So. R-Type Delta. Discuss.

[SuperNoodle]

I picked up R-Type Delta off of eBay a couple years back, but hit a stone wall on level 3. Lent it to a friend over the Christmas holidays in 2003, just got it back last week.

Oh, my goodness, this game is genius. Pure genius that I have not appreciated prior to now. Seat-of-the-pants-wet-'em-as-you-go insanity. Beautiful music, design, pacing... why couldn't R-Type Final be remotely close? (CAUTION: Opinion may not apply to all, especially those with preexisting heart conditions, or to those below THIS height)

I've improved significantly, which has allowed me to actually progress past the front leg of that walker thing. Furious play has finangled me ALMOST to the boss rush on Stage 5 with the R9, and to a stone wall on stage 6 with the RX (that part where it starts you off at the rotating tunnel bit and then the pulsating heart cruiser thing comes behind you and OHGODSOMANYBULLETSANDTINYSHIPSFROMABOVE).

A few random throw-outs to the community:

-- Anyone have any tips on using the R13? I can't finangle that thing worth a darn since it doesn't shoot any bullets from its force while detached.

-- I've also noticed it's a heck of a lot easier (but intensely less satisfying) to work with the RX due to the autoaiming force. Seems to have weaker weaponry overall, though, and recovering from a death without a force (especially stage 5) is a beast.

-- Is there a soundtrack available?

[system11]

I agree entirely. Delta is the best of the R-Types, even better than the original game. The only downside is it was made during the run-before-you-can-walk era of 3d on the Playstation - imagine how it could look and run now, if given to a decent programmer. I'm not talking more polygon details necessarily, just 60fps.

[BenT]

It runs at 60 fps, although there's a fair bit of slowdown in stage 3 and a few other places.

It really is fantastic. I want more. Sigh.

[dczx]

This was the first shmup to get me into shmups, then Einhander.
The music is fantastic. Level 2 boss is a bit too easy. The gameplay is a lot tighter than R-Type Final. Too bad it was lost. I think they might have focused too much on getting 100 ships into the game.

[Galderic]

R-type Delta is an excellent shooter and Einhänder is supreme, two of the bests shmups n the PSX

[~Kid Icarus~]

And to think I just bought this today for about £6, just for the hell of it.

*CHUFFED*

[ROBOTRON]

R-Type Delta is a top notch shmup. An Irem masterpiece.

Stage 2 underwater is an erie journey....intense.

Stage 3(?) giant walking "Empire Strikes Back" walker is the shizz. Perfect rock music to compliment the stage.

Stage 4 sweet indeed up, up, up into the mid and end bosses...the other stages are cool as well...


The whole package ROXORZ.

[Stormowl]

just to add more fuel to the fire-

yes, R-Type Delta is one of the finest horizontal shmups out there. I consider it the high point in R-Type series.

there is a fantastic soundtrack available with all the music that was meant to be included with the game. not sure where you can get it though, as it's surely out of print.

and once you get the hang of the R13, it's hard to use anything else.

[The Bullet Dodger]

Yes, Delta is the best installment in the R-Type series. All the levels, except for the first, are all really challenging. I remember it taken me almost two weeks to beat the game after I bought it. The music is superb, and fits nicely with the atmosphere (especially the final stage). And the bosses are well designed, even for the 'run-before-you-can-walk' era of 3D, as Bloodflowers previously stated. The only 3D PSX shmups that came close in terms of effort were 'G. Darius' and 'Einhander'. It is Irem's masterpiece indeed.

5 out of 5 stars. 2 sore thumbs up!

[Icarus]

Delta is ace, far better than Final.

To use the R-13 you have to make full use of the grabbing function of the Anchor Force. This also has the added effect of boosting your score vis-a-vis Dose Bonuses. It leaves you armed with the very weedy homing Lightning Wave Cannon though.

If you do insist on using the R-13, DO NOT use Search-BETA (the blue powerup) as it's awful. Terminate-GAMMA (yellow powerup) is only really good at pointblank range. Shade-ALPHA (red powerup) is the best weapon to use, and is second only to the R-X's Sting Ray in power.

Personally, I prefer the R-X. High power lasers, homing function on the detached Force Device, and very powerful Wave Cannons.

Just wait till you see the final stage. Amazing.

[Edge]

R-Type Delta is indeed a great game, the best R-Type game, in my opinion. Very close is R-Type 1

Stage 4 is my favorite in the game. I like the soundtrack very much too. The best BGM is in the final stage, really AWESOME. The whole atmosphere in the final stage is really unusual but I like it. If you don't find the soundtrack, there is a tool called psmplay that allows you to open the PSX Audio files. That way you can listen or extract the very enjoyable BGMs of this game.

I think Einhänder is a very good shmup. I have often read about people complaining about the gameplay. I think this game can fairly compare with the elite of this kind of games (not quite as good though).

For R-Type Final, I have only tested this game for a hour or so, but it really dissappointed me. But the best horizontal shmup for me is Gradius V. This game is really A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

[Ghegs]

R-X forever, yo.

I didn't quite clear this beast, I got as far as Stage 6 on a credit, midway or so through the tunnel. I did credit-feed past that point once and found Stage 7 to be a lot easier.

Man, now I want to play this again.

-->

[Marc]

In a word, HARD. The R-Type's have always been my thang, but this kicks my ass on a regular basis. As Bloodflowers mentioned, would be lovely to see an enhanced or cleaned-up version of this, one game where the available technology didn't really do the design full justice.

[icycalm]

I bought it just a few days ago for the bargain price of 2,400 yen. Haven't played it yet so I will refrain from posting until I've done so.

I am even thinking of going back and replaying some of the previous R-Types just to get in the mood.

[dai jou bu]

I realized how cheap the R-13 was after finding out that spamming your beam makes the game fairly easy. The beam attack is the weakest of the three ships, but it's the most efficient in taking out most of your targets and you just anchor anything else that doesn't die as easily to your beam attacks.

The most annoying part of the entire game was trying to finish the last boss with the R-9 Delta. On Hard. You need to constantly change your speed and hope that none of those annoying sperm things kill you.

[chimpp]

I am at a dilemma. I want to play R-Type Final because I have unlocked all ships and would love nothing more than to spend countless hours piloting these quirky ships. However, I find myself comparing it to Delta in that the level design in Final is so simple...nowhere near the complexity, depth, and pacing of Delta. Why can't they tack on the levels from Delta into Final? Better yet, why can't the developers just add all the same levels from the prequels into any game sequel? (Most likely, the resale value for the prequels would go way down if they did this anyway)

The only levels that ARE worth mentioning in Final is the blue wireframe level (6.2) and the worm level with the original r-type level 2 boss (6.0)...sad thing is, you can't even play both levels in the same game. But level F-C is a very interesting level, too, being a 15-minute sudden-death level.

But Delta is truly a masterpiece. I even think that the graphics look more appealing and artistic in Delta than in Final.

[BUHA]

I can't really say much other than what everybody else said, but I think R-Type Delta is the best PSX shooter and one of the best ever. On par with the great R-Type III.

I have absolutely no complaints with this game. That is really rare for me.