R-Type Dimensions III

[Udderdude]

Claims they're going to patch it. We'll see. https://x.com/iningames_jp/status/2057455941839110411

The development team is fully aware of the current issues and is working diligently to fix and improve them. In particular, we are prioritizing the crashing issues occurring on the Xbox version. We are currently reviewing each known issue individually and are preparing to release an update as soon as possible.

[TransatlanticFoe]

In English and away from Muskcorp:

https://iningames.com/blogs/news/r-type ... inin-games

Re-using the generic "thank you for your patience" style response they've been rolling out for Strictly Limited Games. PR clearly not their strong point - maybe don't launch the game in a total fucking state, yeah?

[Klatrymadon]

"This concludes the paid beta test. Return to your stations."

[Jonpachi]

Seems like with all the effort they put into generating all these new assets they could/should have just made a brand-new R-Type game with more success.

[SeafoamGaming]

It took them eons to fix Irem Collection 1, and they never fixed the Jajamaru RPG collection.

IMO, I get the feeling these dudes are nearly broke and are letting their company bet it all on r type and shenmue III.

Good frigging luck; spoiler alert since I am reviewing this, this is a 2/10 quality travesty. This shouldnt have been launched in this state and any reviewer giving it a 7+ or calling it great are doing a disservice to their readers.

[To Far Away Times]

Welp. Regular R-Type III is one of the most mixed games I've ever played. Equal parts brilliant and stupid (And sometimes so stupid it's brilliant [i.e. See the Stage 4 lava maze that you have to do twice]), seems like this port is of similar quality to it's source material.

[Steven]

I know I asked about this prior to release, but was it ever announced how this was made or did anyone figure out what it is? Besides bad, obviously.

The general badness of this makes me wonder if it's a remake done by simply and carelessly eyeballing it and with the option to paste the original graphics on top.

Also lol 9% positive on Steam. Wouldn't be surprised if that makes it one of the lowest-rated things on there. That itself is quite an achievement because there is A LOT of junk on Steam.

[BrianC]

Seems like with all the effort they put into generating all these new assets they could/should have just made a brand-new R-Type game with more success.

I disagree. I don't think more Success would help considering how the new Sonic Wings game turned out.

[Steven]

But Success is owned by CAVE! That means every Success game is also a CAVE game, and that automatically makes them all the best games in the genre... right???

[SeafoamGaming]

I know I asked about this prior to release, but was it ever announced how this was made or did anyone figure out what it is? Besides bad, obviously.

The general badness of this makes me wonder if it's a remake done by simply and carelessly eyeballing it and with the option to paste the original graphics on top.

Also lol 9% positive on Steam. Wouldn't be surprised if that makes it one of the lowest-rated things on there. That itself is quite an achievement because there is A LOT of junk on Steam.

it almost certainly is eyeballed recreated, it's so fucking bad the GBA version is a masterpiece. A mod that replaced the GBA ver's music with this ver's music would make that version way better than this.

And of course the SNES beats em all. Played my cart to make sure I wasn't crazy; no, they really did mess a lot up in this remake.

Anyhow the dev is one named KRITZELKRATZ 3000. ININ's used them a couple times. Nobody from the Tozai Dimensions team is back here, it's a brand new, outsourced dev, and it shows.

[lastemperorjubei]

I know I asked about this prior to release, but was it ever announced how this was made or did anyone figure out what it is? Besides bad, obviously.

The general badness of this makes me wonder if it's a remake done by simply and carelessly eyeballing it and with the option to paste the original graphics on top.

Also lol 9% positive on Steam. Wouldn't be surprised if that makes it one of the lowest-rated things on there. That itself is quite an achievement because there is A LOT of junk on Steam.

it almost certainly is eyeballed recreated, it's so fucking bad the GBA version is a masterpiece. A mod that replaced the GBA ver's music with this ver's music would make that version way better than this.

And of course the SNES beats em all. Played my cart to make sure I wasn't crazy; no, they really did mess a lot up in this remake.

Anyhow the dev is one named KRITZELKRATZ 3000. ININ's used them a couple times. Nobody from the Tozai Dimensions team is back here, it's a brand new, outsourced dev, and it shows.

I never heard of them before, first time reading their name was on reddit by another German. So I googled their webpage and according to it they were also involved with Rainbow Cotton (the new release) and X-Out Resurfaced.

[MJR]

I know I asked about this prior to release, but was it ever announced how this was made or did anyone figure out what it is? Besides bad, obviously.

The general badness of this makes me wonder if it's a remake done by simply and carelessly eyeballing it and with the option to paste the original graphics on top.

Also lol 9% positive on Steam. Wouldn't be surprised if that makes it one of the lowest-rated things on there. That itself is quite an achievement because there is A LOT of junk on Steam.

I am fairly confident that what was happened was that the developers were probably given ridiculously tight deadline and then told to "fix it later in patch". Or, they may have been hurting for money and in desperation got themselves a raw deal.

[SeafoamGaming]

I know I asked about this prior to release, but was it ever announced how this was made or did anyone figure out what it is? Besides bad, obviously.

The general badness of this makes me wonder if it's a remake done by simply and carelessly eyeballing it and with the option to paste the original graphics on top.

Also lol 9% positive on Steam. Wouldn't be surprised if that makes it one of the lowest-rated things on there. That itself is quite an achievement because there is A LOT of junk on Steam.

I am fairly confident that what was happened was that the developers were probably given ridiculously tight deadline and then told to "fix it later in patch". Or, they may have been hurting for money and in desperation got themselves a raw deal.

