June 2018 Shmup Club - R-Type

[MetalFRO]

Anyone else having difficulty consistently getting past Stage 4? I was making progress in my ability to get past it, but somehow, I’ve regressed, and despite knowing what the safe path is, there’s enough randomness to some of the fast bullets that I find myself not able to execute the path the way I need to. When I reach the end of the stage, I can take out the boss, but getting there seems to be a problem. I think this issue is why I have never taken this game down: it would take me a long time to truly master the stages to the point where I can get pretty far into the game each time. With the last two games in the series, there’s less of an emphasis (from my own anecdotal experience) on pure memorization. I usually get reasonably far into either one of those games without too much fuss. I suspect if I dedicated a month to one or both, I might actually be able to complete the first loop.

This game is undoubtedly a classic, and hugely important in the scope, history, and formulation of the genre, but I am seeing more clearly where Pam is coming from. I would either need to put a LOT of time into the game, to learn the pathways inside and out, so I can achieve that consistency, OR just keep chipping away at it to continually build up a skill level with the game to get the fine motions and techniques down. I like the game, but I feel like the original, despite its charm, has been outdone by its successors. I look forward to playing other R-Type games in the future, but the month plus I’ve put into this game (across multiple versions) has been enough for me to recognize my own limitations in the genre, and understand better why I’ve never been a hardcore score player, and why I haven’t focused on completing a lot of shmups in a single credit. This is something I hope to do as we move through various games in the coming months, and definitely something that I hope we can discuss as we play other shooters, old and new.

[douglie007]

Wow I really suck at this. Maybe I can blame the Master System Controller but I think I just suck at these games I almost beat the first stage LOL

[MetalFRO]

It's definitely a difficult game, though the Master System version is supposed to be a bit easier than the arcade game, but I haven't played it for comparison. I would watch a play through of the first stage to get an idea of the path and strategy you might want to take. Watching Ex_mosquito's play through helped me get a better idea of the overall flow, so that's definitely a helpful approach.

[douglie007]

My SMS is modded with the FM sound it sounds great.

[Duke.Togo]

I played a little of R-Type DX today. This version holds up surprisingly well, although R-Type still kicks my butt. I'm not sure why my brain can't wrap around the proper use of the Force, but it just doesn't. Made it to level 3 without too much trouble, but ran out of time to go any farther.

You can definitely tell this game was designed to be a quarter muncher. The difficulty is steep, and much more attuned to arcade-style play sessions. I don't think I would invest a crazy amount of time to master this game, but I appreciate the innovation that it brought at the time.

I'm curious as to weapon choices: it seems that these weapons are very situational and doesn't allow for much differentiation if you want to do well at each stage. Is that just me?

[MetalFRO]

You can definitely tell this game was designed to be a quarter muncher. The difficulty is steep, and much more attuned to arcade-style play sessions. I don't think I would invest a crazy amount of time to master this game, but I appreciate the innovation that it brought at the time.

I'm with you here. I've put a ton of time into it this month, and Stage 6 is the farthest I can reach in either arcade (R-Types) or Dimensions. Funny enough, Stage 6 in the original is the GB (and DX) version Stage 4, which is quite a bit easier on the GB, due to there being far fewer of the "flying wall" enemies in that version, and of course, slower movement overall. The stage itself isn't that difficult, once you know what enemies are coming and where they appear, but the boss fight can be a real pain. There's a bit of a trick to it, and because of the janky hit detection in the GB version (which wasn't fixed in DX, apparently), can be frustrating. If you can make it through that boss fight, I suspect you'll have almost no problem reaching the final boss, because the last 2 levels in that version are actually pretty easy, compared to what came before.

I'm curious as to weapon choices: it seems that these weapons are very situational and doesn't allow for much differentiation if you want to do well at each stage. Is that just me?

I mentioned this earlier in the thread, and it bears repeating, since you brought it up. It does seem as though Irem designed the game around using MOST of the weapons provided, when they're provided to you. There are a couple red herrings, as I mentioned before, but for the most part, if you pick up the power-ups as they come, and keep your speed level within reason, your chance of survival is reasonably good, provided you have lay of the land. However, there's a contingent of more hardcore players that favor the "DNA laser" (aka the red weapon) over everything else, and use it almost exclusively, aside from the first section of Stage 3, where it's easier to take out the ship's underbelly with the yellow weapon, and also pick off one cannon at the top of the ship that you can only hit with that weapon. Otherwise, it's helix laser all the way. I have found some success with this method, and while it hasn't been consistent, I can see why some players favor this approach. I vacillate between the 2, mostly because I haven't found enough success with either strategy yet to prefer 1 to the other.

