R-Type goodness...

[TEZBEK]

...back up, back up. Since when did R-Type III get released on the Gameboy Advance??

Its been mentioned briefly here and there

[Cacophanus]

TBA 2003.

Superb. Personally I would prefer a port of Leo (rather than another SNES game), but I am chuffed as chips about this anyway.

BTW Cacky, that track is superb. *edit* just re-read your post >_<
It sound like something Christopher Franke would dream up.

Why the scrunchy face?

Delta is an utterly superb game, the ending only makes it more so.

For the continuity geeks amongst us, here is how the various games fall into the overall timeline:

2163 R-Type, R-Type Leo
2164 Gallop, R-Type Delta
2165 R-Type II
2166
2167
2168
2169 R-Type III

2XXX R-Type Final

I also always thought it was cool in the way that in order to defeat the last boss you always sacrificed the Force in order to "kill" it. In effect, allowing to regenerate for the next game (the Force uses Bydo flesh IIRC). All cool.

[Square]

Why the scrunchy face?

My intial post asked whether that music was used in game. Then I put my reading head on and noticed that you already said it was from the final level...

[John Beaulieu]

Super R-type is ladden with slowdown but its not a bad shmup. it is not of the quality of R-type 3 (which some people like to slag off but its a damn fine super fami shmup)

only thing about Super R-type is that its adding nothing new to the franchise - just a re-hash of whats come before it, and better examples of R-type were available on home format (imo of course)

now R-type 3 --- oooooof. sheer brilliance and showed exactly what the super fami brought to the table in terms of shmups. lots of mode 7 rotation and scaling going on, and the use of 3 different power balls was something which pushed the franchise along.

and R-type 3 was the epitome of hardness - get to the later levels and you needed a fully charged ship, perfect memory and robot-like reflexes

Now R-type Leo - i have only played this a few times and I have to say that the lack of Force Device really pissed me off - it just seems as though the R-type name and ship was tacked onto another shmup that Irem had in development since it plays unlike every other game in the franchise to me.... this isn't to say its a bad game, just that its not got that distinctive R-type flavour that i love so much



camps

[Cacophanus]

Super R-type is ladden with slowdown but its not a bad shmup. it is not of the quality of R-type 3 (which some people like to slag off but its a damn fine super fami shmup)

The main problem with Super R-Type is not its slowdown, although that is a pain in the ass, but the fact that it is aderivative piss-take of R-Type II. Shameful.

now R-type 3 --- oooooof. sheer brilliance and showed exactly what the super fami brought to the table in terms of shmups. lots of mode 7 rotation and scaling going on, and the use of 3 different power balls was something which pushed the franchise along.

R-Type III is a solid shooter, but a lot of the Mode 7 stuff is awfully gimmicky. More done for show than actually relevant to the gameplay. The three versions of Force (Standard, Shadow and Cyclone) are a nice addition but, again, gimmicky (the Cyclone is awfully fun to use on later levels though).

Now R-type Leo - i have only played this a few times and I have to say that the lack of Force Device really pissed me off - it just seems as though the R-type name and ship was tacked onto another shmup that Irem had in development since it plays unlike every other game in the franchise to me.... this isn't to say its a bad game, just that its not got that distinctive R-type flavour that i love so much

That's because Leo isn't focused around defensive strategy. It is still very much R-Type, in the way that paths have to be memorised, but the emphasis is on the total destruction of all enemies in order to progress. Leo is a tough game, thankfully it is two player. Superb that.

[John Beaulieu]

That's because Leo isn't focused around defensive strategy. It is still very much R-Type, in the way that paths have to be memorised, but the emphasis is on the total destruction of all enemies in order to progress. Leo is a tough game, thankfully it is two player. Superb that.

thats the point though - it moves away from the traditional R-type method of play and more towards a traditional hori shmup flavour - whereas R-type 3 and R-type delta both went back to their roots (so to speak)

You could take R-type Leo, throw in a different ship sprite and be playing franchises from Salamander/Gradius right up to Thunderforce --- like i have said, I don't consider it to be a bad game but as an episode in the R-type chronology its just not 'right'

[Cacophanus]

thats the point though - it moves away from the traditional R-type method of play and more towards a traditional hori shmup flavour - whereas R-type 3 and R-type delta both went back to their roots (so to speak)

I think defensive strategy is merely one of the many facets of what makes R-Type so great. So merely to have that reversed makes good design sense.

You could take R-type Leo, throw in a different ship sprite and be playing franchises from Salamander/Gradius right up to Thunderforce --- like i have said, I don't consider it to be a bad game but as an episode in the R-type chronology its just not 'right'

The same could be said for the original R-Type, I mean look at Zero Wing. Still doesn't work though, there is more at work here than just the Force ("...you are weak old man!").

[Cacophanus]

A little thing that I think should be mentioned.

The backround for the R-Type Final homepage is this:



If you can't quite make out the text, it says "agrimonia pilosa". It is a Japanese mountain flower (they call it "kin-mizuhiki" here).

The big question is why it is on the R-Type Final site. Any ideas?

[Square]

They're screwing with your head, Cacky...

[Cacophanus]

They're screwing with your head, Cacky...

...but...but it must have a meaning surely?

[Geoff D]

It has medicinal qualities -

AGRIMONIA PILOSA (Xian He) Traditional Chinese remedy against parasites, including taenia, malaria plasmodia, schistosomomas and vaginal trichomonas. Antiparasitic compound agrimophol is 95% effective against taenia. Also used to stop bleeding and to prevent infection.

Any of that mean anything in the R-Type universe?

[Square]

Also used to stop bleeding and to prevent infection.

Well, the Bydo Empire is considered an infection, is it not?

[Cacophanus]

AGRIMONIA PILOSA (Xian He) Traditional Chinese remedy against parasites, including taenia, malaria plasmodia, schistosomomas and vaginal trichomonas. Antiparasitic compound agrimophol is 95% effective against taenia. Also used to stop bleeding and to prevent infection.

Mmmmmm, vaginas...

[Square]

Mmmmmm, vaginas...

Stop that Cacophanus!