R-Type Dimensions III

[moonblood]

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/ ... s-next-may

Part III gets the Dimensions treatment too all These years later!

I dont usually go for collector editions but that one does look rather nice a bit pricey though

[Firehawke]

The only real problem I have with this is that a lot of the special effects are going to be half-assed. Just look at how Dimensions EX handles the R-Type 2 ending for one example. Really, I'd go so far as to say that Dimensions improves R-Type 1 but really makes a mess of R-Type 2. I'm really kind of afraid of what 3 is going to end up looking like...

[pablumatic]

I'm at least a bit interested.

They're stretching the SNES game's graphics out a bit here though. I think this is also the case for the first Dimensions release but the arcade games had a wider pixel width to deal with in comparison to the 256x224 pixel grid of the original R-TYPE III.

[blazinglazers69]

What they ought to do is give this treatment to Super R-Type and fix the slowdown. That game is a legit banger as good as any classic R-Type that was sadly ruined by limited hardware. It's easy to fix with an SA-1 hack or by simply overclocking today, but most people are never gonna do all that.

[XoPachi]

The Dobkeratops statue appears to be AI generated at least partially.

[To Far Away Times]

R-Type Dimensions (the original) had a fatal flaw in that it was not a 1:1 recreation of the originals in terms of hitboxes, and that lead to some routes and strategies being non-viable. Kind of a big deal in an R-Type game. I'm sure if you're not familiar with the originals it's probably no big deal, but if you are, it's definitely annoying. Although at it's core, I liked what R-Type Dimensions was going for, it just needed to be more accurate. Maybe they'll get there with this one.

There's the famous quote from This is Spinal Tap that goes "There's a fine line between stupid and clever," and perhaps no shmup has embodied that more that R-Type III's Stage 4 lava maze. Equal parts brilliant and mind numbingly dumb, a bunch of new people are going to get to experience it in all it's glory.

What they ought to do is give this treatment to Super R-Type and fix the slowdown. That game is a legit banger as good as any classic R-Type that was sadly ruined by limited hardware. It's easy to fix with an SA-1 hack or by simply overclocking today, but most people are never gonna do all that.

The retail version of Super R-Type has two big flaws that work together to create a game killing flaw, imo. The instant start/stop speed up of the slow down jumps out right away, but it is the mixture of that plus the developers not normalizing the diagonals that truly wrecks the game. (IIRC, you move twice as fast diagonally as you do in a cardinal direction, I assume the game takes the movement speed twice for diagonals to determine speed. ). The combination of those two things compound on each other, and it makes moving your ship feel truly awful and unpredictable in Super R-Type. It's the only game in the series that I don't have a positive view on. I should probably try the SA-1 hack at some point, because I can't believe they shipped Super R-Type as is.

[blazinglazers69]

The retail version of Super R-Type has two big flaws that work together to create a game killing flaw, imo. The instant start/stop speed up of the slow down jumps out right away, but it is the mixture of that plus the developers not normalizing the diagonals that truly wrecks the game. (IIRC, you move twice as fast diagonally as you do in a cardinal direction, I assume the game takes the movement speed twice for diagonals to determine speed. ). The combination of those two things compound on each other, and it makes moving your ship feel truly awful and unpredictable in Super R-Type. It's the only game in the series that I don't have a positive view on. I should probably try the SA-1 hack at some point, because I can't believe they shipped Super R-Type as is.

Oh wow, did not know that about the diagonals. I don't know, it didn't feel TOO game breaking to me. Doesn't the first Raiden game have faster diagonals too? Almost seems like a feature vs bug issue.

[To Far Away Times]

Sometimes it's a feature, sometimes it's a bug, I think.

The games that do it intentionally usually do it in a fairly small increments to account for screen shape. When it's done right it shouldn't be too noticeable unless you're looking for it. A lot of horizontal games do it in 16:9 otherwise they can feel sluggish.

Other times, like in GoldenEye 007, where it's literally twice as fast, I think it's probably a bug. Unless Bond likes to power walk, but only when he walks at an angle.

[pegboy]

The slingshot slowdown of super rtype is way more of an issue. That and you there is no way to speed down your ship is a recipe for pain and suffering.

[Steven]

So what the hell exactly is Dimensions anyway? I know it's kind of fucked, which is why I don't play it anymore, but how was it made? It's actually like some sort of remake thing (???) and not a fancy emulator, right? This has bothered me since I learned of its existence. Amazing arranged soundtrack, though.

[To Far Away Times]

Dimensions is a recreation without any of the source code. The folks who made it ripped the sprite artwork directly from an emulator I think and then tried to recreate the game as close as possible.

