Anyone else not into R-Type series?

[MathU]

Gradius is generally a far more punishing memorizer than R-Type. There is no checkpoint in any R-Type where you're doomed if you mess up once.

[saucykobold]

Gradius is much more tactical and there is way, way, way less 'gotcha' bullshit.

Some floor and ceiling tiles beg to differ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YJfLZ7t2_Q#t=0m42s

A new player will almost certainly die a lot before stumbling upon this method. The arcade Gradiuses are littered with similar sections (and worse). I think they require at least as much memorization as any Irem game.

[Mortificator]

I'll go a step further and say that only a tiny percentage of players would ever figure that out. From the moment you start a game of Gradius II, you have to hold in your head how to deal with the fortress, because if you don't get it right the first time you won't recover. A lot of sections in a lot of Gradius titles are like that. In R-Type, you can kind of work things out as you go along. You may die, but death is generally not a big deal.

R-Type 3 Third Lightning was one of the best Horizontal shmup
ever on the snes.

that was the absolute slowest game I've ever played, even for an R-Type.

Unfortunately, both of those statements are true.

[Obiwanshinobi]

If anything, R-Type's distinguishing features other than the force are: size and shape of the ship and the omnipresent "furniture", not the memorisation thing which is a rule rather than exception in shmups.

[Van_Artic]

original r-type, delta and final; i'm still playing these

[Drum]

>:(
Gradius is more punishing of errors (than anything ever), but there is still less required memorisation. I will brook no argument. >:( >:( >:(

[Obiwanshinobi]

In Gradius your ship is smaller/shorter and there seems to be more space to manoeuvre. The weapons are also different and that's it. At the end of the day you need to memorise just as much.
I wonder why people come up with the memorisation thing when they try to figure out why some shmup isn't up their alley. I for one don't really like Thunder Force series, but don't have a problem with the memorisation either. I do have a problem with the games not being fun. If I enjoyed them, I'd happily memorise them.

[Drum]

In Gradius your ship is smaller/shorter and there seems to be more space to manoeuvre. The weapons are also different and that's it. At the end of the day you need to memorise just as much.

I don't know what to say to this other than: no you don't. *shrug* In general, R-Type is just a lot stricter about what you can and cannot do and less improvisation is possible. The levels, the enemy placement ... pretty much every level is a Gradius speedster level. Only slow, obviously. I will say that Gradius' required memorisation parts are much more frustrating than R-Type's because of the one-life thing, but that's it.

[BIL]

Are R-Types really slow-paced, though? The scrolling is usually slow and most things move slowly, but does it automatically make the gameplay slow?

Play Delta on "Bydo" difficulty for score = your fucking head explode.

[ShmupSamurai]

I like R-Type, but I certainly don't love it...

Same here, yet R-Type III is the exception.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I don't know what to say to this other than: no you don't. *shrug* In general, R-Type is just a lot stricter about what you can and cannot do and less improvisation is possible. The levels, the enemy placement ... pretty much every level is a Gradius speedster level. Only slow, obviously. I will say that Gradius' required memorisation parts are much more frustrating than R-Type's because of the one-life thing, but that's it.

When you die in R-Type, do you convince yourself it's because you haven't memorised the stage? Or you actually find it difficult to memorise?
Maybe Gradius games being more spacey give you the impression of freedom, but - if you ask me - where the real options are is - roughly - the difference between the amount of stuff you CAN destroy and the amount of stuff you MUST destroy for the living (and, to a lesser extent, how much time do you need to kill a boss). In this kind of game anyway. Judged by these criteria R-Type holds up just as well I would say. Konami gives you more optional scrolling (prominent in Gradius II, V and Axelay for example), which does feel different, but works pretty similar to Irem's corridorrific design.

Play Delta on "Bydo" difficulty for score = your fucking head explode.

More like "die for score".

[NR777]

I've always wanted to like the R-Type series but I really can't. I love the enemy/environment design and I can acknowledge what the series did for the genre as a whole. The problem is that I just don't find them very fun to play. I feel the same way about the Thunderforce series.

[BIL]

More like "die for score".

Yeah. Twice. Assuming you're capable of recovering at a lucrative checkpoint without dying again and blowing the entire run. And then no-missing + no-bombing the rest of the game. Delta curtails checkpoint milking by giving no extends whatsoever.