Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
ININ, along with developer KRITZELKRATZ 3000, has just released a new "port" of R-Type III: The Third Lightning, which IREM originally created for the SNES over 30 years ago. This game has already made quite the splash among shmup and R-Type fans world wide... mostly for the wrong reasons.
Like with the original R-Type Dimensions, this was meant to be an HD graphical remake that maintained the original game's design, allowing you to instantly swap between the original 2D graphics and the new 3D graphics at the tap of a button, like how the Halo 1 & 2 anniversary games work. I never really learned R-Type 1 or 2, or Dimensions, so I can't say for sure how well that game turned out, but I always heard that it had some inaccuracies. How significant they are, I have no idea. But to keep the tradition alive, Dimensions III is full of brand new bugs and inaccuracies! It has so many differences from the original game that this feels more like a remake from the ground up, by people who didn't know how to play the original.
No matter how you look at it, this is a poor remake. The accuracy of the port is very low, it has ridiculous bugs like invisible hitboxes that you can crash into (eg. stage 5 worm area), the new graphics don't line up with the original sprites 1:1, so sometimes the hitboxes aren't exactly where you expect them to be, and the quality of the graphics is hit and miss, in my opinion. For the most part, I think it looks decent, but it also make the game harder to parse visually. There are a lot effects and details in certain areas that reduce visual clarity, and thus, makes the game harder to play because everything is blending together. This is a problem that was solved like 40+ years ago when developers realized they needed to desaturate the background a bit to make the play field clear, so it's annoying that this issue continues to come up in 2026. But the new graphics only *really* bug me in stage 4, so I don't want to harp on it too much (too late?). With that said, since I'm playing Dimensions, I wanted to stick with the new graphics. It feels pointless to play this if I'm just going to use the old sprites, even though they make the game a bit easier to play.
And that's not all! The game supports high framerates, which is great! Unfortunately, it breaks the game. In stage 6, there are gimmick areas in the background that start moving you up/down/left/right when you pass through them. If you play this at 240 fps, like I was at first, passing through those areas will start moving you ~4x faster than they should, because they clearly only tested this at 60 fps. Again, this is 2026, high refresh monitors are very common. How can you not notice this, and at least offer a cap for 60 fps if you can't get it working right? I had to force it with SpecialK. But honestly, this is just a minor complaint, since I didn't expect this to run at an uncapped framerate in the first place. It'd be nice if it worked, though.
They also don't even let you remap all of the buttons. You can only change how the four face buttons work, even though essential mechanics are tied to the shoulder buttons or triggers. I had to mess around with the Steam Input settings to get a layout I like for my arcade stick. I think Playstation and Xbox also have this function in the OS, so you can get around it, but it's just ridiculous that you have to do it in the first place.
...With all of that said, I did find myself enjoying this game. It has a solid level of difficulty, especially for a console game, so it was interesting to build strategies and figure out how to deal with all of the nonsense. It reminds me of Turtles in Time (arcade) in that regard - a game so messed up that it loops around and becomes fun somehow. However, I wouldn't recommend this at all to anyone unless you're certain you have a similar brain that could get hooked on figuring out this jank. I've played this for around 30 hours and never felt bored, nor did I want to stop until I at least got the 2-ALL. So in a way, they must have done something right? No matter how "bad" a game is, there's nothing worse than a boring one, and for me, Dimensions III was anything but boring (aside from stage 1).
Personally, I'd like them to just throw a SNES emulator into the game, along with the original R-Type III, put that in its own menu, and keep this awkward Dimensions remake as its own thing. Just get rid of the really horrible bugs and let us remap buttons. ININ has already stated they're working on fixes, so I'd recommend waiting and seeing how that turns out.
Thanks to ININ for sending me a review key! R-Type Dimensions III is available now on all platforms for $34.99.
0:00 Intro
0:49 1
6:41 1-2
9:23 1-3
14:20 1-4
19:04 1-5
23:58 1-6
33:11 2-1
38:57 2-2
41:40 2-3
46:40 2-4
52:41 2-5
1:00:02 2-6
---
Beat 'em Ups: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
STG/Shmups: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
ININ, along with developer KRITZELKRATZ 3000, has just released a new "port" of R-Type III: The Third Lightning, which IREM originally created for the SNES over 30 years ago. This game has already made quite the splash among shmup and R-Type fans world wide... mostly for the wrong reasons.
Like with the original R-Type Dimensions, this was meant to be an HD graphical remake that maintained the original game's design, allowing you to instantly swap between the original 2D graphics and the new 3D graphics at the tap of a button, like how the Halo 1 & 2 anniversary games work. I never really learned R-Type 1 or 2, or Dimensions, so I can't say for sure how well that game turned out, but I always heard that it had some inaccuracies. How significant they are, I have no idea. But to keep the tradition alive, Dimensions III is full of brand new bugs and inaccuracies! It has so many differences from the original game that this feels more like a remake from the ground up, by people who didn't know how to play the original.