It sounds both painstaking, and unlikely to yield perfect results.

But it does let them do cool stuff like switch the graphics on the fly since it’s not beholden to any of R-Type’s old code.

[Steven]

So it is a remake, then... that certainly explains it. The 2011 Sonic CD remake is largely the same way; it's a complete remake built without the original's source code, but in that case it's far more accurate than it is inaccurate. The physics are off compared to the original and there are some other oddities, but you'd have to be REALLY familiar with original Sonic CD to notice. Most people won't.

Wasn't there some other arcade game that is like Dimensions, where they had to remake the whole game without the source code with nothing but the PCB, and is equally inaccurate? I want to say it was either Saturn Gun Frontier or some version of Virtua Racing (PS2?), but I can't remember.

[Klatrymadon]

I'm sure there are plenty that are slipping my mind at the moment, but Saturn Gun Frontier is a big one, yeah. It was ported 'by eye' with no source code and is completely lacking the original game's rank system, IIRC. It's much easier as a result.

[XoPachi]

Pretty sure that was funnily enough also R-Type III when it was ported to the GBA.

[blazinglazers69]

Dimensions is a recreation without any of the source code. The folks who made it ripped the sprite artwork directly from an emulator I think and then tried to recreate the game as close as possible.

It sounds both painstaking, and unlikely to yield perfect results.

But it does let them do cool stuff like switch the graphics on the fly since it’s not beholden to any of R-Type’s old code.

Ooph that explains it. When I was learning R-Type II, I tried Dimensions EX and I remember the feel was just way off for a few minor things and just felt too wrong. It's cool as a novelty I guess to re-experience the game with the 3D graphics but I wouldn't pay more than $3-5 for it.

[OldSkoolShmuper]

I'm in.

I love Dimensions I and II.

[Jonpachi]

Dimensions is a recreation without any of the source code. The folks who made it ripped the sprite artwork directly from an emulator I think and then tried to recreate the game as close as possible.

It sounds both painstaking, and unlikely to yield perfect results.

But it does let them do cool stuff like switch the graphics on the fly since it’s not beholden to any of R-Type’s old code.

Ooph that explains it. When I was learning R-Type II, I tried Dimensions EX and I remember the feel was just way off for a few minor things and just felt too wrong. It's cool as a novelty I guess to re-experience the game with the 3D graphics but I wouldn't pay more than $3-5 for it.

+1 I see no value in this whole project. This is the videogame equivalent of Gun Van Sant's shot-by-shot remake of Psycho. Pointless.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

R-Type Dimensions (the original) had a fatal flaw in that it was not a 1:1 recreation of the originals in terms of hitboxes, and that lead to some routes and strategies being non-viable. Kind of a big deal in an R-Type game. I'm sure if you're not familiar with the originals it's probably no big deal, but if you are, it's definitely annoying. Although at it's core, I liked what R-Type Dimensions was going for, it just needed to be more accurate. Maybe they'll get there with this one.

There's the famous quote from This is Spinal Tap that goes "There's a fine line between stupid and clever," and perhaps no shmup has embodied that more that R-Type III's Stage 4 lava maze. Equal parts brilliant and mind numbingly dumb, a bunch of new people are going to get to experience it in all it's glory.

What they ought to do is give this treatment to Super R-Type and fix the slowdown. That game is a legit banger as good as any classic R-Type that was sadly ruined by limited hardware. It's easy to fix with an SA-1 hack or by simply overclocking today, but most people are never gonna do all that.

The retail version of Super R-Type has two big flaws that work together to create a game killing flaw, imo. The instant start/stop speed up of the slow down jumps out right away, but it is the mixture of that plus the developers not normalizing the diagonals that truly wrecks the game. (IIRC, you move twice as fast diagonally as you do in a cardinal direction, I assume the game takes the movement speed twice for diagonals to determine speed. ). The combination of those two things compound on each other, and it makes moving your ship feel truly awful and unpredictable in Super R-Type. It's the only game in the series that I don't have a positive view on. I should probably try the SA-1 hack at some point, because I can't believe they shipped Super R-Type as is.

Call me a pussy but the one thing that killed the game for me whenever I tried to get into it (and I tried many times) is the fact that you have to replay the entire stage when you die. What a stupid idea.

[blazinglazers69]

Call me a pussy but the one thing that killed the game for me whenever I tried to get into it (and I tried many times) is the fact that you have to replay the entire stage when you die. What a stupid idea.

