For over two decades, Irem’s R-Type games have stood at the forefront of the horizontal arcade shooter genre, with its token-sucking, hair-pulling and callous-building difficulty frustrating many a gamer. Now you can enjoy that same soul-crushing gameplay at home in both its original arcade glory and new high definition 3D along with a few extra trimmings in R-Type Dimensions on Xbox Live Arcade.

The R-Type Dimensions package is comprised of the original 1987 release of R-Type, and its 1989 sequel R-Type II. Each game is faithfully reproduced in its original form, along with a new high definition 3D graphical facelift, which players can jump between at their whim by pressing the Y button. It’s a pretty cool feature that a lot of arcade updates on the Xbox Live Arcade service could benefit from. If you’re after something a little different, you can activate the Crazy Cam, which presents the game as though you were playing it on an arcade cabinet, complete with crazy head bobbing, joystick movement and so on. There’s also an option to shift the perspective to a sort of pseudo 3D, making it look as though each stage is a 3D tunnel.


R-Type’s setup is fairly typical of its time; players are stuck in the middle of a war between humans and the Bydo Empire, and you get to lead a bunch of ships to take on the threat. Of course, everybody else is useless and gets captured, meaning you get to take on the threat alone. Gameplay structure is fairly typical of the horizontal shooter – fly from left to right, blasting whatever comes your way, while grabbing power-ups to grant you more speed or side arms before fighting a rather fearsome boss. The key difference between R-Type and its brethren is the Force unit, an attachment to your ship which acts as both a shield and a powerful weapon, which can be upgraded with power-ups, or launched from your ship into oncoming enemies.

R-Type II is a continuation of the war in the first game, with the Bydo Empire not quite as defeated as people might have thought. It’s shorter, and a little easier in parts, but just as intense as the first game. It introduces a couple of new power ups and abilities – players can now double charge their main cannon for a more spectacular display of destruction.

Most normal people aren’t going to be able to stand up to the original R-Type – it has a fearsome level of difficulty that requires frequent practice and pattern memorisation or a wunderkind level of skill. Enemies come thick and fast, and movement is limited not only by the waves of foes and their projectiles, but by physical barriers as well. Not planning ahead in R-Type will result in a quick death – the game is designed in such a way so as to provide one perfect route through each level, and finding that path can be pretty time consuming and frustrating to the average player.

Fortunately, developer Tozai realised that they need mortal men and women to buy and enjoy their game, so they’ve included Infinite Mode, which grants players infinite lives and instant respawns. It makes each game much more approachable, and provides a nice ground to learn patterns and train for the Classic Mode, which is a reproduction of the original R-Type experience. That means you only get three lives, and have to restart at a checkpoint when killed.


The other main addition of R-Type Dimensions is cooperative play, meaning you no longer have to face the forces of the Bydo Empire alone. Cooperative play makes the game a bit easier – the obvious extra firepower is a great help, and players can plan their approach to a level together, ensuring that one player is always alive to bring the other back when the opportunity arises. You can play with a friend either locally or on Xbox Live, though the lag introduced by the latter is counterintuitive to the game’s fast pace. In a game like R-Type, any lag is too much.

With only 14 levels (8 in R-Type, 6 in R-Type II) and the player-friendly Infinite Mode, R-Type Dimensions can be easily beaten in a couple of hours. Fortunately, Tozai included a series of skill-based achievements (such as beating the first level of either game on Classic without dying, using only the stock weapon), and a few time-demanding ones (like killing 30,000 enemies), some of which unlock some gamer pictures, which is a nice little bonus.

R-Type Dimensions is a thoroughly enjoyable compilation of two great shooters, made more accessible through the addition of some easier gameplay options without compromising the difficulty the fans demand. 1200 Microsoft Points might seem a bit of an ask for two classic games, but the high production values and dedication to quality makes R-Type Dimensions a worthy investment.