An overview trailer for Star Fox 64's remake, simply titled Star Fox, has entered YouTube airspace. With it is essentially a bunch of regurgitated information from last month's Star Fox-themed Nintendo Direct of the game, though some new information in the form of multiplayer items is included. Star Fox takes flight on the Nintendo Switch 2 later this month on June 25th, 2026.
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Star Fox (NS2) Overview Trailer
Monday, June 1, 2026
Review Round-Up - May 2026
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| MEGA MAY brought Mega Man mania to SuperPhillip Central this past month, including such gems like Mega Man Legends and Mega Man: Powered Up. |
It was a Mega Man-themed month, but we also slipped in and tackled some indie treats, too. That spoken of Mega Man theme started our month with two titles featuring the Blue Bomber, both on the original PlayStation--though one in 3D and one in 2D. Those were Mega Man Legends and Mega Man X5, earning a B- and C+ respectively.
From there, we took a brief detour from the Blue Bomber to Decline's Drops, punching and platforming its way to a wonderful B+ grade, before revving our engines and turning to Mega Man: Battle & Chase (B-).
Two more indie and indie-adjacent titles entered into the month, one falling short of true excellence with Elementallis (B-) and one that simply fell short in general with R-Type Dimensions III (C-).
Last but certainly not least, I did what was essentially a retake of my very first review ever with a look at the charming and magnificent Mega Man: Powered Up, powering up to an A-, serving as this month's best grade given. Rounding the month out was Rockman & Forte, an import review, and this extremely difficult Mega Man game earned a C.
More reviews are planned for the month ahead, as well as lots of trailers from all the big names in gaming, so stay tuned to SuperPhillip Central. It's going to be a busy month. In the meantime, check out the SPC Review Archive for every review ever posted on this site. Have a wonderful June ahead, all!
Despite its growing pains, especially when it concerns the camera, targeting, and somewhat stiff movement, Mega Man Legends serves and served as a successful first 3D outing for the Blue Bomber. The amount of charm within the cast of characters, Kattelox Island and its inhabitants, and game in general is off the charts. I'm still amazed by how emotive characters were for a game released in 1997. If you can deal with some occasional jank, some periodic clunkiness, and some frustrations every now and then, you'll get great and charming action-adventure game featuring Capcom's famous super fighting robot.
On its own, Mega Man X5 is another X-cellent entry in the series, and the last entry in the series until X8 that was of a high quality, in this fan of the Blue Bomber's opinion. Of course, it's difficult to ignore X5's predecessors and review the game in a vacuum. With the sub-series' past as a point of context, Mega Man X5 did let me down back when and somewhat does now. As time has gone by and gone on, I've come to appreciate Mega Man X5 more, flaws and all. It may be a bit of a step down from past entries, but it also can stand on its own two feet as an enjoyable game all the same.
Decline's Drops (PC, NSW, XBS) - B+
This mishmash of Super Smash Bros. gameplay and Yoshi's Island-like level design is one that I certainly enjoyed and can see myself coming back to in the future. Minor aggravations and gripes did pop up, and the difficulty of the game may be off-putting for many not used to Smash Bros. and its particular style of melee gameplay (and heck, even for those who ARE used to it). Overall, though, if you can dig a gorgeous hand-drawn 2D platformer with plenty of personality, charm, and character, as well as lots of action and platforming goodness to adore, then definitely "drop" what you're doing to take on the drop of a different variety with Decline's Drops.
Mega Man: Battle & Chase (PS1) - B-
Battle & Chase is brimming with charm, is a unique and more importantly, fun take on the mascot racing game, and I'm sure if more people got to play it, they'd find a lot to like about the game, too.
[Elementallis] doesn't reach anywhere near the same highs of the Zelda series it's inspired by, but it does bring some new ideas to the table. While I would have liked less chatty interruptions in the game, more required elemental interactions, and a greater use for these elements for solving puzzles instead of the same rote solutions, I did like exploring the overworld for secrets, how organic exploration in general was, and the simple visual charm of the game. Elementallis may not have absolutely floored me in its 15-20 hour adventure, but it did impress all the same.
