Last updated on January 4th, 2026 at 06:42 am
R.TYPE – Casual Game Review
R.TYPE is a Casual/Action game from DotEmu, first launched in 18th July 2013.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 61+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes R.TYPE Stand Out
R-TYPE, THE CLASSIC ARCADE SHOOTER, RETURNS AS A UNIVERSAL APP!
Revisit the 80's (mesh half-shirts and Keds optional) with this classic, old-school shoot 'em up! One of the decade’s most popular arcade games will awaken fond memories of jangling quarters, Jolt Cola and week-old popcorn. Fire up your iPhone or iPad and get ready to go back… to R-Type!
FEEL THE BLAST!
Blast off and attack the evil Bydo Empire. Use everything in your arsenal to take them down – don’t be shy! It's retro, it's fun and it's a “10” on the difficulty scale. Finish this masterpiece and carve your name amongst the greats!
INCLUDES THE ORIGINAL FEATURES…
Remember how damnably difficult R-Type was? Well it still is, because we stayed true to the original, just the way you remember it! Choose between two difficulty settings, utilize two different control options and soar through eight jam-packed levels, each with its own unique boss. Upgrade to new weapons, power-ups, and attachments as you battle wave after wave of enemies.
… AND SOME NEW FEATURES TOO!
- Universal version
- Enhanced Touch mode
- Eight levels and two different control options: touch and virtual D-pad
- Two difficulty settings
- Available in 10 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Portuguese
- Full Retina Display support
- Game Center: unlockable achievements + online leaderboards
This Casual game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, R.TYPE is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 15th July 2021
Recent improvements include:
Updated for the latest devices and Oses. UI issues fixed
Download & Availability
R.TYPE is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Its R-Type whats not to like? The controls work pretty well. We were able to play through the first stage on the first try (as we usually can), and then the creepy things on the second stage got us (as they usually do). So feels like R-Type to us.
Great game however, it is buggy if you run it on an iPad. Your spaceship will randomly jump from the left side of the screen to the far right.
This was one of our favorite games when we were growing up and we are totally addicted to this new version. The only reason Im giving it four stars and not five is that the touchscreen controls are buggy and frequently get jammed where you cannot move the spaceship, especially if you are touching two controls at the same time.
The gamepad support (PS4) is laggy. Death will collect you.
You guys should make it accessible and controllable via the bluetooth and connected to lighting porn joystick addon such as howliwo L1 Pro.
Great to have such a wonderful game available for our iPhone, please make more developers we will keep buying.
This is fantastic the graphics the music amazing, scan lines thats a neat feature makes it look like its playing on classic CRT monitor. The controls are a little tough but Im getting the hang of it already. None the less Arcade Perfect on the go.
Has to be one of the hardest shoot em ups. The rapid fire helps on here. The virtual d pad kind of takes up too much real estate. But this is a great arcade port. Even with a arcade stick the game is still a challenge.
While RaidenLegacy is the best vertical this is the best horizontal for all the same reasons. No ads, great control, instant respawn. Worth every penny. Dont waste your time with all the other in app purchase laden garbage.
One of the best old Japanese arcade games available on App Store. Would pay for it even if costs $4.99.
Well first of all this game is so wonderfully difficult probably the most difficult game Ive ever played in our life. So Im willing to share some brotherly slang to those out there who dont understand whats going on. F*k!!! Means that we didnt accomplish what we wanted. What in the hell?!!!!!!!! Means we have no idea what hit us. St!!!!! Means we missed a power up. Are you freakin serious right now!!!!!!!!! Means we fought one of the bosses and died.
First off, there are actually checkpoints. Old R Type games didn't have checkpoints, and depending on the version, the only way to continue was with a password, if you could at all. In this version, when you beat a level, it saves for good. This is more necessary since it's mobile, but it easily makes it our favorite way to play R Type now days. Still a really hard game though, and it easily takes us an hour of trial and error to beat each level, but we want to keep trying because we're having so much fun. It also has controller support, and that is how we usually play it, and the touch icons go away with the first button you press on the controller. At such a low price, we recommend it to fans of the genre that want a great shoot em up on the go.
…every fourth or fifth play, the controls get stuck on forward or backward. Even when we die and the next life starts, Im stuck going forward or backward. The only way to unstick the controls is to restart the game entirely.
Massive dead zones on either side of the display that could be used for touch navigation makes this game too hard because your finger blocks enemies.
Use to be the greatest all time game until the iOS updated to 13 . Now the ship now instantly jumps to the far right side when you touching the far left side of screen accidentally. Please fix.
Controls are broken. Doesnt support entire screen. Cant move controls off to the side and they cover the game so you cant see. Also, the buttons are too large! Please fix.
