An Irem Super R-Type, hard and gorgeous, the first striking SNES shooter. Slow at times but truly classy, essential for fans.
Your verdict
Category
Shooter1 player7+
Description
Irem horizontal shoot-'em-up featuring the R-9 spacecraft with its attachable Force system. Published by Irem, released in the United States in 1991. R-9 navigating dense Bydo enemy levels with attachable and detachable Force and high difficulty. SNES port of the first Irem R-Type.
Super R-Type review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
This first outing of the series on the machine already establishes the biomechanical look that made its name: ribbed metal hulls, organic shapes, creatures you cannot tell were born or manufactured. The most impressive screens are those where the scenery itself seems to breathe, with walls contracting as the ship passes.
Atmospheric and tense, Irem's music plunges the R-9 pilot into an oppressive science-fiction of rare intensity. Anxious electronic pads and nervy themes underline the permanent threat of the Bydo. This immersive sonic atmosphere, polished down to the detail, remains an unsung peak of the shooter on SNES.
An expanded port of Irem's legendary R-Type, Super R-Type adds new stages and keeps the charge weapon and the Force pod that defined the horizontal shooter. The demanding level design, the biomechanical aesthetic and the memorable bosses remain a genre reference. Marked slowdown during busy moments and the lack of a checkpoint after death handicap the experience. A great shmup for fans of memorisation shooting and old fashioned challenge, despite its technical flaws.
