R-Type – Available Now On iPhone and iPod Touch

You can now play the classic shoot-em-up R-Type on your iPhone or iPod Touch thanks to EA Mobile. It costs £1.19 and is available now from the iTunes store.

This version of R-Type includes all 8 levels from the arcade version and 3 different control methods:

• Touch (self explanatory really, control your ship with your fingers, or thumb)
• Tilt (move your ship by tilting the device)
• Coin-op (on screen virtual d-pad with 2 buttons)

There are also 2 difficulty levels, normal and insane. You unlock the insane difficulty option when you’ve completed the game on normal. Given that I’ve never got further than level 5 on R-Type, I can’t see this happening for me any time soon.

Fortunately for us mere mortals there is an unlimited mode. This grants you unlimited lives but at a cost of a 1000 points a life. Make no mistake this version of R-Type is tough, perhaps tougher than ever with the new touch screen controls, especially for those of us who have grow-up playing R-Type in the arcades back in the 80’s.

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