Maybe one of the best values on Xbox Live Arcade today is a little title called R-Type Dimensions. Going for 1200 Microsoft points, it’s actually TWO games in one, offering up both R-Type and R-Type II in the same package. The plot of each is shockingly similar, with the evil Bydo Empire out to destroy everything in sight and you playing as the lone warrior sent to stop them.
Fourteen stages of Bydo-blasting fury are all yours right here. Chances are you’ve played R-Type before in one form or another, and even if you haven’t, chances are you’ve played something similar. It’s not very often any more you find side-scroller action games, so it’s fun to take this quick trip backwards in time to take on a blast from the past.
Fly forward and blast enemies until there are no enemies left to blast–that’s the name of this game. Sure, not exactly a deep experience, but for a fast and casual game, you could definitely do a lot worse. Especially when you consider you won’t be paying even twenty bucks for two games in one.
Retro gaming aficionados could endlessly debate what bygone style was the best. Whatever your favorite eight or sixteen bit genre, if you grew up in the 80s and 90s you’ve probably played one of the many side-scrolling shooters that have come out over the years. The plot is often the same: an invading alien force has decimated the defenses of the human race. Only one hope remains: a pilot who must single-handedly defeat the forces hell-bent on humanity’s destruction.
The R-Type series was a classic in the genre. Featuring creepy organic enemies who came on in endless waves, interesting bosses and some very cool power-ups it was everything the side-scrolling shooter genre could be. It was also devastatingly hard, but then again this was a hallmark of the genre. After all, wouldn’t taking on an alien armada with one fighter be difficult?
The recent remake of the original two R-Type games that is packaged on Xbox Live Arcade as R-Type Dimensions is an excellent bit of nostalgia. One of the cooler features is the ability to swap between the retro 2-D graphics and the new, 3-D updated graphics with the push of a button. Unfortunately the hordes of enemies are just as deadly in either resolution.
Playing through either R-Type game in the standard mode is maddeningly hard. You’re given only three lives and one hit from anything kills you. In some levels the enemies are so thick that it seems impossible to get through. For those of us who aren’t experts there’s the ‘infinite mode’ where you can die however times you like and your performance is based on your score. Unfortunately this takes a lot of the fun out of things as there’s little consequence for dying.
Overall it’s visually amusing and provides a great challenge for the retro gaming crowd, and the co-op feature is fun, but the more casual crowd will find it either too frustrating or too easy depending on the mode.
