R-Type is known among shoot-em-up fans as both being well-designed and challenging enough to sate their lust for extreme difficulty. And then, Irem decides that porting R-Type I and II would be a good idea, and they were right. Unfortunately, the game didn't seem to have sold well, given that I found a copy in a video-game store for $5.00. However, a game's popularity or successfulness does not alter the game's quality, most of the time, and this game is actually pretty good. How good is it, you might ask? Let's see.

The graphics definitely show that Bits Software(who did the porting - not Irem) have a lot of skill in graphic design. The colors are well-distributed, the sprites and environments are quite detailed, and the animation is about as smooth as would be expected.

The music and sound are also well-designed, with good and fitting music chosen for everything, and the sound effects are also made just as well...what more is there to say?

But, how we'll does the gameplay fare? It truly excels in this category as well, as you might have already guessed. To start with a positive point, this game has no less than FIVE different games to play, including the Game Boy versions of R-Type and R-Type II. This is a pretty nice feature, and it also makes sure that there's a lot of play value to be gotten out of this one little cartridge. Games like this one really contrast the games that are very short or have little play value, and make sure there's no excuse for such poor quality games...

Now let's mention some of the bad points about the game. For one thing, one of the biggest things that makes the game hard is the ship's movement speed. The ship oftentimes moves too slowly for anyone but a shoot-em-up fanatic to dodge, unless you get speed-up powerups first. But, of course, you lose your powerups when your ship is destroyed, which really presents a dilemma - if you're good enough to survive without your powerups, then how would you have lost them in the first place? Also, you'd better not get too many speedups, or else you'll end up going too fast and crash into something - and hitting anything, even a wall, spells instant death. This is actually one of the biggest reasons why the game is so difficult - if the enemies don't get you, the walls and obstacles will.

Other than that, there isn't much else I can say about the game, since there really isn't too much I can say about it. It's a shoot-em-up! You shoot things! You avoid things! And you collect powerups! Overall, this game is worth your time, especially if you can find a copy of it in working condition with something to play it on...

Overall Rating - B+ (If you are of the shoot-em-up fandom, you'll love this. But, of course, if you hate these types of games, you'll hate this. It all depends your tastes...)

I suggest you space out your paragraphs so that your review doesn't look like a bunch of text jumbled up together and it makes it easier to read. In other words, do 2 returns after a paragraph instead of 1.

 I found a better trick. What I do is, when you hit Enter twice to create a new paragraph, for some people (don't know about all) the extra space doesn't seem to count. I managed to get around it by hitting space on the next line then hitting Enter again.

Sorry. I did this review from my mother's Iphone on my way back home from a trip, so I honestly didn't see the problem on the phone itself. I could edit the review...but then the layout would be gone...