First appearing in local arcades over 20 years ago, the R-Type franchise established itself as one of the premier horizontally scrolling shooters and has a long legacy of highly regarded sequels and upgrades. R-Type Command is the first time the series hits the PSP, but it does so in an unusual fashion. Ditching its roots as a shoot 'em up (or shmup, for short), R-Type Command trades in frenzied action for a more tactile approach: turn-based combat. While this may come as a blow to fans that were expecting another bullet-filled romp through space, this iteration does a fine job of successfully melding the new play type with the venerable license.

Surprisingly, R-Type's turn based shooting works.Click to see more images from the game...

Not all is peaceful in the void of space. R-Type fans are long familiar with the battle of man vs. the Bydo Empire, an evil alien race bent on the destruction of humankind. This time they breached our defenses and entered into the solar system. As such, players will command their fleets amidst familiar locations such as the rings of Saturn and Neptune's moon, Triton. The game presents the stages with an eclectic mix of 2-D and 3-D. Throughout the course of a stage, you'll view most of these units within nicely rendered real-time cut scenes, so the decision to make the units on the battlefield static 2-D sprites is baffling and look ugly set against 3-D backdrops.

R-Type's play style is a mostly turn-based strategy affair. Each mission presents you with a maximum number of phases, each phase entailing a turn from both the player and the computer-controlled enemy. You'll need to meet the mission objective before you've run out of phases. After placing your various ships on the grid and selecting a flagship, you'll begin moving and attacking your way across the board, employing defensive maneuvers and restocking your ships with fuel and ammunition. The early missions offer a nice tutorial to get you comfortable with the gameplay mechanics, and as the game progresses, the difficulty ramps up quickly, but you'll also have a bevy of new ships so that your fleet grows large and varied. In addition, you'll occasionally pick up the spoils of war and resources that you can use to research new ship types.

R-Type games are notoriously challenging and R-Type Command more than lives up to that standard, albeit in completely new ways. What would have previously been a frantic run from left to right, dodging walls of bullets and lasers is now a more leisurely experience. You'll have time to plan your every move, but your Bydo foes are smart and ruthless. It will likely take novice players a few stages before they fully grasp the types of strategy they'll need for success.

There are plenty of levels to tackle in the campaign, and some take a long time to complete, but when you've finished the levels, there is an ad-hoc multiplayer mode as well. With this, you can compete head-to-head against a friend over a local network in singular battles. It's a welcome addition in that a completely new level of strategy is required when going up against another live person. We had hoped for an infrastructure mode, given that the slow pace of a match should handle just fine over the Internet, but we'll take what we can get.

Despite being highly regarded, R-Type has always been a game that appealed to a limited audience. Shmups are niche games due to their high difficulty, and taking the series in this new direction will probably appeal to an even smaller group of players. Given some unnecessarily slow load screens, as well as weird bouts of loading in the midst of battle, R-Type Command has its flaws, but it's also a unique experience for the PSP. If you are a fan of R-Type or turn-based strategy games, you'll have an enjoyable time.

Related Links

R-Type Command PSP Game Guide

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