That's 100% a valid criticism for Super, but for me, I've simply never tried learning to recover in any of the R-Type games. I save state practice until I'm ready for a full run, so where I die is moot. It's all or nothing. For that reason, recovery doesn't bother me to much in R-Type games because I just don't even bother.

[To Far Away Times]

I actually kind of like restarting from the beginning of the stage in Super R-Type since it should *in theory* make it easier to balance recoveries.

[Steven]

Yeah, it should theoretically be easier. Restarting the entire stage is kind of silly, but everyone knows that Irem was not especially great at designing checkpoint recovery anyway, so it would probably be a bit of a mess even if it had checkpoints.

Why the hell does Super not have checkpoints? This is one of the stranger design decisions that I have seen.

[blazinglazers69]

I actually kind of like restarting from the beginning of the stage in Super R-Type since it should *in theory* make it easier to balance recoveries.

It actually does since you technically only have to memorize 1 checkpoint per stage. Good luck doing it on stage 6 though. That shit felt impossible to me without slowdown.

[MJR]

I was trying to figure why this looks so awful.

Probably the overblown contrast that shades everything to black. First R-type dimensions had better graphics.

I was never a fan of R-Type III, not even back in the day. I acknowledge that there was lot to love about it, but the first stage always killed my excitement. It looked visually spartan and cheap, and also felt repetitive, streched out, long, and boring. Presentation was top-notch, but that doesnt carry the game alone.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Why the hell does Super not have checkpoints? This is one of the stranger design decisions that I have seen.

My theory is they wanted to make sure nobody beat the game too quickly, particulary since it was a game that was available right from the start (at least in Germany, I don't know about Japan). Yeah not exactly a revolutionary idea, I know.

[Klatrymadon]

I'm not keen on the first stage either — some neat tech-demo ideas separated by lightyears of dead air. I'd love to play a hack that did nothing but cut it out. The loop could stand to lose five mins anyway.

[Steven]

Why the hell does Super not have checkpoints? This is one of the stranger design decisions that I have seen.

My theory is they wanted to make sure nobody beat the game too quickly, particulary since it was a game that was available right from the start (at least in Germany, I don't know about Japan). Yeah not exactly a revolutionary idea, I know.

That reminds me of how Konmai supposedly made the overseas versions of games harder to prevent people from renting them and finishing them during the rental and not buying the games. It's possible that this happened here, but game rental is not legal in Japan for the most part. The only exceptions that I can think of are the Neo Geo AES and the Sega Mega Jet, and of course you could only rent the Mega Jet on JAL flights.

I don't think they would have had a reason to make the Japanese version start at the beginning of the stage too unless they were lazy and didn't want to make a separate build for overseas anti-renting purposes like Konmai liked to do.

[MJR]

Why the hell does Super not have checkpoints? This is one of the stranger design decisions that I have seen.

My theory is they wanted to make sure nobody beat the game too quickly, particulary since it was a game that was available right from the start (at least in Germany, I don't know about Japan). Yeah not exactly a revolutionary idea, I know.

It sounds dumb enough to be plausible. Although its purely speculation, I could imagine some higher up from Irem hierarchy stomping in to make stupid decision like this, and that certainly qualifies as the kind of head-slapper some manager or director could impose on the team.

I was thinking if the lack of checkpoints could have been a bug, but Nintendo had pretty strict quality control and Snes games rarely had major bugs like that ..if ever

[dai jou bu]

My two credits on this announcement:

- Disappointed they didn't market the game as R-Type III:D, or some variant of saying '3D'

- Don't really care about the graphics as long as the hitboxes are the same as the original, and they fix the crash that occasionally happens during the stage 5 boss on the original SNES release. Having to go through stage 4 all over again because of that stupid bug was never a fun experience.

Also would like higher fidelity SFX and a live metal band remix OST option as part of the quality of life improvements since the audio compression in III was pretty hardcore (probably to keep slowdown to a minimum), especially coming from the sweet, crispy audio from Super like in the example below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbudD_R ... rt_radio=1

Oh, and buff the round force damage. 'Expert pilot use' shouldn't mean 'yeah you're not going to survive the 2nd loop because nothing will die.'

[TransatlanticFoe]

Hidden away in an Instagram comment.... Switch 2 version is a game key card

[Sengoku Strider]

My theory is they wanted to make sure nobody beat the game too quickly, particulary since it was a game that was available right from the start (at least in Germany, I don't know about Japan). Yeah not exactly a revolutionary idea, I know.

It shipped July '91, 8 months after launch in Japan, same time as stuff like UN Squadron & Final Fantasy IV. But the North American SNES launch was 1 month after that, and Super R-Type shipped a month later. So that may have been where their thinking was at.