R-Type Dimensions III (Multi) - C-
It's hard to recommend playing R-Type Dimensions III over the original, especially if you're a purist or diehard fan of the 1993 SNES classic because of these oversights. They make the game much more challenging and pretty much to an oftentimes unfair degree. Those new to the series or game might not mind these issues as much, but the game will essentially curb stomp these players unbeknownst to its dastardly, dire difficulty. The added bells and whistles like switching between 2D and 3D mode, Infinite Mode, and the two-player co-op mode--to name a few--are great additions, but are they worth suffering through a flawed, botched R-Type III remake over the original? Unfortunately, the answer is an emphatic "no".
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP) - A-
All of the additions, from the lovely art style, voiced characters, stellar presentation, awesome remixed tunes, to the gameplay inclusions like playable Robot Masters, new areas and alternate paths in familiar stages, and the superb stage creator, prove that you can teach an old robot new tricks. And you can do so in a mega magnificent way, as Mega Man: Powered Up does. The level of difficulty might be off-putting to a fair amount of players, but for me, I absolutely adored nearly everything about this re-imagined remake.
Rockman & Forte [Mega Man & Bass] (SFC) - C
...overall, Rockman & Forte has the bones of a good game. It's sizable level of extreme difficulty will put off most players, and heck, even many tried and true fans of the Blue Bomber. There's a lot to like here, but then the game proceeds to punish you for playing it. Rockman & Forte is a game I entered wanting to love, and did actually love starting out, but then I ended up with only really tolerating it by the time I rolled credits.
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It was a race to save the planet from imminent destruction in Mega Man X5 |
Sunday, May 31, 2026
Rockman & Forte [Mega Man & Bass] (SFC) Retro Review
While I don't foresee us ending our time with the Blue Bomber until the
next time MEGA MAY rolls around in 2027, we'll be taking a brief break from
Capcom's super fighting robot for a little bit, at the very least.
Let's wrap up MEGA MAY with a special review--an import-only game from the Super Famicom is our review subject: Rockman & Forte. Mega Man and Bass see themselves as a pair of playable characters in this super-late Super Famicom release, which would eventually make its way westward on the Game Boy Advance years later. Maybe we'll check out the GBA port another day! For now, here's the SPC review of Rockman & Forte!
Am I all about that Mega Man & Bass?
Originally, Rockman & Forte (translated to Mega Man & Bass) skipped the West entirely and only released in Japan. The game was a late life Super Famicom game, releasing in 1998, pretty much two years after the Nintendo 64 launched. Thus, Capcom saw no real reason to release it in the West. We wouldn't see the game on our shores until much later on the Game Boy Advance with a localized version of the game. Although the lack of screen real estate made an already extremely difficult game even harder.
Lovingly given the moniker "Mega Man 8.5" by fans due to it being a stopgap between the previously released Mega Man 8 and Mega Man 9 (also using a similar visual style, as well as including two Robot Masters from the former), Rockman & Forte puts players in control of either Mega Man or Bass. Each plays differently to the other, possessing advantages and disadvantages to each other as well.
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| Familiar foes, gimmicks, and visuals alike appear in Mega Man 8.5--I mean, Rockman & Forte! |
For instance, Mega Man can charge up his Mega Buster to unleash a charge shot, great for dealing more damage to enemies. Bass, however, has a machine gun-like spray of bullets that he fires. These are notably weaker, and cannot go through walls like Mega Man's Mega Buster's shots can. Though Bass can fire upwards and diagonally, something Mega Man's shots cannot do.
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| Bass has already won, as he has the high ground. |
Mobility-wise is where Mega Man and Bass differ on a significant level as well. Bass can double jump, which makes his campaign a little easier at least when getting around stages. Mega Man has a single jump, which means you really need to jump with precision and look before you leap.
One reason it's best to play with carefulness and caution is because Rockman & Forte is not an easy entry in the series. Heck, Mega Man as a franchise is no cakewalk in general, being tough on its best days. However, Rockman & Forte takes the difficulty dial and cranks it all the way up to extreme levels. Deaths were quite common in my playthrough, whether that be from taking too much damage or more often than not, coming into contact with a bottomless pit or instant-death spikes.
