Developed by Irem and published by Nintendo in 1991. Follow me on Twitter:
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00:00 : Hard Difficulty 32:50 : Pro Difficulty Super R-Type is a horizontal shoot 'em up released exclusively for Nintendo's 16-bit console. The game largely remixes elements from R-Type II while combining some new levels and other elements. In addition to new levels, the game also features a couple of new weapons. The white power-up grants the player access to a short-range bomb that explodes and does decent area-of-effect damage capable hitting enemies through parts of the scenery, whilst the green power-up bestows a multi-shot that provides decent screen coverage, but lacks power unless you can concentrate the entire burst on a single target. Anyone familiar with the series should be familiar with just how legendarily difficult the R-Type games are, and Super R-Type is definitely no exception. With huge numbers of enemies, obstructing scenery and plasma projectiles flying all over the place, this game will test you to your absolute limits. Before bullet-hell shooters became a "thing", this is probably as tough as it gets. Not only will you need exceptional reactions to come anywhere close to beating the game, losing a life will automatically send you back to the very beginning of the current stage, forcing you to replay the whole level. With no checkpoints, the frequency of which you will die means that you're pretty much doomed to replay the same parts of the game over and over again. Die-hard enthusiasts who take this sort of torture in their stride will probably enjoy this, but lesser mortals will most likely get bored with this pretty quickly. For those looking for the ultimate challenge, beating the game on 'Hard' difficulty unlocks the 'Pro' mode, increasing the difficulty even further. The game suffers from some minor technical issues, including considerable slow-down when the screen gets busy with large numbers of enemy sprites; this does actually lend itself to the player's advantage, however, as it does mean that you have longer to react to enemy positions and hostile fire. The other issue is I noticed is that the sprites tend to flicker quite badly and this makes avoiding projectiles more difficult than it already is. For an early shooter in the SNES line-up, the graphics are pretty good, with plenty of big, chunky enemies in a variety of bio-mechanical designs, plus there's some parallax scrolling in the background layers for good measure. The game features some decent music and sound effects. I personally prefer the audio from the Amiga conversion of R-Type II, but this is decent enough. Super R-Type is one of those games that's likely to be quite divisive. Fans of hardcore shooters will likely lap this up, whereas the brutal difficulty and lack of checkpoints is likely to be a major turn off for the more casual player. For those who enjoy his sort of game, Super R-Type is a pretty decent shooter. For anyone else, it's likely to frustrate more than anything else. #retrogaming