ININ/SLG being under the same parent company, I cant help but cynically wonder if this was turbocharged into development, pitched as a complete on cart Switch 2 game and promoted heavily as such for the sake of the limprint collector people who want gaming to be 1996 forever, then it was sped out the door to try and join mio as one of the first 16gb switch 2 cart games, since its pretty apparent SLG is bleeding money.

Except the physical got delayed right before launch, making me ponder if they even bothered placing an order at all. Oops.

[Slinky]

Physical Production Postponed Until Improvements Are Complete
https://iningames.com/blogs/news/r-type ... inin-games

Physical Production Postponed Until Improvements Are Complete

Following discussions with the community, we have also reviewed the production schedule for the physical editions of R-Type Dimensions III.

We can confirm that physical production will not begin until the identified issues have been addressed to our satisfaction. We believe this is the right decision for players and collectors alike, and it reflects our commitment to delivering the best possible version of the game on cartridge and disc.

We know how important physical preservation is to the R-Type community, and we want the physical release to represent the strongest version of the game available. Given the considerable effort invested in bringing the title to physical formats (including the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 cartridge release) we believe taking additional time now is the best path forward for everyone involved.

[Jonpachi]

Physical Production Postponed Until Improvements Are Complete
https://iningames.com/blogs/news/r-type ... inin-games

Physical Production Postponed Until Improvements Are Complete

Following discussions with the community, we have also reviewed the production schedule for the physical editions of R-Type Dimensions III.

We can confirm that physical production will not begin until the identified issues have been addressed to our satisfaction. We believe this is the right decision for players and collectors alike, and it reflects our commitment to delivering the best possible version of the game on cartridge and disc.

We know how important physical preservation is to the R-Type community, and we want the physical release to represent the strongest version of the game available. Given the considerable effort invested in bringing the title to physical formats (including the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 cartridge release) we believe taking additional time now is the best path forward for everyone involved.

This is NEVER coming out.

[hamfighterx]

This shouldnt have been launched in this state and any reviewer giving it a 7+ or calling it great are doing a disservice to their readers.

I actually find these reviews somewhat useful, since they are a reliable way of telling me that I should not trust that reviewer's STG reviews. I don't really think it's malicious, just people who don't appreciate things like the importance of port accuracy for this genre. But that's not too unusual for the genre if you look at any mainstream reviews. Just have to figure out "does this person understand shmups?", and the answer is often no (and is often surfaced by stuff like not being able to clock these kinds of big problems), but sometimes I'll get surprised and see from context that the reviewer does know what they're talking about.

And sometimes you'll get someone who really knows their stuff, and that you already know understands the genre. That's the info I actually pay attention to. Like when I see Tom Massey's name on a review, such as his R-Type Dimensions III one on Nintendolife.com

This is NEVER coming out.

But they're damn sure gonna hold onto that preorder money. Grifters gonna grift. It's the Strictly Limited Games way!

[SavagePencil]

This shouldnt have been launched in this state and any reviewer giving it a 7+ or calling it great are doing a disservice to their readers.

I actually find these reviews somewhat useful, since they are a reliable way of telling me that I should not trust that reviewer's STG reviews. I don't really think it's malicious, just people who don't appreciate things like the importance of port accuracy for this genre. But that's not too unusual for the genre if you look at any mainstream reviews. Just have to figure out "does this person understand shmups?", and the answer is often no (and is often surfaced by stuff like not being able to clock these kinds of big problems), but sometimes I'll get surprised and see from context that the reviewer does know what they're talking about.

And sometimes you'll get someone who really knows their stuff, and that you already know understands the genre. That's the info I actually pay attention to. Like when I see Tom Massey's name on a review, such as his R-Type Dimensions III one on Nintendolife.com

This is NEVER coming out.

But they're damn sure gonna hold onto that preorder money. Grifters gonna grift. It's the Strictly Limited Games way!

Even a 5 out of 10 feels overly generous in its current state.

[hamfighterx]

Even a 5 out of 10 feels overly generous in its current state.

That's fair I guess, maybe even that middling score is generous for this game. But I'm not here to debate precise review scores, just to point out that it's plainly obvious from reading Tom's review that he has a very good understanding of the genre, and he absolutely calls out serious issues very clearly and gives them appropriate attention in the review. To the point where people like most of us here will understand exactly what he's talking about and know to be wary of this game.

Honestly, also not the worst second opinion comment (by the review editor, Ollie Reynolds) in that review either, calling out that more casual players might have more fun with this release, but "purists who are intimately familiar with the original, however, should absolutely take heed of Tom's concerns". Strikes me as a pretty responsible and transparent way to call out the concerns that definitely will matter to genre enthusiasts, but that might not be that big of a deal to casuals who might remember R-Type with hazy nostalgia from the 90s.

But yeah, in contrast, I also saw some stuff like Seafoam mentioned with other reviews (can't recall which off the top of my head) being totally oblivious to the massive problems on display here. It was striking, and made me take notice if only to remind myself "well, guess I can't trust what this person says about shmups".

[TransatlanticFoe]

I'm not sure how casual players are going to be okay with completely knackered collision detection. It's not a purist thing, it's a "wait why did that kill me" thing.

[Shatterhand]

KRITZELKRATZ 3000

I just checked the Rainbow Cotton credits, it seems this studio is headed by people who are in the industry for 35+ years. The project lead and one of their programmers worked in a couple of Amiga games, with the lead being the main guy behind the shmup Tubular Worlds, which is one of the finest ones I played coming from Europe in the 90s. (The best ones were usually from Germany).

And curiously their name isn't anywhere *in* the game, it's just on the Steam page, it seems?