Edge magazine recently had a bit of a go at the poor old PlayStation Portable, trumpeting the decline of third party support and lamenting the absence of a Western parallel to Capcom's system-selling Monster Hunter Freedom games. Sony wasn't about to take this lying down, of course, and before long SCEA head of hardware marketing John Koller was spilling ink over Future Publishing's servers, promising "significant growth" in PSP software next year.
And just how would Koller deliver said growth, in the face of innumerable torrents, a confused brand identity and the titanic retail presence of Nintendo DS? Simple. "The recipe for success on the PSP resides simply in providing franchise games that are strong brand names like on consoles, but have unique gameplay on the system."
Barely 48 hours after Koller put index finger to keyboard, the doggedly idiosyncratic Rising Star Games published R-Type Tactics in Europe. R-Type Tactics fits Koller's somewhat blasé formula to a tee: the R-Type franchise attracts reverential whispers wherever vitamin-deficient men-children come together, and this latest outing is the first to depart from the series' scrolling shooter roots, not to mention one of the very, very few console space simulators we've seen in years.
We doubt, somehow, that Rising Star will be raking in the millions next week, but Tactics is evidence at least that third parties are continuing to push distinctive titles on PSP, albeit in rather smaller quantities. It's also damn good fun - far from the most original or polished strategy title out there, but more than the sum of its rather incongruous parts.
Atypical
Tactics shares exactly two characteristics with R-Types of old: the Earth is once again up alien-infested creek without an outboard motor, and your vessels always enter from the left. As with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, the best way to approach the game is to ignore its heritage and get stuck in.
Your character, an ageing Space Corps fleet admiral, is called out of retirement to lead a ragtag mob of greenhorn pilots into turn-based battle against the toothy Bydo menace. Missions take place on a hexagonal grid overlaying a quasi-three-dimensional backdrop, and your objective is generally to seek out, pin down and annihilate the enemy flagship. More restrictive kinds of 'terrain' - asteroid fields, clouds of radioactive dust - will slow down your craft but also part-shield them from enemy assault, and you'll stumble across the odd interplanetary facility, research artefact or resource point. Regular refuelling and rearming is essential if you don't want your offensive to stutter to a halt in the endgame.
Once you smoke the opposing armada out and fire a gun at it you'll be treated to a raggedy 3D cut-scene, as in cult PSX classic Front Mission 3. These little interludes are quite well-produced and serve as a welcome diversion from the miniscule cardboard sprites and effects of the over-map, but some players will resent the load times that accompany them. Fortunately, you can toggle these sequences on or off in the main menu.
Franchise anoraks, please start your engines
R-Type Tactic's space ace in the hole is the unit roster, which is both satisfyingly vast and finely balanced. The subtleties of each vessel may elude you at first. Strider bombers, for instance, appear insanely over-powered till you run a couple of squadrons into the heart of an enemy fleet, and realise they're helpless at proximity.
Arrowhead fighters, by contrast, feel like the proverbial poor cousin till you master the use of their devastating but temperamental particle cannons, which allow them to serve as heavy assault ships once fully charged. Should you post your Arrowheads directly into the fray, duking it out with bog-standard blasters and missiles? Or should you hold them in reserve till their more potent weaponry is ready to fire, perhaps to the cost of more vulnerable vessels?
And this is only the beginning. Certain ships are equipped with 'de-synch' drives, enabling them to slip into a parallel dimension and sneak under enemy radar; to counter these you'll need destroyers, capable of unmasking such attackers much as their real-life aquatic equivalents were once employed to unmask U-boats. Captured Bydo 'Forces' can be used to ram enemy craft out of position, or else melded with your fighters to access alien weaponry. Some of your support units can shoot further than they can see, and you'll need to pair them off with mobile radar arrays to make the most of their capabilities.
In order to build a new ship you'll need sufficient material resources together with a blueprint and a crew, the former two generally acquired in missions, the latter awarded to you at key intervals by the Space Corps brass. There are over a hundred different ship types in total, from humanoid mechs to ponderous carriers, each with three or four different abilities. This is not a game which will leave you at a loss for options.
Set course for the reduced section, warp factor 'moderately-quickish'.
R-Type Tactics has 'cult classic' stamped all over it in large, friendly letters. Yes, it's fundamentally the same old genre toybox we've been digging into these past twenty years, but Irem has snuck a few new models in amongst the cardboard tanks and Barbie dolls. The absence of infrastructure multiplayer is probably the biggest disappointment, but hardly a first where the PSP's low profile hits are concerned.
At its absolute best - and we're going out on a limb here - Irem's spot of genre cross-breeding reminds us of the wonderful Homeworld games. It's hard to say why - the surprisingly detailed plot and sombre deep space ambience are probably key factors - but that single sentence alone should give you pause when you sight this number on the shelves.
"When you think of classic shoot 'em ups, the top 2 series that likely come to mind are Gradius and R-Type so let's take an in-depth look at both franchises and see which one comes out on top." - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums
AG writes: "There are many of us who fondly remember the first time the Bydo Empire invaded. It was the genesis of a fantastic series of games that bore the now famous name of R-Type. But what of this latest offering? Surely a handheld format - especially one as potent as the PSP - is an ideal dwelling place for this granddaddy of side-scrolling shoot 'em ups?"
Today, 2nd January 2009, is the ninth day of Christmas. It may seem like Christmas is all but over-and-done with now, but Electronic Theatre are staying true to tradition and heading-on through those infamous twelve days! On this ninth day, The Twelve Games of Christmas enters its ninth edition, and today we run through the top-performing disc-based releases of September 2008. Hold onto your hats, it's going to be bumpy from here-on out!
