Stop the Bydo Invasion in R-Type for Game Boy – Today in History – May 8th, 1991

in #games6 years ago

Name your top five side scrolling shooters and odds are, R-Type will be on that list. At least if you are an old school retro gamer it would be. The Nintendo Game Boy was not known for its quality screen but that did not stop companies from releasing scrolling games on it. R-Type being one of the better side scrolling shooters available just makes it that much more fun on the Game Boy. While not perfect, it was in a league all its own.

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Irem knew they had a hit on their hands with R-Type and they were smart with licensing and direct releases. This arcade shooter has hit just about every console available, well all the major retro gaming consoles (can you name which 16-Bit console R-Type never saw release on? Tell me in the comments).

R-Type on the Game Boy not only retained most of the detail of the arcade original, but in black and white, it went farther than most portable games did.

First, many levels feature tiny details in the background – something that other games avoided due to blurring when the screen scrolls (fixed on the Game Boy Pocket and later).

Second, your Force device has quite a bit of animation for a Game Boy sprite. Go ahead, pay special attention watching the embedded video above. This can be said for the enemies as well, especially when they explode.

Also, there is a ton of detail in the enemies and the general levels themselves. This is achieved through skillful use of gray scale shading techniques.

To put it bluntly, R-Type on the Nintendo Game Boy is quite a beautiful shooter.

Remember how I said R-Type is not perfect? Well, there is a fair bit of flicker which can spell death in certain conditions. The flicker is forgivable considering what the Game Boy is pushing here. Sure, there are no parallax scrolling backgrounds or anything, but still – the amount of detail here is amazing.

R-Type has been re-released on many platforms, compilations, and the franchise was kept well and alive up to at least the Xbox (Dimensions is a remake that features the original game as well) and recent Nintendo consoles via the Virtual Console. You can even get R-Type on Android and iPhone if you want to game on the go as well.

For everyone preferring physical copies, check eBay or check Amazon for a deal. R-Type DX features both Game Boy games with some slight enhancements. If you want the “definitive” home edition then it is pretty unanimous that the Turbo Grafx-16 version is your best bet.

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