In that videogaming Pliocene, the shooters’ premises were as outrageous as their mechanics were basic: time-traveling jet fighters dueled bio-mechanical dinosaurs; three-headed dragons shot down monstrous segmented space serpents; knights mounted on pegasi blasted fifty-story medusae into so much shrapnel; angular spacecraft sent steel-plated fish plummeting into gravity’s embrace.

This genre had its Half-Lives and Halos, of course. Among them was a series called “R-Type”, which gained one of the largest followings of them all. It was popular for a variety of reasons: it featured exotic visuals and weapons, but it also had a slower, more puzzle-like pacing that rewarded memorization and stage planning, challenging the player to know where to place the craft and what weapons to keep in their loadout at any given time.

The R-Type series saw several sequels after the original defining classic: R-Type 2 was a brutally challenging extension of the first with a pair of new weapons (and started a graphic style that would eventually reach refinement in the Metal Slug titles); R-Type 3 was a SNES-only beast that featured the best soundtrack as well as two new Force unit types; R-Type Delta, the most recent installment, featured 3D graphics (despite being confined to a 2D plane) and perhaps the best level design of the series. Two other “gaiden” titles in the series were made: Super R-Type, a slowdown-addled and embarrassingly simple semi-original title rushed to make the SNES launch; and R-Type Leo, a game really only R-Type in name and visual style, which used twin “Aggressive Forces” as the primary weapons and abandoned the more puzzle-like tactical nature of the earlier games.

R-Type Final, then, is the proposed curtain call for IREM’s defining series of horizontal shooters. This is the last gasp of the viral, extra-dimensional Bydo Empire and its subjugated fleets. Using its newfound understanding of the Force technology stripped from Bydo carcasses, the galaxy has amassed a fleet of craft based on the R series and is set to deliver the knockout blow and drive this unnatural evil from colonized space forever.

Spanning seven stages (some with specific variants enabled by defeating bosses in a certain fashion), the game is of average length for the series. Each new area features a number of homages to previous installments. While level one’s abandoned colony is all new, with an all new boss, the second stage breaks out a host of references to R-Type 2 and R-Type Delta’s brilliant watery second stages, right down to battle above and below a defined water line. Stage 3 pits you against a massive battleship, not dissimilar from the one fought in the original’s third stage. Stage 4 is a factory, and although its level layout pales against the factory stages of R-Types 1, 2, and Delta, the boss fight is genius – a hideous experimental amalgam of R-Type 1’s first and fifth bosses that poses some massive difficulty on the higher play settings. Later stages continue the references: a variant of stage 6 puts you up against R-Type 1’s stage two boss, only more powerful than before. And just like the end of R-Type 2, there are a few battles against infected R-series craft, just to keep you on your toes.

It’s with a little difficulty, then, that I must comment on the quality of the level designs – they really aren’t up to par with the best in the series, especially those of R-Type 1 and Delta. Stage 1 is poorly paced with weak enemies and a stupidly simple (albeit impressive looking) boss. Stage 2 is great but short; it compensates by have two radically different variants unlocked by blasting colored pegs on the likewise weak end boss. In Stage 3, the action picks up – a memorable orchestral score accompanies an intense firefight against a massive battleship.

Stage 4 is short and distressingly easy, although the great boss battle compensates. Stage 5 features an annoying wavy background, with none of the clever references or environmental challenges R-Type Delta’s extra-dimensional Stage 5 had. Even worse, Stage 5 has a brutally difficult boss that can come as quite a shock (literally) if you aren’t anticipating it; it’s an encounter almost more Gradius than R-Type. Stage 6 is a return to form – there’s a load of environmental hazards, and your Force docking skills get a good workout. The last stage isn’t difficult, but the boss can be tricky (unless you’re using an R-13 Anchor Force variant). Both 6 and 7 feature alternate bosses and stage layouts.

Another downer, too: the music is weak. Really weak. Preferring ambient to driving this time around, the composers created a score that’s almost non-existent in stages 1, 2, and 4. Where are the driving beats and the cheesy rock guitar? Come on, for a game that’s supposed to wrap up the series, we fans expect tunes that reference the classic stage music from previous R-Types. It’s not that the edgy gothic ambience doesn’t fit the visuals, with their broken metal and organic slime, but that there’s an entire aural history going unacknowledged, here.

