R-Type Leo

released on Dec 31, 1992
by Irem

R-Type Leo is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade game. It is a spin-off of the R-Type series and the last entry to be released in Arcades. R-Type Leo was initially an original shoot 'em up game in development by Nanao before Irem retooled it into an R-Type project instead. It is also the first R-Type game to feature simultaneous two player gameplay.


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To the R-9 Leomobile! Let's go!

Leo is often labeled the "black sheep" of the series, but me and many other R-Typers would correct it as the "white sheep" of the franchise as it's actually quite kind and pleasant in comparison to the other asshole supervillain games. I originally played this in co-op on a whim with C_F over Fightcade, but I decided to take this on solo again on MAME where the sound wasn't butchered by shoddy emulation, and I didn't need to contend with a whole second of input lag from having to watch her stream as we played due to a desync. I figured it was worth some quality time together, since Leo was the first game I ever played on MAME that wasn't a CPS-2 Capcom fighter. We needed a bit of catching up to do...

The series standard force option and wave cannon have gone out to lunch, leaving the bit devices to do all the heavy lifting on our little electronica vacation with the Adam West Batman voice sample that predates Sonic CD, Hybrid Front and Third Strike's useage of it as well as this intro to Bass Landing 2. Without a wave cannon to charge, we now have the ability to scramble our Bits to bumrush the nearest enemies on screen for however long your meter has energy. Interestingly, the method of input is actually different between the World and Japan set of roms. In World there is a dedicated button to the Bit Bumrush, while in Japan you must hold down your standard shot button to let the attack loose with the release of your button being the command to have them retreat back to your ship.

It is also worth note that the Japan set actually features the traditional checkpoint system that many moan about, while the rest of us were given instant respawns. I'd imagine someone thought better about the checkpoint system within the context of a cabinet, especially when your main business interest is guzzling all pocket change from the nearby curious passersby instead of trying to appease a tryhard playerbase that didn't exist elsewhere. Checkpoints are generally also secret safety nets to help players get their power ups back, and if I had to be honest there were only a few areas where recovering was a bit frantic, but a Laser Crystal is always pooped out of your ship's corpse upon death, so you won't always get caught with your Bit pants down around your ankles instead of your hips.

Leo is nice, Leo is pretty, and they enjoy funky music a lot. I can't complain too much about them as a dance partner, they're definitely quite a lot more pleasant than their hellscape-centric predecessors even if Leo does seem to take after Gradius a bit in it's final stretches. Unfortunately, Leo is rather inaccessible with it's only rerelease being a pretty obscure PC compilation with worse emulation than MAME. There has been no Hamster/Arcade Archives release, no console port, no nothing. A white sheep that was led astray from the pack, and thus must now float aimlessly through the confines of tapes being traded by space pirates, and game harvesters with tons of money who can afford a 1,300-1,700 USD PCB board. Will we ever see Leo again? Does a tin man have a sheet metal cock?

A different flavor of R-Type that I can actually serve to my friends without them spitting it out in disgust from the rough aftertaste.

"0/10 no lions"
"mid-ass zodiac sign"

Never expected the word "chill" to be associated with "R-Type".

Honestly, I don't like R-Type much aside from Final, but Leo is right up my alley.

aburrido
me dormí jugandolo zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Not quite an R-Type game, but still great fun with the new mechanics and ship weapons, short and sweet, perfect for a 1CC you can get in a week or so of practice. OST is jammin, and the game is great for co-op too.