One thing I'll say is that, if you die any time before the end of Stage 5 in the full arcade game, it's possible to recover, though difficult. Stage 6, with its fast moving "flying wall" enemies, on the other hand, is far more difficult to recover from, because your ship doesn't have enough speed to easily maneuver around or between these things, and the tight corridors make things quite precarious, with the wall-crawling enemies shooting fast bullets at you, sometimes more than 1 at a time. Without some power-ups, or creative use of the Force Pod, to clear out enemies, it becomes a losing proposition very quickly.

[singlebanana]

Finally sat down to play some R-Type for about an hour this weekend. This is the first time that I have ever really put some focused time into this title and I'm pretty happy I made it to the end of Stage 4.  If anything, the game is fair as there are really no differentiations in enemy patterns. It's really all about repeat play and figuring out the safest routes.

I'm also really impressed by the structure of the stages.  While some are longer and require that normal shmup pattern of making it through a stage and facing a boss at the end, I really liked Stage 3 and it being one large battle against a ship.  Really neat and keeps you from getting bored due to repetition as can happen with shmups from time-to-time.

Great pick!

[MetalFRO]

Thanks for the observations! Yeah, the Stage 3 battleship was very forward-thinking for its time, as that has been aped by a number of other games in the years since, though 1943 probably gets the credit for the idea, what with ACTUAL battleships that you attack in the game's semi-realistic setting. Even so, the ability to pick off turrets, as well as to do damage to the ship's structure itself, and the ability to see visible evidence of the damage done, was an impressive thing in 1987. Also, color me impressed that you made it to Stage 4 so quickly! The battleship is often a wall for people just approaching the game, and was definitely my biggest obstacle for years.

[Addicted]

Here are my scores for R-Types on the PS1: I just entered AAAAA to keep things short)

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/ohz68vP.jpg[/img]

[singlebanana]

Thanks for the observations! Yeah, the Stage 3 battleship was very forward-thinking for its time, as that has been aped by a number of other games in the years since, though 1943 probably gets the credit for the idea, what with ACTUAL battleships that you attack in the game's semi-realistic setting. Even so, the ability to pick off turrets, as well as to do damage to the ship's structure itself, and the ability to see visible evidence of the damage done, was an impressive thing in 1987. Also, color me impressed that you made it to Stage 4 so quickly! The battleship is often a wall for people just approaching the game, and was definitely my biggest obstacle for years.

During our shmup competition a few years ago, we played R-Type Final, so I'm used to the mechanics of the Shield add-on. I definitely died a ton, but was able to adjust pretty quickly to stage 3 and figure out what I needed to do

[MetalFRO]

I think this is my highest score so far, which I achieved in the PS3 R-Type Dimensions port:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/9Qswr47.jpg[/img]

And yes, it's hard to read because of the glare from the CRT, but it's 284,400 points.

[douglie007]

I've can't seem to get past the ship on level 3[img width=700 height=393]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180630/1aa755c4b5befedb849b384d4f521ebf.jpg[/img]

[MetalFRO]

Yeah, the battleship is pretty tough at first - you really need to strategize how you're going to approach each section of it, because some of the turrets can take you out w/o much advance warning. Also: love that shirt!

I'm going to try and ruminate on this game for a day or two, and then try and post some final thoughts. Anyone else is welcome to do the same, now that we've had the full month to play it. Thanks, everyone, for participating, and I hope you all had a fun month of R-Type action!

[douglie007]

I did enjoy it. My issue is the screen stopped scrolling and the ship crushed me. That score was still my best.  We better luck for this month.

[MetalFRO]

I wanted to post some final thoughts about R-Type. This has always been an intimidating game for me. I was hoping to see the final boss in one of the better ports, like R-Types, or Dimensions, but I realize that my own limitations as a gamer start to rear their ugly heads. Having said that, I'm glad that I was able to get much further in the game than I had previously, and while I still have a lot of work to do to get through the first loop of the game, I no longer feel like it's an impossible task, both due to my own progression in a few short weeks, but also from watching some YouTube videos (like Ex Mosquito's 2-ALL above), and seeing players really blaze their way through the game. In a weird way, despite my own skill level being far below that, it gives me a certain comfort to know that the game isn't as hard as I often make it out to be, despite it still being a considerable challenge. I'm glad to have revisited this game now, and look forward to possibly taking a closer look at R-Type II at some point in the future, as well as definitely diving (back) into Delta and Final.