R-Type Delta: HD Boosted Review

R-Type Delta first released in 1998 for Sony’s Playstation console. It was the seventh entry in the franchise but the first one to feature 3D graphics and was overall positively received by most outlets. Fast forward to 27 years later, a new remaster is now available for current platforms. How does it hold up?

R-Type Delta: HD Boosted is a side-scrolling shoot’em up, a.k.a. shmup, where players need to survive merciless waves of enemies and their projectiles. You can choose from three different ships: R-9, R-X and R-13; each ship having their own unique firepower. As with any games of the genre, players can pick up power-ups in order for stronger firepower.

Additionally, each ship also has a unique attack when picking up one of the three (yellow, red, blue) power-ups. One of the difference between the R-Type series and other shmups is the small shield at the front of the ship. It will absorb enemy projectiles that land directly on it and you can “throw” it ahead of you to destroy enemies, but that will leave you open to damage.

Players can also charge their attack before firing a devastating attack. Also depending on the power-up equipped, the attack will change accordingly. You can pick up missiles, bouncing lasers, bigger pellets; just to name a few given they vary depending on the ship you’ve selected. There are also small balls that can be picked up that will shoot at the same time you do. As with most shmups, this is a one hit death game.

The game looks great; while still blocky given its origin. The developer did a great job applying a nice paint of HD coat and pulling off some magic trick by converting an original 4×3 game to make it full screen; nothing looks muddled or blurry. There’s decent enemy variety and boss battles are challenging, yet fair, screen filling machines. The soundtrack is decent and enjoyable. It also includes a new (optional) soundtrack recorded by Masahiko Ishida, USP sound team and Chris Hülsbeck; the latter being the original composer of R-Type for C64 and Amiga.

There’s nothing inherently wrong here. Although it does require patience, dedication and memorization. When you (re)start the game, you always start at the beginning, so if you want to see this game through, you’ll die and need to learn from your mistakes when giving it another go. The game has 7 reasonably length levels to memorize.

R-Type Delta: HD Boosted is a fun, addictive shmup. While offering a reasonable challenge, it’s not “pulling out your hair” hard. It’s overall well balanced and any death incurred are on you; this game will make you learn from your mistake. Fans of the genre will be happy to have something new to (re)visit while this game is properly balanced for newcomers wanting to jump into the genre.