They're fundamentals that have barely been touched for over 30 years, and rightly so - there's something deliciously mechanical about R-Type's combat, your ship collecting floating pulses and with that Force you can detach at will, pinging it off into enemy formations or right at the heart of a boss' weak spot. Irem's original template delivers shooting that's slow and strategic, the tempo pinned back by the charge cycle of your beam - told with the brilliant sci-fi whine that's as much a part of R-Type's appeal as anything else.
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It's what makes R-Type special, as do the exquisite mechanics that have served the series so well ever since the 1987 original. Through all that, though, R-Type Final 2 does retain the all-important atmosphere of the originals, a solemn strangeness that undercuts the desperation of your plight battling against impossible odds in the hostile void. R-Type Final 2 comes off the back of a modest crowdfunding campaign, bringing together some of the old team headed up by Kazuma Kujo at Granzella, and it is a more modest thing - there's a creakiness to its Unreal Engine powered levels regardless of what platform you're on, a flatness to its models and textures that goes beyond mere tribute to the PlayStation 2 original. It's fertile ground for a comeback for one of the grandees, even if this isn't exactly the grandest of comebacks. Pick up a Switch and you could fill its storage with some of the all-time greats - Esp.Ra.De! Gradius 2! Darius Gaiden! - alongside modern classics such as Devil's Engine or Rolling Gunner, making it one of the best platforms for lovers of the genre since the PlayStation 2. Reports of the genre's death were greatly exaggerated, of course, and in recent years a cottage industry has risen around this most humble breed of shooting games. Availability: Out April 30th on PS4, Xbox One and Switch.Platform: Played on Switch and PlayStation.