R9a 'DELTA'

R13 'CERBERUS'

RX 'ALBATROSS'

(Above) Not one but three ships to choose from! Click each to find out more..

R-Type Delta is Irem's first dedicated PlayStation shoot em up. The gameplay, is congruent to the first in the series, but to broaden its appeal, Irem give the production a graphical make-over, using polygons instead of bitmaps, the latter now deemed as a old and worn-out technique to create visuals... The polygons give a psuedo-3D feel, the background has a true feeling of depth rather than just being a prefunctory backing. But by far the most stunning effects in the game, are the ones created by the weapons - fluorescent bolts of purple illuminate dark stages, lightning zips across the screen, abolishing everything in its path and missiles zooming over water cause beautifully rendered waves and ripples.

The stages include a city, full of skyrises that are half in ruins, half burning to nothingness; a flooded bunker teeming with dangerous fish and flies ; a snow-capped military base and (below) an eerie, Alien-like locale in which massive brains in canisters float through a adhesive fluid, crashing into each other. These areas are vast, wide and because of the aforementioned polygons, the backgrounds reveal further parts of each stage in the distance giving R-Type Delta a great sense of granduer.

The bosses often do not even fit the size of the telly and all you can make out is parts of them. The first stage air-born mech which tries to roast you with afterburners is nothing special but stage two's aquatic encounter with an amazing looking...thing is a very odd sort of boss that proves to be unforgettable whilst stage threes Empire Strikes Back-like mech, of which you never at one time in the stage see all of proves to be one of the game's highlights. Stage three is also reminiscent of the first R-Type's master of the same level - a huge spaceship which you had to systematically destroy, until you finally got a shot at its weak point.

Irem haven't superimposed a forgettable sound-track like many developers do but have evidently spent time on all the stage themes and it must be said that they signifigantly enhance the game's atmosphere - the 7th mission is accompanied by people singing a macabre, Gothic tune and the 2nd, a quaint ambient melody which has a tendancy to jump up in tone to match the hecticness of the on-screen action and then drown to a notch above mute when there are periods of silence, the only audible sound being a sumbarine like ping.
The game is, like its predecessors, highly playable but often frustrating and anger-inducing. Irem have some knowledge on game-player physcology when it comes to this genre, most other developer's shoot 'em ups don't have the insentive to urge you on, but the more you lose in R-Type Delta the more you want to carry on, until you have finally defeated it.
R-Type Delta is a refreshing, dark alternative to the world's greatest shoot 'em up.

Thanks Basi! I had stated on the site before that the game was probably not quite as good as Einhander, but after playing both games back to back my opinion might be wavering on this count.. R-Type Delta has even BETTER weaponry, some of which looks absolutely stunning in use, especially the new fighters (RX Albatross and R-13 Cerberus), and the game  now has a smart-bomb (renamed the Delta Weapon) , different for each fighter. A Delta weapon guage charges up each time the Force orb hits an enemy, on reaching 100% charge you can then detonate it which calamatous and spectacular results. This biases the gameplay towards sending the Force orb into throngs of enemies, leaving your ship unguarded, as you try to power up the Delta Weapon, and makes things rather interesting.. You can also now increase or decrease your ships speed 'Thunderforce'- style which comes in rather handy.
 
The RX-Albatross is my fave fighter, as (gasps of horror from R-Type traditionalists..) it has a HOMING Force orb which is extremely effective,especially against the bosses. It also has an awesome laser weapon when powered up fully. The R-13 deserves a special mention as it posseses a 'Lightning Shockwave Cannon' - you can literally strike down everything in your path with huge swathes of lightning bolts all over the shop, which as you can imagine looks great..
 
Although the bosses (so far Ive seen) may not be as impressive as in Square's shooter, the game makes up for this in terms of visual appeal.. with, as stated before, fabulous weaponry
lightshows, arguably more interesting backgrounds, and stunning particle FX when things blow up etc - you get different kinds of explosions for each enemy. Einhander fans will be glad to hear that you can take some enemies apart piece by piece, particularly the bosses.. The only fault I have with the graphics is that enemy shots tend to get a little lost in the backgrounds and are not as easy to see as in Einhander.

 
And you'll be glad to hear that the game lives up to previous R-Types in terms of its difficulty curve, a reasonably simple first two stages lead up to a level three encounter with a huge walking, screen-filling mecha Bydo creation - kind of like the original R-Type Mothership stage, which hoves down on your ship fling all kinds of projectiles at you and trying to stomp your R-Fighter into oblivion, all the time during which you are desperately trying to take out its various weapon pods and armenments before having to guide your ship under and around its flank Titanic Lance-style and in for the kill... this level is tough as nails ;)..) Yup.. the old R-Type'panic-syndrome' is back again in style.. Oh, and this stage also has a very nice snowy backdrop.. now that's another first for an R-Type game. All in all it has far more than lived up to all my expectations. Good on you Irem! Mike