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"Few ports are done as perfectly as these ports of R-Type and R-Type II"

While Irem has developed many games (mostly for the arcades), R-Type is probably their best known series. It is also one of the best shmup series ever made, one of the few series that has never had a bad game throughout the four generations it has been around (bad ports, but not bad originals), and has managed to stick to it's 2D roots. R-Types, which was released in late 1998 (Europe) and early 1999 (Japan and the US) is a compilation of the two games that started the series, R-Type (1987) and R-Type II (1989). The R-Type series is a side-scrolling horizontal arcade shooter, with many similarities to Gradius or Darius.

Both games were released for the arcades originally, however throughout the years they have been ported and remade numerous times including the Commodore 64, the SNES, the Sega Master System, and so forth. R-Types is by far the best version to date since it not only includes two games for the price of one, but they are absolutely perfect ports of the arcade versions.

You are the pilot of the R-9 fighter, which is humanity's last hope against the Bydo aliens. The Bydo are a species that have come from another dimension and destroyed or captured the rest of the R-9 fleet. As the pilot of the last ship capable of fighting the Bydo you fly into their dimension to end the war once and for all. Or at least until they come back in R-Type II (and III, and Delta, and Leo, and Final). At this point in the series the story hadn't been developed fully, though I really doubt anybody plays a game like this for the story. It's good enough to get the game going but you don't have inter-level cut-scenes or anything.

Your ship is quite powerful, though it doesn't start out that way. Your standard weapon is a forward firing automatic gun with unlimited ammo. It's not particularly useful, but it gets the job done. There is also a chargeable beam weapon which is much more powerful, but takes a few seconds to build up so you can't use it when you're being over run by tons of small enemies. Shortly into the game you will encounter item capsules called POW Armors which will drop an item for you to use. Most items will be one of the laser colors, which will change your main weapon. Once you pick up your first Laser Crystal you get a Force, which is a strange armament that can attach to either side of your ship or fly independently. If separated from your ship it fires a spread gun but if attached it fires lasers. The lasers build up in power over time, so the more crystals you collect the stronger (and bigger) the lasers will be. The three standard colors are red (air-to-air), blue (reflective), and yellow (to air-to-surface lasers). Additionally POW Armors can drop missiles, speed boosters, and shield bits which attach to the top and bottom of your ship.

Like most shmups, the gameplay is fairly simple since the game does not need tons of weapons, items, leveling-up, and what not to make the game great. The greatness of the R-Type games comes from its intense challenge. Both of these games are extremely intense, with non stop action and incredibly powerful bosses. Given the fact that it only takes a single hit to kill you, it will take many hours of practice to be able to finish these games. The difficulty is great, but it is possible to overcome it; it will just take a fair amount of patience. The games are fairly short and once you become skilled enough to beat it without dying to many times, a single play through will take under an hour. However it will take many plays to be able to beat the game without using continues and even after that the games are fun enough that you will want to play them over and over again.

While the enemies do not have movements set as strictly as in some games such as Ikaruga (where the enemy movements and firing patterns are set so it play through exactly the same each time), the enemies do have patterns that are learnable through replay. Once you have learned the patterns of the bosses and can use that to your advantage your odds of survival increase dramatically.

These games are exactly like the arcade versions, down to the fact that it sits at the title screen waiting for coins to be inserted. Fortunately pressing the select button adds “coins” so you can begin playing. In this way you can have as many credits as you want, unlike other R-Type games you have unlimited continues right from the very beginning to. This is great for when you need to become good at these games, but if you want a real challenge try beating the game on one credit, or even one life.

There aren't many extras on the disc, though your high scores will be saved onto a PS1 memory card. The ability to completely customize the game's controls was added, and is by far the most useful feature that could have been added. While the default is to use the X button to fire, after playing R-Type Final I realized how much easier it is to use the R1 button instead. A couple of FMV movies were added at the beginning and end, and while they don't add anything to the games' value, they are well done. Aside from the gameplay and graphical add-ons, there is also a section with a genealogy of the R-9, a history of the Bydo war, and a database of the Bydo creatures you've encountered so far.

The graphics and sounds on these two games are far ahead of the consoles of this time period and are more impressive than some N64/Saturn/PS1 era games. There are no fancy lighting effects, bump mapped textures, and so on, but the colors are vivid and are used to create impressive looking textures on the enemies and the backgrounds, especially in R-Type II.

The gameplay between the first and second installments is not very different, nor were there any notable changes in the plot. However the levels are different and they did add some new features. R-Type II has two additional lasers - the green Search Laser and grey Shotgun Laser - as well as a new missile type, the spread bomb. Some of the levels have the same theme such as a gigantic living organism, an industrial center, and a series of massive warships. Aside from similarities in themes all of the levels are very different, not only between games but in each game as well. R-Type II is also shorter than the original (six levels as opposed to eight) however the second game is significantly harder.

While these games aren't exactly rare, they are becoming harder and harder to find, especially in stores. You can still buy them used online for twenty to thirty dollars, and if you have the money and are a fan of old-school shmups, then you should get these games as soon as you can. Whether or not you've played the original arcade games before (which few people have) you should check out these games. If you've played Super R-Type (SNES) before then you should defiantly check out this games, since Super R-Type was a (bad) port of R-Type II. Along with R-Type Delta, the PS1 R-Type discs should be in every arcade fan's collection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/11/05, Updated 10/10/05