Even the opening stage, something that usually is pretty breezy in most Mega Man games containing them, almost feels like the designers expect you to be a seasoned Mega Man player. Enemies that can hit you into instant-death lava, spike traps, and let's not forget to mention the wind in the final section that blows against you as you make death-defying leaps over a bottomless pit as enemies fire at you. It's rather ridiculous for an opening stage and makes a daunting first impression.
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| The Green Devil feels like a nice respite after that killer of an introductory stage! |
An aspect that makes Rockman & Forte so challenging is that you take great amounts of damage from enemies, and especially the Robot Master bosses. I was amazed by just how much enemies, their bullets, and attacks hit both Mega Man and Bass like trucks. Sometimes all it took was five or six hits from full health to end up being eliminated in battle.
Fortunately, there are some ways to mitigate the punishment Rockman & Forte unleashes on its players. Auto's shop is home to various power-up parts and items like extra lives that can be purchased with bolts collected in stages. These parts range from one that doubles the amount of health recovery, one that lowers the amount of weapon energy used, one that halves damage, and one that allows you to exit previously cleared stages. Though, so many of these--especially the latter two--feel like they should be the default to begin with and available from the get-go instead of being required to buy them. Just more proof that Rockman & Forte is punishing to the player.
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| While Bass can't shoot through walls without a special part, this enemy is a sitting duck for Mega Man as he pelts it from the safety of this ladder. |
Furthermore, Rockman & Forte follows Mega Man 8's example by not having E-Tanks whatsoever, something that past Mega Man games aside from the very first NES original possessed. While Mega Man 8 was definitely manageable without E-Tanks, here it seems like an absolute joke (and an unfunny one at that) that they're not included. Again, it's way too easy to die in Rockman & Forte, between how much damage Mega Man and Bass take with default equipment and the numerous perils and hazards in stages.
After the surprisingly challenging opening stage is complete, the screen containing the eight Robot Masters becomes available. However, Rockman & Forte starts you off with only three to choose from. Conquering one of the stages unlocks up to three more stages that branch off from the Robot Master you beat. It's a clever arrangement and one I'm surprised no future Mega Man game incorporated.
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| Defeating Bass? S'No, man, I don't think so. |
The stages themselves are overall well designed. There's the underwater sunken ship of Pirate Man's, where later in the level you enter into various bubbles, controlling them as they float upwards as you avoid spiked mines and other obstacles that want to burst your bubble. There's Burner Man's jungle stage, where upon entering the indoor base, you encounter fake floors that can send you falling a level below if you're not observant enough. Then, there's Magic Man's stage, similar to Mega Man 8's Clown Man, full of toy trains that carry you across the tracks (and bottomless pits) to your destination.
One of the really enjoyable and entertaining parts of Rockman & Forte is how you're encouraged to replay stages. Throughout levels are collectible discs scattered about, some out in the open, but most are hidden or require some prodigious platforming to collect. A lot require the special weapons earned from defeated Robot Masters, like pushing Cold Man's pillar of ice across a bed of spikes while using it as a makeshift sliding platform. Of course, some are also only accessible to Mega Man with his slide ability, while others are only available to collect by Bass with his double jump or ability to temporarily fly with Treble a la Rush Jet. Either way, collecting these was fun as they encouraged exploration, seeking out secret areas, and more importantly, each disc collected gets added to an in-game database housing information about various Mega Man characters and Robot Masters. There are 100 discs to discover in all, so this adds to Rockman & Forte's replay value.
Of course, your level of longevity with Rockman & Forte will last as long as your patience stays intact. This can be an overwhelmingly frustrating game with its extreme difficulty, and nothing speaks to that more than the final trio of stages once the initial eight Robot Masters are routed.
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| Mega Man 8 Robot Masters Astro Man and Tengu Man return to exact their revenge in Rockman & Forte. |
These stages take place in King's Palace. King is the primary villain of the game, on a crusade to "rescue" robots, including the eight Robot Masters he stole from the introductory robot museum stage to serve as his faithful subjects. Needless to say, these stages ramp up the difficulty to insane levels. The main reason for this is again, dying is way too easy. The second of three stages is practically three levels in one, and losing against the first battle with King results in getting kicked back all the way to the start of the section of stage and not directly before the battle, y'know, like pretty much every other Mega Man game in existence would handle it.
