Well well well, it's time
for another 'Ho ho ho, they're
never going to be able to
convert that onto the Spectrum'.
Have you ever seen the
original Arcade machine? It's
something of a classic - firmly in
the
Defender mould but with
massive colourful sprites and
more action than you could
shake a boomerang at. In fact it's
hardly surprising that plans for
downloading it onto the Speccy
were received with, erm, mirth to
say the very least. I must admit
that I myself thought something
along the lines of "
R-Type? Oh
yeah?" Well, Spec-chums - let
me tell you something: I've never
been more wrong. Well, I have
actually, like the time I was
spouting forth 'knowledgeably' at
a dinner party about Evelyn
Waugh while labouring under the
serious misconception that he
was a woman - but that's
another (and far more
embarrassing) story.
Anyway,
R-Type on the
Speccy. Here we go. Oh, hang
on a minute, some of you won't
have seen the coin-op so I'll
bring you in gently.
R-Type, in a
nutshell, is a right to left scrolling
blast 'em up with 'power-up'
icons to collect and more deadly
aliens than the planet Zoggo. If
you think along the lines of
Zynaps you'll be sort of on the
right path. Anyway, having
cleared that up let's have a good
old gander at the game in
question. Basically it's one where
you shoot everything that moves
- some things shoot back at you
while others just get in the way
and result in your death on
contact. The scrolling
background is a sort of cavern
with ceiling and floor
outcroppings in places, and
these, needless to say, can also
be crashed into. If you manage
to get past the myriad nasties/outcroppings and whatever else
then you'll eventually be
confronted by the end of level
meganasty - and believe me, in
this game we're talking
meganasties with a capital 'M',
but luckily you can pick up icons
en route which will increase your
firepower.
Righto, a fairly familiar
scenario then, but the
programming and execution
behind this game mean it has to
be played to be believed. Firstly
colour: I actually thought they
might have to do this conversion
in monochrome, but oh no me
hearties, there's colour all right -
loads of it with little or no colour
clash. Secondly the graphics
and sprites themselves move
beautifully and some of them are
big (big big big), such as the
giant spinning 'wheel monster'
type thingy near the end of level
one. You actually have to get
your ship inside it and shoot it in
the eye to close its account. And
I'm sure there are a lot of even
bigger nasties waiting on further
levels (I couldn't get past level
one before writing this) because
there are in the coin-op, and this
looks like being a pretty faithful
conversion. Thirdly, the weapons
system is brilliant. Quick clicks
on the fire-button produce
standard bursts of laser fire, but
should you require a bit more
'oomph' then hold the button
down for a sec. You can see the
nose of the ship collecting
surrounding atoms of some
description - then when you
release the button again, a large
fireball zooms out. Also the
'power up' icons give you some
very impressive weapons
indeed: a three-way laser, er, well
- that's the only one I can
describe actually (given the
space), but believe me, some of
them are brillo. Fourthly there's
the incredible addictiveness.
The learning curve is a toughy,
but also very rewarding once
you get each bit licked - thanks
to the 'play on' option. Each time
you lose your three lives you get
plonked on a screen which
allows you to continue from
where you left off (if you want to
- and you probably will).
However, this play-on option
does only work five times during
each game, so you eventually
have to start from scratch again,
but it means you get a lot of
practice at getting past the really
difficult bits towards the end of
the levels.
I could go on adding to the list
of brilliant things, but really it all
boils down to this:
R-Type is a
fiendishly addictive and difficult
shoot 'em up with great
graphics, loads of colour and the
kind of knobs which make it
scream "Hey, I'm absolutely
playable - come and have
another go!". In fact I think I will.
Oh dear, I can't move for some
reason. Yaaarrrghhh! I enjoyed
playing
R-Type so much that I've
become paralysed from the
spleen down, it's not fair, it's not
fair - I want another go!!!!
| Arcade version screenshot... |
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| Click here to view all 6 pics |
| Ratings given by other magazines |
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| Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database |
