R-Type is the latest game I played in my TurboGrafx journey for Turbo Times, and although I've never played R-Type on TurboGrafx before, I was already familiar with the game itself.
Even if you never actually played R-Type, if you were reading video game magazines back in the 80s and 90s, you were certain to see a regular cadence of R-Type ads and articles.
R-Type on TurboGrafx is a port of the original arcade game, and a really good one. One advantage the TurboGrafx version has, however, is the turbo features of its controller, which really make a big difference.
The graphics in R-Type are very colorful and well animated, but being a solid arcade port, that's to be expected. What's great though is that the game has minimal slowdown and flicker, considering all the onscreen action at times. That's not to say that there isn't any slowdown or flicker, but I've certainly seen much worse with games that don't look nearly as good.
R-Type also has some legendary, screen-filling bosses, that serve as a great endcap to each level.
Like all of the TurboGrafx games I've played so far, the music is good and really fits the action, although as an arcade port, this has more to do with the design of the arcade game than it does with the port to the TurboGrafx.
The controls in R-Type are tight and well designed, with one button assigned to firing the primary laser and the other button assigned to combining with and separating from the Power Pod. But despite the great design and fluid controls, the game's difficulty is quite legendary.
Despite several attempts, I haven't been able to get past the third stage so far, which is that massive ship that has cannons all over. It's a very cool stage and a great looking boss, but man is it difficult.
You can check out some of my gameplay, including my various attempts at beating the third stage, in this YouTube video:
I can definitely see myself playing the heck out of this back in the day, even though I'm sure I would have gotten frustrated with it. Of all the titles I've played so far, this is one of the games I could see myself coming back to again and again (especially to try and beat that annoying third stage).
R-Type wasn't released for many home consoles in the United States, but it did come to the Sega Master System prior to the release of the TurboGrafx version. Overall it looks good and plays really well. Certainly one of the better arcade ports on the console.
You can check out some gameplay from R-Type on the Sega Master System in the YouTube video below:
R-Type on the TurboGrafx-16 is generally regarded as one of the most accurate home ports of the arcade game. I recently played the arcade game so I could compare them, and I agree that the TurboGrafx version seems very close, although maybe a bit easier than the arcade (but still hard).
You can check out some of my arcade gameplay in the following YouTube video:
Overall, R-Type seems like it is one of the more solid games to release around the launch of the TurboGrafx-16. I'm guessing there were some happy kids that Christmas.
R-Type is definitely a game I can see myself continuing to play, and I want to continue trying out different ports of it as well. I just recently downloaded the port on iOS, so I'll give that a try and upload some video to YouTube for anyone interested in seeing it.
Next on my TurboGrafx journey is...
Until next time!
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