R-Type Dimensions EX is a game that I initially wrote off when it was announced a while back. I’ve seen my fair share of remasters of classic arcade and homes console titles from the 2D era that get butchered when pushed into 3D. TMNT Re-Shelled was a mess, Rocket Knight was a disaster and Castle of Illusion was simply okay, with that studio closing after it.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”14″]Developer: TozaiGamesPublisher: Tozai Games
Genre: Acton, Shooter
Release: Nov 26, 2018[/perfectpullquote]
Aside from Ducktales –which wasn’t totally 3D by the way– these forced remasters just leave me a bit depressed. So, I waited on R-Type Dimensions EX to hit the PC before jumping in on this remake of two legendary games. Thankfully, R-Type Dimensions EX is a bloody good time that manages to take the best of the old and merge it with modern day sensibilities and features.
Your fight against the Bydo is set across two complete games. R-Type and R-Type II are both fantastic shooters that will test the limits of your patience and the construction quality of your controller/keyboard. The best thing here is that Tozai Games didn’t mess with what wasn’t broken bringing this anthology together.
The eight levels from the original R-Type are here along with the six levels from R-Type II. They haven’t messed with things on the gameplay front, or added new stages that never quite fit with the game like other remasters; I’m looking at you Duke Nukem 3D. The gameplay play here is as tight as it was on the TurboGrafx16 and in the arcade.
The TG16 was the console nobody ever had, except that one rich kid you knew at school. And when they wanted to show off they’d invite everyone over and R-Type would blow everyone away. Then you’d walk home, sad and depressed that all you had to enjoy was Dick Tracy and Mission Cobra. I may be projecting here, but you get the point.
When you talk about the shooter or SHMUP genre you can’t do so without talking about R-Type. While the industry has changed and shooters along with it, R-Type is still the one shooter that all other shooters are judged by. All roads run through R-Type and even decades later those first two games are as difficult as ever.
When I was a kid and getting time with R-Type, whether at home or in the arcade, I would be lucky to make it to stage four on a good day. Now, over twenty-years later, things haven’t changed much. There are so many difficult games that you can go back to after all these years and figure out after years of gaming experience, but R-Rype I and II are still as brutal as ever.
So, the gameplay here is fantastic, but what’s better is that you aren’t forced to play in the 2.5D style the game has been playing up heavily in its marketing. You can choose to play in the new style, which, to be fair, is very smooth and looks pretty, or play in the classic pixel style, only updated to look sweet on HD televisions.
But the real magic is that both games allows you to swap between the two with the press of a button. There is no buffering or pausing, you simply push a button and the game shifts into 2.5D or into pixel styles. It’s really amazing to see in action and let’s you jump back and forth, if only to see how each section of the game looks in each style.
Because of this I found myself playing a fair bit in 2.5D because it was so easy to swap between. I love comparing things, so running sections of a stage in each visual mode was loads of fun. But this isn’t just a visual change as the music shifts from classic chip-tunes to modern interpretations, both of which are like heaven. This switching mode alone is almost worth the price of admission to R-Type Dimensions EX.
But, for someone like me that has never seen the totality of what both of these games have to offer, the new Infinite Mode was a real godsend. In this mode you get infinite ships so that you’ll finally be able to see what stage five of R-Type looks like. Not everyone is going to be able to invest the hours upon hours to become a decent R-Type player, so this mode really opens up the game to a lot more people.
And if you are a SHMUP master, this mode allows you to practice each stage to better you clear rate. It’s something that would be a lot of help for those people that love speeding running. It’s really the best of both worlds and you don’t ever have to use it if you want to keep things totally retro, since it’s only a feature.
Some other neat mechanics include the ability to speed up play if you are a serious mad lad, or slow down segments that helps with learning patterns of the enemies that want you dead. After playing around with all the features I felt like I became a better player, and when I got really frustrated I just activated all my power-ups. That’s right, I cheated. Cry me a river in the comments.
A new feature that I found pretty interesting was the new co-op mode that lets you take on the game with a friend. In local co-op this was a pretty wild time as normal R-Type is already a mess with so much going on on-screen. And you can turn off collision for a real team-up or leave it on and screw with your buddy. It’s a wild time either way.
The nostalgia is real with R-Type Dimensions EX. It’s one of the rare cases where the developer managed to mix the best of both worlds. You want to lord over other internet nerds, then play the game stock as it was designed; you want to have fun and kick major ass, then use the new features the game makes available. Everyone wins, and that’s not something you can say when talking about a remaster.
“R-Type Dimensions EX is a masterclass in how to remaster a pair of classic games”
Final Score:
4/5
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