Yes, checkpoints are few, and when you lose all your lives (do note how I didn't say "if"), you have to start all the way back from square one, the very first King's Palace level. It's a horrendous endurance run with some super tough, incredibly easy-to-die boss battles and plentiful instant death traps sprinkled throughout.
Rockman & Forte might not welcome with its extreme level of difficulty, but it definitely does with its presentation, offering gorgeous sprite-work reminiscent, of course, of Mega Man 8. Character sprites and level environments are insanely detailed, looking absolutely incredible with rich, vivid, and varied colors. It's not a perfect package, as the frame-rate can certainly hitch when a lot of enemies and bullets appear on screen at once. This is most apparent when playing as Bass with his showering spray of bullets. Musically, Rockman & Forte features a superb soundtrack with memorable, sublime, and catchy songs that present themselves as real earworms. I absolutely enjoyed hearing the themes within the game.
For the longest time, Rockman & Forte was my white whale when it came to the Mega Man series. It was one entry that I simply could not beat--albeit that was with the Game Boy Advance port. Finally, yes, finally, I managed to roll credits with this Super Famicom original version. Now, whether that was worth the decades-long struggle is something I'll have to wrestle with for a while here, but overall, Rockman & Forte has the bones of a good game. It's sizable level of extreme difficulty will put off most players, and heck, even many tried and true fans of the Blue Bomber. There's a lot to like here, but then the game proceeds to punish you for playing it. Rockman & Forte is a game I entered wanting to love, and did actually love starting out, but then I ended up with only really tolerating it by the time I rolled credits.
[SPC Says: C]
Friday, May 29, 2026
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP) Retro Review (2026)
It's time for something a little extra special as we approach the end of MEGA MAY.
While Mega Man: Powered Up is a remake of the very first Mega Man game, this review is essentially a remake of the very first review I ever wrote. This was before SuperPhillip Central even came to be back in June 2008! And while I only published my original Mega Man: Powered Up review on SPC in 2009, the review itself is indeed older than the site, debuting around 2006 or so!
Here's the old review as posted on SPC in all its "glory" (for lack of a better term)! We all have to start somewhere, and I'd like to think I've become a better writer and moreover a reviewer since then.
That all notwithstanding, I wanted to revisit one of my favorite Mega Man games, and in turn, that found me revisiting my reviewing past. All the same, here's my 2026 review of Mega Man: Powered Up!
Powered Up, and ready to Rock.
It was at one time where in every direction you looked, boom! There was a Mega Man game in sight. We didn't know how good we had it, really, as nowadays, Mega Man releases are limited to the sporadic retro collections and the even rarer brand-new release. One Mega Man game that hasn't been included in such a retro collection is one that definitely has fallen through the cracks over the years: Mega Man: Powered Up, a PlayStation Portable release.
Mega Man: Powered Up is a remake and somewhat of a re-imagining of the original Mega Man. The most apparent difference is the chibi aesthetic applied to the game, but there is a lot more added to this spirited remake. In fact, there is SO much more to it.
Right away, upon starting the game and a save file, you get the choice between three difficulties: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Easy provides additional makeshift platforms to allow the more challenging jumps in the game to be less stressful and difficult. Normal is the default difficulty, of course, and how someone who isn't a beginner with the Blue Bomber should enter the game. Finally, Hard Mode adds to an already challenging game by boosting the damage Mega Man takes from enemies and hazards.
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| See how a boy became a Mega Man in Powered Up's brand-new opening stage. |
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| Levels feel more compact due to the PSP, but they're just as enjoyable. |
From there, the traditional Mega Man way reveals itself. That is, you select between one of eight Robot Master stages to begin with. Each stage houses its own theming, locale, challenges, hazards, enemies, and of course, at the end of a given stage, the Robot Master you must do battle with in a boss fight. Due to the wider real estate of the PSP screen, as well as the larger character models incorporated into Powered Up versus the NES original, stages are more compact and scrunched in appearance. They're still designed similarly across both games, but visually they're a little different due to the above reason.
