to collect, each becoming selectable after a certain amount of gameplay or after completing a level. In fact, there are 96 ships to collect! While this may seem like a needless gimmick (and in some ways it is), the implementation is very clever. You see, each ship has it's particular weaknesses and strengths, so you'll quickly build a cadre of your favourites; some are fast, some slow, some large, some small. However, all of them also have one of a few different 'Force' weapons - and what a difference it makes. Some ships (such as the 'Recon' ones) have a 'Force' beam more suited to enclosed environments, others (such as the 'Gracenote' - a thing of rare beauty) are more suited to open fields of fire. The key is to experiment with various ship/environment combinations, playing through each level numerous times to see which best suits your style of play and enables you to rack up the biggest scores.
From a technical aspect, R-Type: Final is everything fans will expect and demand. Graphically it's a real treat, lush 2.5D visuals, smooth animation and screen-blistering effects combine to dazzle the brain and smother the screen in an amalgam of biomechanical goo and harsh, futuristic neon. The only problem comes if you have a smaller television, I played this on a 28" widescreen and found it just about big enough to cope with the on-screen onslaught - I dread to think what it would be like on anything smaller. The audio, while by no means groundbreaking, is solid and does the job well. Good spot effects combine with a typically futurist-techno soundtrack to fully immerse the player and really help get you into 'the zone' that twitch players love so much. Slowdown, the devil's bane for many a shooter fan, is simply not an issue - in fact you'll be hard pushed to find a more polished or bug-free shooter on any generation.
Barring one or two spikes, the difficulty curve is well implemented for those acquainted with this particular genre. In fact, hardcore shooter fans will probably complete this game in a single day of concerted play, but the replay potential is huge - all those different ship combinations provide a great opportunity to chase some seriously high scores, which is pretty much what these type of games have always been about. True, the core gameplay really hasn't changed since the original, but that's hardly a criticism when it was so damn fine in the first place.
A word to the wary and the new, however, this is a difficult game for the non-shooter-fan. If you don't normally play this style of game you may find progress slow and difficult. I have friends who are not fans of this genre and they hate R-Type: Final with a passion, although to be fair, most of them haven't played it for more than half an hour before throwing the controller down in frustration (what a bunch of lightweights). If you can persevere though, you'll open up a world of crazy high scores and develop the reactions of a nervous meercat in a pit full of cobras.
This is where we return to the point I made at the beginning; R-Type and its ilk have really not been that popular in the West for some time. 'Joe Average' gamer just doesn't have the interest, commitment or skill needed to get the most from this type of game. As gaming has gradually descended to a lottery of appealing to the lowest common denominator, games like R-Type have been increasingly left behind, becoming the preserve of collectors and fanatics or filling the corners as DL titles on LIVE or PSN. The skill sets required are just not possessed by most modern gamers, being something reserved for those of us who spent our youths scouring the sofa crevices for spare 10p pieces so we could run down the arcade. This is a real shame, as so few of these games get released outside Japan anyway - it would be a pity for the vast majority not to experience a gem like this largely due to genre-ignorance, a lack of perseverance and lacklustre marketing in the American and European territories.
This really is a worthy swan-song for one of gaming's greatest franchises; beautifully polished, but probably too intense and demanding for the majority of modern players. R-Type: Final really should be present in any self-respecting gamers' collection, especially if you're a fan of old-school shooters. Even if you're not, give it a chance and you'll open up a wide word of beautiful, challenging and truly rewarding games...
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