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R-Type Leo (アールタイプ・レオ Ārutaipu Reo), is a shoot 'em up game released exclusively in Japan in December 1992, running on the Irem M-92 arcade board. Similar to Irem's own Cosmic Cop, Leo replaces both the Force and Wave Cannon in favor of the Bit Devices - the charge meter will instead cause the bits to fling towards other enemies instead of creating a large power shot. The game was programmed by Irem's parent company Nanao through their arcade game division, as opposed to being developed in-house by Irem. It is the only R-Type arcade game to never see a home console release, however it was included in 2010's Irem Arcade Hits for PC.

Story[]

After the R-9, there was the R-9 Leo. Humanity and the Bydo Empire have found peace and stability after much conflict. With this newfound peace, humanity continues to set up Project Paradise, which is the creation of a new planet, called Eden, for human use. Major, the bio-computer responsible for the operation of Eden, takes control over the defense systems and attacks humanity. The R-9 Leo is then deployed to destroy Major and its defenses.

Spacecraft[]

Contrary to other R-Type missions, TP-2 POW Armor does not make an appearance here. Instead, small satellites called the Pow Box can be destroyed for power-ups.

Armaments[]

  • Homing Missile
  • Laser Crystal: Since Leo lacks a Force, the laser crystals change the R-9Leo's main and Bit Device weapon. Laser crystals change color every other second, so the pilot need only wait until the desired color is showing to obtain the weapon of choice. All laser crystals grant a forward-firing attack for the R-9Leo, and the Bit Device handles the weapon's 'colored' property.
  • Psy Bit: Picking up a laser crystal immediately grants the pilot both Bit Devices, instead of the typical one-at-a-time.

Stages and Bosses[]

Stage Name Boss
1 Paradise Planet Sadistin
2 Red Hot Desert Daggerd
3 Tropical Forest B-Fls Folles
4 Floating Continent Zera
Twin Coil
5 Inside of Ruins Cyber-Brain
6 Core of the Planet Messiah

Enemies[]

Trivia[]

  • The same glob-like enemies seen near Major's control room can be seen in R-Type Delta during the stage Evil implying that the Bydo may have assimilated Major. However, this may just be a coincidence.
  • R-Type Leo serves to be a possible tribute to Konami's Gradius series due of many similarities in the game, for example, The Ion Ring laser.
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