is a

shooter game Shooter video games, or shooters, are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is on the defeat of the character's enemies using ranged weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, a ...

for the

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

, developed and published by

Irem is a Japanese video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher and manufacturer of pachinkos. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Software Enginee ...

in 1991. It is a partial port of ''

R-Type II is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by Irem. It was released in arcades in 1989. It is the sequel to ''R-Type'', and the second game in the ''R-Type'' series. Gameplay The player controls a ship called the R-9C, whic ...

'', borrowing stages and enemies, but introducing several of its own. The game has been re-released on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

Virtual Console The Virtual Console was a line of downloadable retro video games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld systems. The Virtual Console lineup consisted of titles originally released on pa ...

in 2008, and on the

Nintendo Classics Nintendo Classics is a line of Video game console emulator, emulated retro games distributed by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch family of systems and Nintendo Switch 2. Subscribers of the Nintendo Switch Online service have access to games for ...

service in 2024.

Gameplay

''Super R-Type'' borrows four stages from ''

'' and adds three new ones. The game is known for its high difficulty (even compared to other games in the series), particularly because of its lack of checkpoints, since dying means restarting the level from scratch. Also, this game suffers from slowdown, which was also a problem in many early games for this system. But unlike the others ''Super R-Type'' slows down to a virtual standstill when there are many things on-screen. However, this proved useful for players when there were many obstacles on-screen because it was easier to avoid them.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' picked the game as the #2 greatest game available in 1991, saying: "The space-shooting R-Type game has been evolving over the last several years; this latest incarnation is the most graphically overpowering yet. Players pilot a ship through the deep cosmos, picking up various supercharged weapons along the way and squaring off against some extraordinarily detailed aliens, which look like illustrations from classic pulp sci-fi magazines of the 1930s." French gaming magazine ''Joypad'' gave the game a score of 87%, praising the game's "magnificent" graphics and calling the ship's maneuverability "exemplary", they did however criticize the fact that the action "slowed down clearly when there are a lot of sprites on screen". ''Super Gamer'' gave a review score of 74% stating: "It looks brilliant and plays well, but while graphical slowdown isn’t that bad, going back to the start of the level whenever you die soon becomes tedious."

Re-releases

On March 14, 2008, the game was released on the Nintendo

service in Europe and Australia. The game was made available on the Virtual Console in North America on March 17, 2008. However, it was removed from the Virtual Console on March 30, 2012 in North America and on March 31, 2012 in Europe. The game was re-released on the

service on April 12, 2024. Legacy games company Retro-Bit released a SNES-compatible cartridge including the game alongside '' R-Type III: The Third Lightning'' in July 2018.

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1991 video games Horizontally scrolling shooters Irem games Nintendo Classics games R-Type Science fiction video games Single-player video games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Hiroshi Kimura Video games scored by Takushi Hiyamuta Video games scored by Yasuhiro Kawakami Video games set in the 22nd century Virtual Console games ja:R-TYPE II#移殖版