A horizontally-scrolling space
shoot-'em-up, developed as an
arcade game by
Irem (NOT
Nintendo!) in
1987 and ported to nearly every
home computer,
console and
handheld available, from the
ZX Spectrum to the
Sony Playstation. R-Type introduced a number of ideas that have often been copied since, such as a level involving flying around the outside of a much larger
spaceship, and a weapon that is charged up by holding down the
fire button.
The enemies (the evil alien Bydo Empire) are in Irem's biomechanical style, with a mixture of traditional spaceships and massive alien creatures (such as the iconic first end-of-level boss). Knowing they were onto a winner, Irem put out a number of sequels/remakes (R-Type Leo, R-Type II, Super R-Type) as well as several games with a similar style (such as X Multiply). Tecnosoft's later Thunder Force games are probably the closest thing to an immediate successor to R-Type, and contain numerous 'homages' to parts of the original game.