A History of Rage Quitting - R-Type

Out of all the things I've talked about on this site, I think I've made more mentions to SHMUPs than anything. I love them, can't help it, sue me. The sad part is, it's a genre that's basic yet so unfairly cruel. One that's renowned for being a huge asshole is the R-Type series.

Released by Irem in 1987 for Arcades, R-Type is famous for it's brutal difficulty, it's own unique weapon and it's ridiculous story involving an Alien race known as the "Bydo", who are attempting to attack humanity in the past from the future. Wow. That's retarded.

Last summer, my love for the Xbox Live Arcade had reached it's unholy peak, and I had spent $120 worth of Microsoft Points by Summer's end. One of the games I bought was the slightly overpriced "R-Type Dimensions" which was a compilation of R-Type I and II. A SHMUP with the ability to switch between modern and retro graphics on the fly was a cool concept for me and I really, really wanted to play R-Type at that point, considering I've heard so much about it, but never actually touched it. I ended up rage quitting the game and forgetting all about it. A couple weeks ago, I was browsing through my old Arcade titles, looking for some easy achievements, then it popped up. I unknowingly boot it up.

He's got maybe... 3 seconds before shit hits the fan.

That my friends, is where it all went to hell.

The game can be ass-stabbingly difficult if you're not playing it on the unlimited mode. Thank God they actually put one tin the game. Aside from the inclusion of the "Force", a giant ball that acts as a shield and makes your weapons 1000-times more powerful, the game is as basic of a SHMUP as they come. Then why do I hate it so? There's a couple reasons for that.

- Your ship is slow.
- Many enemies take FOREVER to kill.
- If you don't have the Force. You are FUCKED. You will get overwhelmed and you shall die.

The game also has this cruel tendency of making you ungodly powerful then having some stray bullet sneak up behind you, killing you, making you restart midway through the level, where all the powerful enemies are, NO POWERUPS! ALIEN RAPE! DEAD! That's what pisses me off about it. and the game will do it ALL THE TIME. You have to be a fucking SHMUP expert to touch this bitch. Seriously.

Yeah, you're pretty much screwed.

Now I can see why this game is classic, it's fun, it's gorgeous, it's challenging cruel. Sometimes I like a game that takes a couple tries to figure things out. Maybe I wasn't in the right state of mind when I decided to pick this one up again? But I went batshit. Screams of rage, death threats aimed at the game were flying everywhere and it wasn't cool.

This game caused me to rage quit, I expect it to do the same to you.

- Kyle K.