The very prospect of bringing the arcade experience to a portable console at one point was seen as a laughing matter, this is especially prevalent in those dumb ports of fighting games for the Game Boy where there were only two buttons to work with, but we're not talking about FGs we are talking about classic shmups that despise humanity both in-universe and in real life. Seeing attempts made to fit these large arcade games on a tiny grey cartridge is honestly sometimes kind of adorable, even if sometimes they just look sad especially in 2022, but sometimes it can work out and be their own experience.

DX here is actually a compilation/enhancement of the Game Boy versions of R-Type I and II. These enhancements are mainly things like adding color as well as a bit of QoL, the biggest probably being able to select your stage once you start completing them. This one is really nice, because car rides are often not gonna last long enough to beat this thing in one sitting, and you also can get practice on specific stages for your quest to 1cc the Game Boy versions of R-Type. I never got past the fourth stage in I as a kid, so my physical copy is still stuck on "4" for it's stage select. It's worth note they also redid the intro for R-Type II on here, it looks alright.

If for whatever reason you wanted to play the original versions without the enhancements those are also in here, just in case you like less color in your life and if the very idea of a "stage select" makes you throw your cane across the room and start shaking your fist at the clouds decreeing that gamers have gotten "soft".

R-Type DX is a humble game and it probably won't be taken seriously by anyone who didn't grow up during the original Game Boy era, but I appreciate it a lot. The content for a Game Boy game is pretty damn nice, and for what it's attempting to do it does more than well enough.

Thank you for your service sir.

Reviewed on Jul 20, 2022


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