R-Type Delta is one of the undisputed shmup classics on the original PlayStation, so this HD release really has a lot to live up to.
Of all the great shmups on the PlayStation, two really stood out: G-Darius and R-Type Delta. Don’t get me wrong, Einhänder was pretty cool, but not in the same league as these two.
A few years back, we were treated with G-Darius HD on basically every platform out there. Developed by retro porting masters M2, the HD aspect of the game was handled masterfully.
Now, along comes R-Type Delta, and it too is now getting the HD treatment, but it’s not exactly hitting its mark.
This is not to say that City Connection does bad work, far from it. The recent Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute was excellently done.
However, that game never saw a Western release back when it was on the Sega Saturn, and its art style was old-school 2D pixel art.
Put simply, releasing the game as it was with an English localization was pretty much the expected remit, and City Connection certainly delivered on that.
R-Type Delta is an entirely different beast, though. Yes, it is functionally a 2D side-scrolling shmup, but the bulk of the artwork is in 3D. It also had some amazing art for its period, even more so than the epic G-Darius.
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So, to not leverage that in a new HD release to the same degree as G-Darius HD, if not more so, feels like a lost opportunity.
Now, as far as we know, the latest trailer (shown below) doesn’t list M2’s involvement, so I’m taking that to mean they are not involved. If it turns out that M2 is involved, it’s clear that they’ve either been held back or not involved as much as they needed to be relative to their other games.
Put simply, comparing this trailer to the work M2 did on G-Darius HD just makes my heart sink. Of all the R-Type games that really needed some proper HD love, it’s definitely Delta.
Somewhat related, there are also some amazing toys made by Ques-Q for R-Type Delta, namely the R-9A2 Delta and R-13 Cerberus. Both of which come highly recommended if you can still find them in the wild.
R-Type Delta: HD Boosted will be released later this year for Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
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