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| Special effects like these cute explosions add to Powered Up's chibi-style charm. |
The original Mega Man only included six Robot Masters before the standard eight would be featured in future installments. Mega Man: Powered Up adds two brand-new Robot Masters into the fray: Time Man and Oil Man, each with their own stages. Whereas Time Man's stage takes place in a clock tower with electric pendulums to avoid, as well as the possibility to frustratingly fall to a previous level of the stage, Oil Man's stage occurs in an oil refinery, complete with slippery puddles of oil that will send Mega Man falling on his butt if he's not careful.
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| Oil Man and Time Man are the new Robot Masters on the block, and their stages are just as wonderfully designed as the original Robot Master stages. |
The Robot Master battles that occur at the end of each of the eight initial stages are more complex than the NES original. Each battle plays out similarly at the start to the battles seen in the original Mega Man, but as a Robot Master's health enters low territory, a new move will be added to their arsenal. From Cut Man throwing a massive boomerang, to Bomb Man chucking a big bomb with a large, explosive radius to it, these moves add some fun, albeit dangerous curve balls to those who think they know the OG Mega Man like the back of their hand.
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| Cut Man's living on borrowed time, so his desperation attack cuts to the chase! |
Furthermore, and one of the coolest additions to Mega Man: Powered Up among a host of many awesome additions, is the ability to play as all eight Robot Masters, each with their own unique abilities. Bomb Man tosses bouncing bombs, Fire Man launches pillars of flames, Ice Man lets loose freezing chunks of ice at foes, etc. These Robot Masters become playable if you defeat them as Mega Man with his Mega Buster only instead of any special weapon.
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| Playable Robot Masters like Bomb Man? It's an absolute blast! |
Yes, true to the series's penchant, defeated Robot Masters give Mega Man their primary special weapon. For instance, Guts Man's Guts Arm allows Mega Man to lift up certain blocks and chuck them away at baddies. These can be cycled through with the PSP's shoulder buttons or selected from the pause menu, in case you'd rather take a breather and select a weapon when you're not inundated with enemy attacks.
Also, true to the series's penchant, there's generally a recommended order for taking on the Robot Masters due to all of them being weak to a given other Robot Master's special weapon. Whereas Cut Man's Rolling Cutter slices through Bomb Man's bombs (and Bomb Man himself) with ease, Ice Man is no match for and gets quite the shock from Elec Man's Thunder Beam. Though, I found the order to fight the Robot Masters initially didn't matter since I wanted to unlock each Robot Master as a playable character. Thus, I took each on with Mega Man's Mega Buster exclusively. You can imagine how much of a challenge this could be, however!
The playable Robot Masters each have their own version of the game's story to play through with different voiced dialogue as they meet each other Robot Master in their stage, which was something I did not expect but was positively surprised by. Furthermore, the stages in general have all-new areas and alternate paths that only specific Robot Masters can reach.
Not only that, but unlike the original Mega Man, where once you beat a stage, you couldn't return to it, Mega Man: Powered Up's stages encourage you to replay them with obtained special weapons and Robot Masters due to the fact that they contain brand-new items in them called construction kits. These come in pink and yellow forms (enemy and scenery packs, respectively), and these unlock new customization and construction options in Powered Up's coolest feature: the stage creator.
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| Construction kits are housed and hidden in all manner of locations in levels, encouraging replays. |
Yes, with packs earned throughout Mega Man and his friends' adventures, you can create your own stages within Powered Up. It all starts with choosing a specific enemy pack and scenery pack and then letting your imagination take over. The included tutorial is a great help, and the tools to design your own stage are really intuitive, too, and easy to use. You can even select which character or characters you can play as, which Robot Master awaits at the end of your custom stage, include how much health your playable character starts with at the beginning of the stage, what special weapons they have to utilize, and of course, you can give your stage a name. At the time of release you could even share your stages online and play others', which was a mighty cool aspect of the game.
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| Make your own masterpieces come to life in Mega Man: Powered Up's in-depth stage creator. |
Mega Man: Powered Up is an immensely meaty Mega Man game. With the dozen or so replayable stages to play and beat on all three difficulties, including as each Robot Master (and the game keeps track of this for completionists out there), the in-depth mega-cool stage creator, a slew of special challenges focusing on different special weapons and abilities, and a multitude of unlockables, Mega Man: Powered Up will keep you playing for a looong time.
