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R-Type Final
One credit remaining - better make it count
R-Type Final is a classic tale
of a lone hero’s struggle for
victory, fighting for all that’s
good with the odds stacked harshly
and unfairly against him. And we’re
not talking about the in-game plot
here, we’re talking about the story
of how R-Type Final came to be
made at all. It’s a story that fills us
with hope against the backdrop
of a games industry scrolling,
unwavering towards a bloated, lazy,
watered-down, greedy, soulless,
monolithic, homogenous future.
The hero of our story is Kazuma
Kujo, director of R-Type Final and
of its equally majestic PSone
predecessor R-Type Delta. In
November 2000 he made a
decision that would ensure that the
once dominant scrolling-shooter
genre wouldn’t just fade away,
knowing when it wasn’t wanted.
Thanks to Kujo, it would instead go
out in a fitting blaze of glory. A blaze
of glory called R-Type Final.
So what was this pivotal decision?
Well, having been told that the plug
was to be pulled on the new R-Type
project and that furthermore, Irem
would not develop any scrolling
shooter ever again, Kujo began
working alone and in secret on the
idea of a final, all conquering R-Type
title. Officially, he continued to work
on another Irem project as per his
employer’s instructions, but every
spare moment was spent working
on game ideas, rounding up support
from the R-Type fan community
and instilling a belief and desire
in his staff that their next title
would be an R-Type title. Gradually,
Kujo won over his colleagues and
together they conspired to make
preparations for R-Type Final
without the knowledge of any
of Irem’s top brass. Altogether
this covert crusade went on for a
staggering year and a half.
In 2002, Kujo got together with
Irem’s high-level management for
a development approval meeting.
It was here that ideas would be
presented to the money men and
their fates ultimately decided. This
was Kujo’s chance to reveal what
he’d been up to and, if necessary,
beg his bosses to green light R-Type
Final. Initially, his presentation was
met with a negative reception, so
beg was what he did.
"Give me one more chance to
develop a new R-Type, and I promise
you that this will be the FINAL!!!!!"
Whether it was the sincerity
of his plea or the extremity of his
punctuation that won them over we
don’t know. But we do know that as
a result of the uplifting, climactic,
Hollywood-esque, tear-jerking
speech Kujo delivered from the
bottom of his god damn heart that
day, R-Type Final did get made. And
the R-Type series, perhaps even the
scrolling-shooter genre as a whole,
couldn’t have come to a more
riveting, electrifying, life-affirming
end. Kazuma Kujo, we salute you.
R-Type Final is pretty rare these
days, but if you can find one you
can expect to pay as little as £5 for
a pre-owned copy. |