We keep getting stuck in the front without any input, and when we try to go back it goes back to the front. This makes it nearly unplayable.
Great game, very hard. Game is not formatted for the newer iphones with the notch so it does not make full use of the screen. The game does not work properly under ios13. The touch screen buttons on the right side are now huge and cover a third of the screen. We have discovered however that this can be fixed in the setting section by resizing them. Also, since the screen does not make full use of the screen, touching the far left side of the screen will now warp you to the far right of the screen which usually results in immediate death. This bug is almost a game breaker when using the touch controls. We find it to be highly annoying and frustrating, especially when Ive almost beat a level and accidently slide our finger to far to the left off the viewable portion of the screen the game, which happens all the time! Please please fix this. We thought it was bad when the sides of the screen were just dead zones but now it is instant death.
Doesnt work well on iPhone 12, kinda sad cuz this is on of our childhood games but we guess oh well.
Controls are pointless on iPhone 12 Pro Max. They cover the screen. Should be a free game.
Controls are completely out of whack. The buttons are all over the screen. Just awful and really disappointed this was one our favorite games growing up.
We were super excited to play this. Just purchased it. As Im playing, not even 30 seconds into the game, the little spaceship teleports from the left side of the screen to the far right side of the screen, crashing into the enemies. Probably should fix that.
If you move your fingers to fast, the ship immediately starts at the front of the screen and you almost always die. Im going to get a refund on this game.
No iOS 13 support we want our money back.
The controls on iOS 13 are huge, cover the screen, and dont respond properly, making the game unplayable.
Controls are too large and take up half screen in iPhone XS Max and iOS 13.
DotEmu are literally Selling broken games to people. Scammers! DO NOT BUT THEIR GAMES – RType does NOT WORK.
The layout of this game is totally broken on new phones. Wasted our money.
Once our iPhone updated to iOS 13 the game dont work properly. Such a shame.
Letterboxed badly on all 4 sides, the controls are all jumbled together on one side, and the ship stays on only the right 20% of the screen. Completely unplayable. $2 wasted.
Touchscreen controls buggy…in both non-full screen and full screen where the spaceship jumps unexpectedly to the far right of the screen often during gameplay (first round), unplayable. Problem doesnt appear in RType II, only RType. Please fix so we can update our rating we love the game. Thanks.
R-TYPE awesome game best times and memories, just found it at the App Store Thank you.
We loved this as an arcade game and it's just as good on our iPad! And it's just like the arcade game, but we don't have to pay a quarter for three lives.
If you grew up playing arcades in the mid/late 80's you'd want this game. Perfect game to kill time. Wear headphones if you want to time travel back then.
OMG! If you played this 25 years ago you're going to want to download this. It's pretty much exactly the same game.
We think this is the first game we've downloaded from the App Store that feels like a real video game to us. It's really hard but really fun. Our daughter loves it too. Also not sure if we'll ever beat it.
Great version of a classic shooter.
We can sum it in one word, awesome.
This game is outstanding. It manages to reconcile the space-time continuum. Meaning, while playing on an Apple product, we are transported back in time a quarter century (see title and nickname above). Only bit of constructive criticism (via our friend James) – the app designers should enable users to play the game on mute with music otherwise (Spotify et al) with the next update.
Love it! Memories are flooding back.
Want to make it better? Only improve response time when using virtual controller (there's 1/4 second lag which means death for this game). Other than that, our favorite childhood shooter is still king.
We are so glad that R-Type finally made it to the iPad. This was our favorite game of all when growing up and have been trying to find it for the newer system. Our wait is done and we are overjoyed. We feel like a child opening presents on Christmas Day.
What can we say about R-Type – we love this game during the Sega age and it still brings back great memories and excitement -Download it now.
We love the resurgence of old school games for iOS. This is frantic shooter fun.
Love this game! Played it as a Kid and this is just as great.
This game captures the fun and excitement of running home and playing the game on our home system after middle school.
Not only one of the best shmups of all time but one of the very best video games of all time. R-Type is 10/10. Please port Gradius.
There are games in every console that define the generation. R-Type is one of those games. While we play we cannot help but think of the hours our girlfriend and we would spend pouring into this game, just to 1-Up the other. When it comes to side scroller shooters, R-Type is, and always will be, the king.
Awesome game with warm fuzzy flash backs.
What can we say? Our favorite arcade is now on our iPad and it is glorious in it's authenticity. Still as frustratingly difficult as it's ever been and we can't keep the smile off our face. Thanks DotEmu.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.4.6
- Size: 28.50 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: [DotEmu]()
Last updated: 15th July 2021 | Genre: Casual, Action | Developer: DotEmu