R-Type Final Gets Fresh For U.S.?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamers.com article indicating that R-Type Final for Playstation 2 has allegedly been picked up by Eidos' Fresh Games label for US release. This comes hot on the heels of news that the game, the latest in the classic R-Type shoot-em-up series, will feature an AI mode, with the player "able to define the behavior of an AI-controlled R-9 fighter, and pit two of them against each other in a race to destroy enemy craft, collect items, and avoid getting killed in the process" - though the traditional single-player shmup gameplay will fortunately also be present. The import-friendly Fresh Games label has also brought quirky Japanese titles like Mad Maestro and the crazed Mr. Mosquito to the West - anyone got nominations for other import titles they should consider releasing?

Comments

What happened?

[WuWarrior]

Whatever happened to the space shooter genre? I would like to see more.

I'm glad to see Gradius is still alive and now R-Type.

Ikaruga is also a great scrolling space shooter. It was originally on Dreamcast and is now being released for GameCube.

I would love to see a modern remake of Defender.

Vib Ribbon

[Krellan]

One of the most requested games has been Vib Ribbon!

http://cyan.askee.net/vib%20ribbon/

This PS1 game is a music game, known for these very distinctive things:

• It comes with 6 songs done in a very strange and indescribeable way, by a Japanese group "Laugh & Peace". Very good and catchy music.
• All graphics in the game are black and white, simulated vector graphics! No filled-in shapes here. Would be great if the game could output a format that could be understood by a laser projector....
• You can put in your own audio CD's, and the game will create its own steps for you to follow, based on the beat and the rhythm of the music! So the game has an essentially limitless number of songs you can play.

On the old Fresh Games forum site, in fact, it was the very first game requested.

http://forums.playfresh.com/

The game is completely in Japanese, but the characters are mostly katakana so it is easy to work through and translate. Here's the original Japanese site for the game's developers:

http://www.nanaon-sha.com/products/vib-ribbon.html

A complete English localization already exists, as Sony released the game in Europe:

http://www.vibribbon.com/

Once again, USA gamers get the shaft, because all we buy are monster trucks and extreme-sport athletes, right? Right. *sigh*

"There's no time, hurry up, everything is so fantastic...."

Xenon 2000 - bitmap brothers classic -updated,free

[quiddity]

Xenon 2:Megablast is another you might remember. Well they updated it for a pcformat tutorial on gaming, and finally released the program for download: Xenon 2000. dont hold them to getting the tutorial info online though, it took 2 years of "next month"'s to get the program itself.

Ah...Classic Shooters...

[C. Alan]

R-type was always one of my favorite coin-op games. When I owned a small arcade back in the mid '90s, I think I played the game more than any of my customers. Then again, this may be why I also had a Xybots in the arcade as well.

There was one sequel, R-type 2, that was released for Coin-op, but I have never seen it in an arcade. This game spawned a lot of look alike shooter, like St. Dragon, and Macross.

Too bad im too cheap to buy a PS2. I would like to see the new game.
--C. Alan

It's always so slow!

[the darn]

So I slap a sticker on it to make my R-Type a Type-R to make it go faster...