It's also a dang difficult game. Despite taking a lot of influence and inspiration from later Mega Man games, what Mega Man: Powered Up does not give the player is that of E-Tanks. Those wouldn't be introduced until Mega Man 2. These health-restoring tanks made a lot of future Mega Man games more manageable, but in Powered Up, they're not present at all. Thus, while you do have an inviting, cutesy chibi anime aesthetic with Mega Man: Powered Up, the difficulty of the game couldn't be any less welcoming comparatively to the art style!
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| Mega Man: Powered Up is positively flooded with chibi-style charm! |
That said, the challenge is always fair. Sure, sometimes you'll be thrown for a loop and a given stage or boss might present a "gotcha" moment to you, but through determination, perseverance, patience, and little bit of rote memorization, too, you'll find a way to overcome the myriad challenges and obstacles thrown in your path.
All of the additions, from the lovely art style, voiced characters, stellar presentation, awesome remixed tunes, to the gameplay inclusions like playable Robot Masters, new areas and alternate paths in familiar stages, and the superb stage creator, prove that you can teach an old robot new tricks. And you can do so in a mega magnificent way, as Mega Man: Powered Up does. The level of difficulty might be off-putting to a fair amount of players, but for me, I absolutely adored nearly everything about this re-imagined remake. It's a damn shame the game was not a success for Capcom, as I would have definitely loved to see later installments get the remade Powered Up treatment.
[SPC Says: A-]
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
R-Type Dimensions III (Multi) Review
All month long we've been looking back and celebrating Capcom's Blue Bomber with MEGA MAY. Let's interrupt this themed month for a little longer to look back at another classic franchise, albeit a shoot-em-up series: R-Type! This review of the recently released R-Type Dimensions III is based off the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, and here is the SPC verdict.
Lightning strikes thrice
The original R-Type III was a game that was quite frankly, super punishing in its difficulty, but offered rewards for the players who overcame its challenges and learned to persevere over the game. Now, over three decades since its original release, R-Type III is back with new bells, whistles, and improvements but also some unfortunate major downgrades as well with R-Type Dimensions III.
Let's start with a quick (and I do mean, quick) history lesson. R-Type III: The Third Lightning originally released in 1993 on the Super Nintendo being the first R-Type series installment to not release in arcades. It boasted Mode 7 effects such as the ability to grow and shrink its individual sprites to impressive effect, for one. Unlike past entries which were made by Irem, it was developed by Tamtex.
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| My "pew pews" with my lasers go "pow pow" on the targets they hit. |
R-Type Dimensions III takes the original R-Type III: The Third Lightning game and applies myriad configurable options and amenities to it, such as the ability to customize the controls to your liking (for the most part), as well as freely switch between the original 2D visuals and the all-new 3D mode with a touch of a button. Both graphical modes allow the optional application of scanlines as well.
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| Seamlessly (well, with a little slowdown here and there) switch between 2D and 3D graphical modes with a button press. |
The visuals of 3D mode are really cool to look at. You have specific segments where the camera can move dynamically to tilt the perspective in an awesome way. Other than that, everything is impressively detailed, from the enemies, whether they be piloted crafts or organic alien nightmares, to the background and foreground geometry. The music has received polish too in 3D mode, offering real instruments as opposed to soundfonts, and it really brings new life to the original's already impeccable, impressive soundtrack.
Another added inclusion is that of a local two-player co-op mode. The original R-Type III had two players able to play, but upon one player's death, it simply switched to the progress of the other player's run. The time around, actual co-op is present, affording two players to pilot their respective ships on the same screen at once. This is a really nifty addition!
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| Overwhelming odds? Well, two can literally play this game! |
Starting off a run in R-Type Dimensions III, you get a choice between three Forces. These bestow your ship with a miniature ship of sorts that grants unique abilities and weaponry. This additional arsenal of firepower can be independently deployed or attached to your ship, which brings some added strategy to the game--of what to pick up and where to place it. There are sections of stages more suitable for deploying while others are better for having your Force attached to your ship. Depending on your particular play style or how you want to initiate and take on a given run, the choice of your starting Force is important to factor in. Each selectable starting Force has its own advantages/disadvantages, pros/cons, benefits/weaknesses to the battles at hand, which is a cool, albeit expected touch.
