Start the Giger Count: R-Type DX Returns Soon

Start the Giger Count: R-Type DX Returns Soon 

In space, no one can hear you game. 

R-Type needs no introduction at this point, right? But let’s pretend for a moment that you’re not a canny, world-wise game-loving font of knowledge, and that somehow you’ve never heard of Irem’s iconic series. Originally debuting in arcades nearly (gulp) 40 years ago, the R-Type series turned the horizontal shooter genre on its ear by introducing a whole suite of interesting innovations. Yes, it involved fighting through incredibly difficult waves of bad guys as you shuttled through narrow corridors bristling with gun emplacements and enemy ground (and ceiling) forces, and you could acquire handy power-ups like speed-ups and piercing laser attacks. Standard fare, right? But what made R-Type stand out from the rest was its undeniable sense of style. R-Type did a lot of the same things as other shooters, but it did it better, and with such flair that it soon inspired an entire subgenre of games whose entire creative brief amounted to “be just like R-Type.” 

R-Type was built different. Your fighter, the R-9, had the built-in ability to fire plasma bolts straight ahead and to charge up that attack to unleash a more powerful energy burst capable of disintegrating all but the most stubborn of foes in a single shot. But the R-9 really came into its own once you began collecting power-ups, like missiles and lasers and wide beams. What would have been standard fare in any other horizontal shooter transformed into something much cooler once touched by R-Type’s exceptional sense of style: the lasers fired at 45º angles and reflected from any neutral surfaces they struck, and the wide beam took the form of a series of rings that fired forward in serpentine coils. And then, of course, there was the Force: An all-powerful companion vessel that doubled the R-9’s attacks, invincibly blocked all incoming attacks, and could be fired forward as a blunt object or tethered to the main fighter on any side for tactical reasons.  

All of these tools reinforced the fact that R-Type was super cool, but they also played an invaluable role in combat. Because R-Type was tough. Unapologetically so. It’s the kind of game you needed to practice through long, difficult hours at the cost of many quarters. But it was worth it just to see the next crazy thing that the game would throw at you. Bizarre and slightly obscene creatures straight out of H.R. Giger’s sketchbook? Yes. A level that consisted entirely of an enemy space frigate that you needed to dismantle one engine and gun blister at a time? Check. A transforming factory fortress? You got it. R-Type demanded much of players, but it was as generous with its eye candy as it was demanding with its gameplay. 

And R-Type DX for Game Boy Color was, in a sense, an apology to Nintendo fans. See, back when the original arcade version of R-Type shipped, Nintendo manufactured and distributed the machine in the U.S.—the company’s final standalone coin-op cabinet of the ’80s! Which naturally led fans to assume that R-Type would show up soon on the NES… right? Nope! For various reasons, Nintendo fans had to sit in the cold and watch with envy as their Master System-, Amiga-, and TurboGrafx-16-owning friends enjoyed the cool cruelty of R-Type while they, the NES owners of the world, got bupkis. R-Type would appear on a Nintendo system until all the way in 1991, when the original Game Boy received a shockingly good conversion of the first game and the Super NES got Super R-Type, a sort of remixed combination port of R-Type and R-Type II. And when R-Type II showed up on Game Boy, Irem ended up canceling its U.S. release, relegating it to costly import status. Was there no justice in this universe, even for the heroic R-9? 

No. No, there was not. At least not until 1999, when Nintendo did a “my bad” and finally brought both R-Type and R-Type II, released on a Nintendo system in their entirety for the first time ever, to Game Boy Color via R-Type DX. You could be forgiving for thinking R-Type DX was the same sort of deal as Super R-Type, a rearranged version of the two games, but no! Instead, it combined the complete Game Boy releases of R-Type and R-Type II into a single double-length feature to be played in a single go. And on top of that, it also included the “DX” mode referred to in the title, which gave the whole thing a proper color facelift. Not one of those Super Game Boy-style duotone affairs where everything looked like a cheap two-tone church bulletin, but a proper full-color overhaul that restored the proper arcade color palette to the sprites and backgrounds. The good stuff, in other words. And because it shipped as a backward-compatible black cartridge rather than clear, you could play the monochrome versions on a classic Game Boy or Game Boy Pocket or Super Game Boy! Or even the Game Boy Light, you high-roller, you. 

So, R-Type DX was kind of a big deal for Nintendo fans. It played shockingly well and looked amazing, which is no small feat considering the anemic power of the Game Boy and the strenuous demands of R-Type. Sure, everything is crunched down a bit to fit the tiny screen resolution, but it’s undeniably R-Type. (And R-Type II.) Which is probably why the game sells for $100 or so these days. åThat’s a lot more than it cost new 27 years ago! And more than 27 years of inflation would account for. Video games: still the best financial investment you could make. 

If you missed your chance to put your cash in the safe harbor of R-Type DX back in 1999, well, good news: Limited Run Games and Retro-Bit Entertainment are teaming up to bring a new, authentic, Game Boy reissue of the game into the world here in the year 2026. It’s the same great R-Type DX content, but in an exclusive LRG edition. Pre-orders for R-Type DX will go live on Tuesday, September 15, starting at Noon ET.

There are literally decades of history and heritage inside this little cartridge… not to mention a dozen stages of chops-busting, hard-as-nail alien conflicts to survive. How could you not love that?