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In the early 21st century, the people of Earth realised that they must preserve their planet. For many decades, they have been keeping the atmosphere clean, conserving fuels and maintaining a healthy environment. Unfortunately, when such a healthy planet exists, alien forces become jealous...

The people of the distant planet of Bydo are such a race: they haven't been so careful to preserve their world. Their planet is dying and they're looking to invade the Earth and claim it for themselves, destroying the human race in the process. A message has been intercepted that tells of strange robots, spaceships and bio-mechanoid creatures being built to stamp out the humans and leave the way clear for an invasion.

Defence forces were collected to try and counter these machines, so the engineers of Earth began a programme to put a stop to the Bydoniam plan. Thus the R-Type fighter was born. Various models were made until version nine was considered the perfect attack craft, due to a revolutionary new weapon system.

It was discovered that certain Bydonian robots were powered by crystals that could be used to generate holographic images capable of releasing powerful energy bursts. The engineers built the patented holo-cell weapon - a pod that could be added to the front or rear of an R-Type fighter. The standard model R9 was fitted with a pulse laser, mega-beam laser and a holo-cell converter. The crystals needed could be collected by shooting hovering robots; they then converted the pods to weapons such as reflection lasers, ground lasers and homing missiles.

To win, you must fly the R9 into the heart of Bydo and destroy all the guardian creatures: strange beings such as huge Geigeresque semi-mechanical creatures, tree stumps concealing huge metallic snakes and gigantic space cruisers. Destroying these mega-beings will negate the Bydonian invasion plans, giving the people of Earth some breathing room, not to mention warning them to keep an eye on the activities of the planet Bydo in future...

Last month I said that the C64 version of R-Type wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but after seeing the ST version I had high hopes for the Amiga.

I must say that I'm not disappointed - the Amiga conversion is brilliant!

It gets off to a good start with the amazing loading music backed by a great picture, an then drops into the metallic letter-spreading intro sequence - just like the coin-op... except that the coin-op hasn't got a title picture!

The graphics are arcade quality, with smooth sprites and no flicker (the PC Engine version *has* quite a bit of flicker - in fact, I'd go so far as to say that I think the Amiga version is better than the PC Engine version!)

Anyone in possession of an Amiga who likes the R-Type coin-op should buy this as soon as possible.

Remember the Amiga Update box in last month's review of the C64 R-Type? We were hoping for 'arcade quality graphics and gameplay', and we've got 'em!

Electric Dreams have done an absolutely brilliant job converting this game to the Amiga, from the graphics and sound to all the little presentation details - including the continue play option (what a relief it is not to have to scrabble around in my pockets for a couple more 10ps when the message appears!).

The game's still multi-load, but you hardly notice since it's done so well; and that 'certain other shoot-'em-up' that caused all the fuss doesn't really have the punch to keep up with the 'official' game - on the Amiga, at any rate.

This falls into the category of 'first class coin-op conversion', and there's no excuse to miss it.

Presentation 87%
Superb appearance with plenty of arcade standard touches and a smooth multi-load system.

Graphics 93%
Smooth, varied and colourful with some impressively large sprites.

Sound 94%
Powerful effects, burbly tune and a brilliant loading track.

Hookability 94%
Well, you've got to play it haven't you? It is R-Type, after all.

Lastability 91%
Brilliantly addictive action which is fun even if you complete it - and there's plenty of blasting until that happens...

Overall 94%
An amazingly playable and superbly accurate arcade conversion.