GD: R-Type Leo talk

[black mariah]

I'm taking a serious run at R-Type Leo. So far I can manage the first two levels without dying (an extreme rarity for me) but haven't managed to get very far in three. The odd angles of everything seem to suggest the blue weapon would be best here. Am I mistaken?

Anyone have a good strategy for attacking this game?

[TVG]

use the red laser most of the time and whore the charge pod shot like there's no tomorrow. thats it.

[BUHA]

that's what i do when i play it. i've 1cc'd it to level 5 with only playing it about 10 times total. level 4 and 5 are really fun, and the amount of bullets on screen make it feel like gradius V. it's a lot of fun, really, i just wish i wasn't in the middle of so many other games.
and the music is kinda lame, too.

[microcosm]

R-Type Leo is a very unusual shooter, in that it's actually relaxing to play. The music is in a style called "ambient", as is played in the chill-out areas of British night-clubs. More to the point, it has a very well-crafted difficulty curve: it will eat through dozens of coins if you try to credit-feed beyond your level of competence, but a proficient player will complete the game without even his heartbeat speeding up.

When you acquire a beam weapon on your second power-up, your ship still fires its standard bullet, although your force pods no longer do so. Your green and blue beam weapons will fly all over the place, while your standard forward shot moves at 16 pixels/frame (twice as fast as those beam weapons), so keep bashing the fire button.

The magenta beam weapon (red power-up) has an active targeting circle at the end, that moves forward at the same speed as your standard bullet. It's actually just a damage multiplier for your bullets.

With any of your weapons, you can have two bursts of shot on-screen at a time. You don't have to wait for the main magenta beam to fade before your next shot: you can fire twice as rapidly as that. Watch the helical beams from your force pods for an idea of how fast you can shoot.

The Japanese version imposes fixed restart points, as is customary in Japanese arcades. Not only does this ruin the ambience whenever it stops and starts the music, but it also makes the game less challenging. Dying in battle loses your beam weapons, just when you really need them -- now you have to clean up your mess, all by yourself (see above for advice). Returning to a safe(r) area gives you a load of free power-ups before you try again.

That version uses a single fire button: hold to launch your force-pods; release to retrieve them. In the World version, pressing the secondary fire button launches the force-pods; pressing it again makes them snap back. You're not expected to blunder naked into a battlefield to retrieve the pods by hand.

The speed-ups are implemented rather nicely, avoiding the nasty effects (too slow, and too fast) found in Gradius. You need five upgrades to move at full speed: for each one you're short, your speed is multiplied by 0.9.

5 speed-ups .......... full speed
4 speed-ups .......... 90% speed
3 speed-ups .......... 81% speed
2 speed-ups .......... 73% speed
1 speed-ups .......... 66% speed
0 speed-ups .......... 61% speed

[esreveR]

I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one who actually likes Leo. Even if it's not really a true R-Type style game, it plays excellently as a shmup in its own right. Thanks to microcosm for letting me know I'm not alone.

[microcosm]

esreveR:

For a similar experience, play level 7 of Parodius Da! without firing at all, just evading. It feels almost like a lullaby.

[Crayfish]

Travesty

[microcosm]

use the red laser most of the time and whore the charge pod shot like there's no tomorrow. thats it.

How would it affect the game balance if the charge pod shots had been limited to three per ship, as happens with the screen-clearing bombs in vertical shoot-em-ups?

[Shogun]

use the red laser most of the time and whore the charge pod shot like there's no tomorrow. thats it.

How would it affect the game balance if the charge pod shots had been limited to three per ship, as happens with the screen-clearing bombs in vertical shoot-em-ups?

It would change things quite a bit. Most people would probably save their pod shots for bosses they have trouble with. For me it'd be the level 4 boss. You'd end up dodging a larger number of bullets as well. I usually stay up high on the screen and fire the pod shot to take out enemies that are down low on the screen. The game would require a bit more movement to take out the enemies increasing the difficulty quite a bit. Still you can't really spam the pod shot because the recharge limits the distance it will travel.

[gameoverDude]

The difficulty curve is more gradual than the others. But when you get to stage 5, Leo does feel like a proper R-Type style game with memorization being key. Last Resort on Neo-Geo is probably a good comparison, with that game having a kamikaze pod system. Recently I've gotten a couple minutes into stage 5 on one credit.

The speed is handled better than R-Type I/II, where too many means you move TOO fast.

Just wondering, does the Japanese version also have 2-player simultaneous?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Just wondering, does the Japanese version also have 2-player simultaneous?

Both versions have 2P simultaneous. The Japanese one becomes much easier with two players as checkpoints are removed (if one person dies they simply respawn as in the World version).

It's certainly not a very traditional R-Type game, but I find it quite fun nonetheless (as long as I can implement autofire somehow, probably less enjoyable on an actual PCB without an autofire circuit...).

[DjMcDougal]

This is my next game on my list to 1cc. Furthest i've gotten is stage 4 boss with no loss. I any tips for beating this boss quickly as possible? I'm playing Rev.C btw.