Reviews

R-Type DX

By Corey

R-Type DX is a strange game. This game has the potential to be really good, but it has one drawback that seems to turn players away, and for good reason. What is that reason? Well, you will have to read on.

Introduction

R-Type DX has 5 modes of play. They are: R-Type 1 in black & white, R-Type 1 in color, R-Type 2 in black & white, R-Type 2 in color, and R-Type DX (combines R-Type 1 & 2) in color. The levels are very short, but that isn't very noticeable since you will be going through the levels so many times. Why? You will die A LOT. This game is extremely hard. Once you get hit once, you die. It's that simple. But you do have infinite continues so you can keep going at it over and over again. You can save your progress in the color modes, so that helps a bit.

Graphics: 7

The graphics for R-Type DX are pretty good if you play on the color modes. For black and white though, it is harder to see certain objects, or distinguish what different enemies are. If you have a Game Boy Color, you will be playing the color modes anyway. The backrounds do add to the atmosphere of the level you are at. The enemies are colored nicely too. The one problem that brings down this score is the slowdown. When there are tons of enemies on the screen at once, you will notice some slowdown, and flickering. This flickering causes loss of visabilty of enemy bullets, and increases your chances of dieing a lot.

Game Play: 8

This is very simple. Push one button to fire, one to launch your power pod, and use the control pad to move around. This game is easy to learn, but very tough to play. After you get through the first 2 levels, the difficulty goes from "easy" to "You actually expect me to beat this level?!?!" With only one hit to death, you will need great reflexes to dodge all those bullets, flying enemies, etc. If you get to a certain point in a level, about half way though, it lets you start from that spot. If you had to start from the beginning everytime, my cart would have been thrown out the window, run over by my car, and bombed by now. After you beat each level in the color modes, it saves your game so you don't have to start from the beginning of the game everytime. Also an extreme help.

Sound: 6

Not too much here with sound. Most of the time I found myself playing one of my Metallica CDs during gameplay. Its not that the sound it bad, its just thats it seemed plain. It is a GBC game though, so I guess you can expect that.

Lasting Value: 5

When(if) you finally beat the game, there is nothing left for you to do. The games difficulty will cause you do go into cardiac arrest if you played trhough it a second time. You could go through the black and white modes, since the game is very easy in them actually, but there really isn't a reason to do so.

Bottom Line

R-Type DX could have been a much better game. It is still a good game, but the difficulty is a bit too much for some gamers. If you get frusterated too easy, slowly back away from the game before you do something you regret. If you are up to the challenge, and have been waiting for a hard game, you may find salvation with this game.

Final Score: 7 out of 10 (This is not an average)