Developed and published by Irem in 1989

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Video Notes: tool-assisted (save-states, input recording), no cheats were used - you will see that I lose as life at 41:10)

Following the success of the original R-Type, Irem went back to work and busied themselves in the creation of a sequel that they hoped would be bigger, better and more exhilarating than it's predecessor. R-Type II was released into arcades in 1989 and is certainly my favourite game in the series thanks to better graphics, a bigger selection of weapons and even more intense shooting action.

The events of this sequel take place after your exploits in the original game. Despite giving the forces of the Bydo empire a good kicking, the slimy xenomorphs are back and out for revenge. As one of Earth's finest fighter pilots, there's no peace for the wicked as you must clamber back into the cockpit and show those aliens whose boss a second time.

Fans of the original game will be right at home with this sequel since it the mechanics are very similar. The objective of the game is to survive six levels of intense action as you battle it out with wave after wave of hostile ships and all manner of bio-mechanical nasties.

The game's power-up system remains largely unchanged, except there is a bigger range of weapons and power-ups to collect. The Force armour system from the original game remains, bestowing the player's ship with a large thermo-nuclear powered barrier that acts both a shield against incoming fire, as well as a projectile that can be launched fore or aft of the ship to deal with encroaching hostiles.

Tapping the fire button shoots a small laser blast from your ship's cannons, whilst holding it down charges the "Beam" meter at the bottom of the screen, allowing for a stronger, more potent blast of energy to be fired. New to the sequel is the overcharge, an attack where the player can charge their beam weapon even further by continuing to keep the button pressed. Releasing the button once the bar has turned orange and flashes will unleash a devastating energy wave capable of destroying most smaller enemies in a single hit, as well as doing significant damage to heavier craft and bosses. The charge up time for this attack is significant and the window of opportunity to use it small, so using lower powered but more frequent attacks can often be more effective than waiting for the overcharge to fill up.

My childhood experience with the game was based on the conversion for the Commodore Amiga computer, which I thought was a really good port. However, I'd never actually played the arcade version and, as a result, failed to appreciate just how spectacularly brutal the game's difficulty can be. The opening level starts out reasonably enough, but the game is merely luring you into a false sense of security before it decides to give your puny, human reactions a thorough workout.

The real kick in the teeth comes when you (inevitably) lose a life. Not only does the game send you back to a much earlier point in the level, but it robs you of all bonus weapons and ship power-ups. You are then forced to fight through the same waves of enemies again, albeit considerably under-powered this time around. Your only hope is that you survive long enough in order to grab a few upgrades to give you a chance of surviving.

To succeed at R-Type II requires many, many hours of patience and practice to learn each of the game's stages, enemy types and movement patterns. Hostiles can appear from all directions, including from behind, so you have know exactly when and where to position yourself in order to be able to deal with the next threat. Sometimes dealing with specific boss can be quite easy, provided you know the sweet spots to stay in so as to avoid oncoming fire and not get hit.

Should you manage to defeat all six levels, you will then gain access to the "Bonus Game". This amounts to playing the game through a second time, although this time the enemies are even faster and more deadly than before. I really wouldn't recommend trying to beat this unless the machine is set to free-play...

R-Type II is still one of my favourite shooters from the era of classic arcade shooters, despite the bone-crushing difficulty. The game features some excellent graphics and artwork, with many of the enemy designs featuring strange fusions of flesh and metal that can often look like they've come out of some tentacle-laden Manga horror. There aren't many games where you're required to shoot a giant, pulsating alien embryonic fetus to save the day - something that only helps to cement itself as a true "shmup" classic.
#retrogaming

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