R-Type III: The Third Lightning is distinctive in a few ways. Irem passed development off to a new team. It was the first in the series to be console exclusive, skipping arcades entirely for the Super Nintendo. These all sound like prelude to a whiff, but the third entry is considered by many fans to be the best, uplifted by dynamic set pieces and novel new weapon types. The first two were remade in 2009 as R-Type Dimensions, fans waiting 15 years for the third to follow suit. Now that it’s here, Dimensions III shimmers in many ways, but could use some deep patching up in others.
Those nasty Bydo are at it again. The slobbering space aliens are causing cosmic trouble, requiring the deployment of Arrowhead class ships to fend them back. While there’s still the gooey caverns that made the R-Type series famous, III introduced a wider variety of environments, such as junkyards and smelteries. The game also introduces new types of “Forces,” the protective weapon upgrades that can attach and be launched off your ship. It’s the first game to add these new armaments. Which you choose and how you deploy them can radically change the best way to maneuver each hostile gauntlet.
This was all true of the 1993 original. Dimensions adds two-player co-op, difficulty modes (including “Infinite Mode,” which is like playing with a GameShark on) but the most obvious upgrade is a mostly lovely visual overhaul. Developers KRITZELKRATZ 3000, who have also remastered cult SHMUPs like X-Out and Rainbow Cotton in recent years, took the sprite sheets and reinterpreted them with a ton of personality.
The rounded, plasticky, almost Jordan Speer-like visuals make it feel like you’re flying through space stations engineered by Playmates Toys. R-Type III’s design never felt arbitrary. Tight, spartan enemy placement tell their own diorama-like stories. There’s a few bi-pedal robot sentries in the third stage that seem to be waiting for one another to drop into the screen. “They’re friends,” I think to myself before blasting one into smithereens. The new presentation, music and graphics can be switched instantaneously from the Nintendo original. Doing so does not alleviate the more serious problems, though.
As nice as the new look can be, the colors of enemies, energy bullets, foreground and background elements do not contrast nearly as well as they could. I constantly retreated to the original look to navigate tight sequences. Worse yet, I constantly felt like I was being clipped by unseen space debris in both modes. Sure enough, it appears hitbox inaccuracies are one of the biggest complaints about Dimensions. Each stage brought about at least five deaths I wanted reviewed by a jury of my peers.
These are issues that can hopefully be patched out in the long run. The substantial additions are great. Rounding out the grievances would make Dimensions III worth the bullet hell. And even if they don’t, this is just kicking off R-Type Summer, as the new ports of the R-Type Tactics games are coming into range.