As for the view, well, it’s spectacular. Glossy and anti-aliased, R-Type Final is one of the best-looking shooters ever made.

However, even if the music and levels aren’t exactly a high point for the series, there’s one aspect of R-Type Final that humbles every other installment (and every other shooter made): the number of playable craft.

There’s 102 of ‘em.

And most of ‘em have completely different weapons loadouts.

Seriously.

The starting three ships show off a good deal of variety unto themselves, but they don’t even begin to plumb the imagination that went into creating this game’s unique craft. The R-9A Arrowhead is everyone’s favorite R-9 from the series, with its two-stage pulse cannon and classic firepower upgrades. The Shooting Star introduces a beam weapon, whose charge increases strength and duration, only with a set of slightly weaker weapons. The exotic Andromalius features equally exotic firepower and a charge shot whose instantaneous explosive burst is better suited to clearing screens of cannon fodder than blasting the cores of boss enemies.

Despite the good design of the stating roster, the real fun begins when you start unlocking craft by clearing stages.

There’s my personal favorite line: the “Delicatessen” R-9 subfamily of ships, which despite their wacky names (“Dinner Bell” et al) look like edgy, more militaristic versions of the classic Arrowhead model, and whose hex cannons are both destructive and tactically versatile.

There’s the “Midnight Eye” family, which starts as a seemingly useless radar ship with weak weapons and a difficult-to-use charge shot, but, as the family is unlocked through play, reveals a deadly little secret: each new installment has more powerful ripple lasers, and all three weapon types fire from the Force unit even when it’s undocked.

Ships with Forces patterned after those in R-Type 3 quickly appear, as well.

There’s a whole host of unorthodox craft based off Bydo enemies and even classic IREM titles like Mr. Heli. Despite a little silliness like the Kiwi Berry (An R-9 styled flying tank with a Drill Force, a mortar style charge shot, and elemental weapons), none of these extra craft seem truly out of place, since they are all patterned and rendered to look and behave like a craft of R-9 descent.

R-Type Delta’s ace craft, the R-13 and R-X, also return with their deadly Anchor and Tentacle forces, respectively. As you use them, more variants on their models are unlocked. The final R-13 model is perhaps the deadliest craft in the game, besides, of course, ship number 102, the appropriately named “Grand Finale”.

And for you few sorry R-Type Leo fans, there’s a whole line of ships based on that design. The dual “Aggressive Force” returns, and each ship behaves just as it does in R-Type Leo.

As you use each ship, more members of its family are unlocked, and each member changes at least the weapon loadouts. For example, the Andromalius’ red weapon doubles up its shot, and the Shooting Star’s blue weapon gains some basic reflection properties with the next member in the line. Other families get more extreme changes, like new charge shots and completely altered weapon loadouts. A sequel to the Arrowhead, the War Head gets a different charge shot, the red weapon becomes an explosive torpedo, and the blue weapon becomes R-Type II’s homing laser.

As lines progress, 3 stage charge shots become available, with the meter charging from BEAM to HIGH to STRONG. A “strong” shot will dish out massive damage to a boss, but on the hardest setting, it may take 3 or more of these megablasts (along with their 10 second charge time) to fell them.

The ship selection doesn’t end there. You can also select which bit type your craft uses, what missle/bomb loadout is preferred, and even the colors. It’s like Gran Turismo, only featuring craft capable of slaughtering an ancient interdimensional space virus instead of four-wheeled rice wagons.

There’s also an AI mode, which, to my understanding, records your play with a specific craft type and pits it against other AI models of different craft. These AI duels are a bit bizarre to watch, to say the least. When your star fighter beats all of the 5 championships, more vessels to use are unlocked. This mode is more of a novelty than anything else.

There’s an extensive gallery and museum for the series’ fans, one even more extensive than that in R-Type Delta. It’s a wonderful addition for aficionados and offers some fascinating insight into the design and direction of the series as a whole.

R-Type Final is a glorious sendoff for the venerable series, and an absolute must-own for any serious fan. While it ultimately fails to match up the strongest entries in the series – the original R-Type and the fantastic R-Type Delta – in terms of stage design and challenge, it compensates with the vast wealth of playable craft and subtle nods to its own spectacular lineage. It’s sad to see the passing of the genre’s greatest stalwart series, but at least IREM’s thrown a wonderful wake.