The R-Type franchise has been a big part of the school of horizontal shoot em up franchises that dominated both the arcades and consoles in the late 80s and early to mid 90s. While the series started out in the arcades, R-Type feels more like a console-first series to me. It has seen many iterations across almost every meaningful console and home computer, but the most memorable in the early years were the Super Famicom and SNES-only Super R-Type, which was the renamed home port of R-Type II, and the very faithful Amiga port.
I keep wondering why I associate R-Type more with consoles, and it probably has something to do with the slow methodical pacing, tight corridors and giant bosses that need to be dismantled piece by piece. The game relies more on knowledge of your surroundings than quick hands. Much like its big counterpart, Gradius, being slower paced does not mean it is easy. R-Type will tear you apart without hesitation, especially in tight spaces where it likes to cram all sorts of enemies into your already confined route. A trademark feature of 90s horizontal shmups.
A shift into the third dimension
When gaming moved into the third dimension in the arcades and on PlayStation, N64 and Saturn, the already shrinking shmup genre followed. G Darius, Einhander and Taito’s RayCrisis were all 3D interpretations that saw limited commercial success but became well liked within the budding STG community.
In that selection of cult favourites R-Type Delta certainly holds its own. It was released in 1998 in Japan exclusively for PlayStation, which marked a clear end for R-Type as an arcade game.
Mastering the Force orb
R-Type Delta, much more than its peers, is known for its high difficulty level. Like its predecessors, it uses the signature hovering Force orb. This floating device can be attached to the front or back of the ship and can protect against incoming enemies and projectiles, or be launched into enemies large and small. This gives you a wide range of tactical options. You can use it as a front-line attack unit or shoot it into big enemies to deal heavy damage in quick succession, especially when it gets stuck inside large bosses. Delta adds the Dose mechanic, which lets you fill a meter when the orb absorbs incoming projectiles or touches enemies and bullets. Once the bar is full you can unleash a screen-clearing Force attack. Shooting the orb into an enemy not only deals a lot of damage but also fills the Dose meter quickly.
Irem weaved these mechanics, the environmental challenges and the enemy patterns together very well. Going through the stages without using the Force orb is possible, but significantly harder. This has always been the case with R-Type, more than any other horizontal shmup, but Delta magnifies these traits. I am not exaggerating when I say that it will take a new player a good number of hours to become one with the ship and orb and build the muscle memory needed to enjoy it for what it is.
The HD Boost treatment
As for the name extension HD Boost, this newly released remaster does exactly that and not much more than promised in the title. The Japanese retro-specialist City Connection is behind this release and has a solid track record when it comes to porting shooters to modern platforms. From an emulation perspective this is a technically sound but barebones port. Like many of their releases, the original game runs inside a framework with an extra menu for emulation settings, additional features and savegame management. The last part is particular, since it pre-creates the savefile so the PlayStation memory card popups are avoided, which is a indication that this is straightforward PlayStation emulation. Does it matter in practice? Not really. At least the experience feels cohesive.
City Connection did add a practise mode that comes in handy to prepare you better for the enormous challenge that awaits you. The soundtrack has been remastered as well with tracks created for this release by C64 music legend, Chris Hülsbeck, among others.
That brings us to the HD portion of the remaster. The image quality City Connection delivers is on par with what open-source emulators can produce. The opening scene shows the ship flying into a destroyed city before the camera shifts to its pseudo 2.5D angle. As in the original game, that scene is filled with the well-known texture warping. In my view a remaster should, within limits, address this. Some will argue that texture warping is a PlayStation hallmark and can be appreciated, but it also shows that the original code has not been touched. The game still looks good on its own merit. It has the familiar aesthetic that 2.5D shooters of the era had, and it holds up better than many 3D platformers of the same period. The 3D effects, like the Dose attack, still look good. The 3D enemies and foreground objects look chunky but have a distinct texture style.
Other then the HD, practise mode and upped music, R-Type Delta HD Boosted does not offer much in a sense of nostalgia or production. Aside from the emulation, the presentation and the package as a whole are so barebones. Maybe M2 and Digital Eclipse have been spoiling us too much, but I think that is a standard remasters in this price category should always try to aim towards. No leaderboard and no accessibility options apart from the existing difficulty settings and the tweaks you can do in practise mode. Will it deliver what you expect? Yes. Would added value such as franchise history or some historical extras be welcome? Yes, especially for fans. It would also make the € 24.99 price tag easier to justify.
R-Type Delta HD Boosted feels like a obligatory act of preservation out of capitalism than a celebration of a cult classic of the Playstation 1 era. It does what it needs to do and not a lick more. The upscaling settings and button mappings are about the only configuration that has been tinkered with in the probably open source emulation framework they've chosen. There is no additional features te speak off or leaderboards to take on other players. The game it self is left to its own devices, which it still, after 30 odd years, does remarkably well. Both in terms of gameplay and looks. Those who are in for a thoughtful, deep horizontal shooter should not pass up on it but at the same time will be disappointed that it isn't presented with much more style and fanfare.