The original R-Type III wasn't a game you just played through casually and expected to reach its end without any friction. No, this is "Friction: The Game" in top tier form. It's a game that demands your dedication to it, but one of the greatest rewards for an R-Type player is mastering a given stage--perhaps even going for that coveted no-death run.
Deaths aren't optional for beginners, and heck, even advanced players used to the R-Type series. It's expected. It's mandatory. It's a constant influx of ship explosions, whether from stray bullets, to walls closing in and crushing your ship on the fly. Memorization is key, and even then, you have to properly execute what is expected of you to survive. This is indeed an incredibly challenging, difficult game.
The stages themselves are designed in a masochistic way that losing lots of lives is quite easy to do, unlike everything else in R-Type. Even from the first stage, you pilot your way through the starting openness of space with modest amounts of space debris flying at you, but soon find yourself entering a claustrophobic series of walls that close in, shift about, and even at one point spin while requiring you to move out of harm's way in the process.
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| From open space shenanigans to inner alien action, R-Type Dimensions III takes you all over. |
Fortunately, the added Infinite Mode alleviates some (but nowhere near all) of the aggravation. Instead of Classic Mode's limited assortment of lives and spawning you back at the last checkpoint, Infinite Mode--as true to its name--grants infinite lives and also respawns you directly back into the action from your current location. Sure, this also means that you can respawn immediately back into harm's way, losing yet another ship in the process, but it's a minor inconvenience for the power of unlimited lives.
That said, it would have been a nice touch to include some kind of rewind capability for at least Infinite Mode. As deaths result in your ship leveling down to its original under-powered, woefully weak state, it makes for an agonizing playthrough, especially when you're perishing every 5-10 seconds like this R-Type "pro" did (read: I absolutely, positively sucked at this game).
As a shoot-em-up, R-Type Dimensions III is as nice as they get, at least control-wise. Threading the needle through enemy ships, bullets, and hazards feels pleasant and precise. You're not going to die because the controls weren't responsive, that much is for certain.
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| Infinite Mode presents players with an unlimited amount of lives to spend. |
However, and quite unfortunately, this remake presents new issues not found in the 1993 original rear their ugly head in. For one, hitboxes feel considerably "off" and inaccurate. This means that deaths happen a lot more than they otherwise would due to your hitbox being larger than it's specifically supposed to be. Shots that don't even graze my ship could end in an explosive result, for example, and frustratingly so.
Furthermore, many enemies don't properly register with a helpful visual clue you're hitting them, either with a flashing animation as bullets pelt them or anything else visually. Was I actually dealing damage to a baddie? It was difficult to tell, such as with the second stage's boss, and with a game that's already punishing in its level of challenge, these oversights and added aggravations do not make for a good impression--especially since they appeared to creep and leak over into the 2D portion of R-Type Dimensions III as well!
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| No doubt the original developers enjoyed Ridley Scott's Alien series. |
It's hard to recommend playing R-Type Dimensions III over the original, especially if you're a purist or diehard fan of the 1993 SNES classic because of these oversights. They make the game much more challenging and pretty much to an oftentimes unfair degree. Those new to the series or game might not mind these issues as much, but the game will essentially curb stomp these players unbeknownst to its dastardly, dire difficulty. The added bells and whistles like switching between 2D and 3D mode, Infinite Mode, and the two-player co-op mode--to name a few--are great additions, but are they worth suffering through a flawed, botched R-Type III remake over the original? Unfortunately, the answer is an emphatic "no".
ININ Games has already put out a statement regarding these issues--in fact, said statement released a day after the game's launch. So, the grievances to the gameplay that players have will hopefully soon be patched, but the fact that this is how the game was launched to begin with doesn't instill much confidence. For the time being, it's best to wait out a patch/update to R-Type Dimensions III and just play the original R-Type III in the meantime. It's a much better experience, even without the aforementioned modern bells and whistles.
[SPC Says: C-]
A Nintendo Switch 2 game code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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