No matter how you look at it, this is a poor remake. The accuracy of the port is very low, it has ridiculous bugs like invisible hitboxes that you can crash into (eg. stage 5 worm area), the new graphics don't line up with the original sprites 1:1, so sometimes the hitboxes aren't exactly where you expect them to be, and the quality of the graphics is hit and miss, in my opinion. For the most part, I think it looks decent, but it also make the game harder to parse visually. There are a lot effects and details in certain areas that reduce visual clarity, and thus, makes the game harder to play because everything is blending together. This is a problem that was solved like 40+ years ago when developers realized they needed to desaturate the background a bit to make the play field clear, so it's annoying that this issue continues to come up in 2026. But the new graphics only *really* bug me in stage 4, so I don't want to harp on it too much (too late?). With that said, since I'm playing Dimensions, I wanted to stick with the new graphics. It feels pointless to play this if I'm just going to use the old sprites, even though they make the game a bit easier to play.
And that's not all! The game supports high framerates, which is great! Unfortunately, it breaks the game. In stage 6, there are gimmick areas in the background that start moving you up/down/left/right when you pass through them. If you play this at 240 fps, like I was at first, passing through those areas will start moving you ~4x faster than they should, because they clearly only tested this at 60 fps. Again, this is 2026, high refresh monitors are very common. How can you not notice this, and at least offer a cap for 60 fps if you can't get it working right? I had to force it with SpecialK. But honestly, this is just a minor complaint, since I didn't expect this to run at an uncapped framerate in the first place. It'd be nice if it worked, though.
They also don't even let you remap all of the buttons. You can only change how the four face buttons work, even though essential mechanics are tied to the shoulder buttons or triggers. I had to mess around with the Steam Input settings to get a layout I like for my arcade stick. I think Playstation and Xbox also have this function in the OS, so you can get around it, but it's just ridiculous that you have to do it in the first place.
...With all of that said, I did find myself enjoying this game. It has a solid level of difficulty, especially for a console game, so it was interesting to build strategies and figure out how to deal with all of the nonsense. It reminds me of Turtles in Time (arcade) in that regard - a game so messed up that it loops around and becomes fun somehow. However, I wouldn't recommend this at all to anyone unless you're certain you have a similar brain that could get hooked on figuring out this jank. I've played this for around 30 hours and never felt bored, nor did I want to stop until I at least got the 2-ALL. So in a way, they must have done something right? No matter how "bad" a game is, there's nothing worse than a boring one, and for me, Dimensions III was anything but boring (aside from stage 1).
Personally, I'd like them to just throw a SNES emulator into the game, along with the original R-Type III, put that in its own menu, and keep this awkward Dimensions remake as its own thing. Just get rid of the really horrible bugs and let us remap buttons. ININ has already stated they're working on fixes, so I'd recommend waiting and seeing how that turns out.
Thanks to ININ for sending me a review key! R-Type Dimensions III is available now on all platforms for $34.99.
0:00 Intro
0:49 1
6:41 1-2
9:23 1-3
14:20 1-4
19:04 1-5
23:58 1-6
33:11 2-1
38:57 2-2
41:40 2-3
46:40 2-4
52:41 2-5
1:00:02 2-6
---
Beat 'em Ups: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
STG/Shmups: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
![[SNES] Batman Returns - No Death Clear (Mania Difficulty)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tUfAvh_HVWE/mqdefault.jpg "[SNES] Batman Returns - No Death Clear (Mania Difficulty)
Batman Returns is a beat em up that Konami developed for the SNES back in 1992. It follows the events of the movie, although they take some creative liberties with the characters and progression in order to make a fun game out of it. And they did an excellent job! This is one of the best games on the SNES, one of the best console beat em ups, and probably the best Batman game ever made (I need to play the NES ones again). Theres really not much to criticize about it - they did a great job in every single area, from gameplay, to graphics, music, enemy design, pacing, difficulty - you name it. Im not really sure if this game is widely seen as a classic, but I feel like its underrated by every possible audience for it. Its absolutely great.
This is a no death clear on the highest difficulty, Mania. In this mode, Konami does the typical console game thing of giving you tons of lives, and leaving very few healing items throughout the stages (there are more on lower difficulties). I really dislike this design because it makes just clearing the game easy and unsatisfying, so you have to go all in and go for a deathless run in order to get a fun challenge out of it. And at least in Mania mode, most of the enemies do a lot of damage if they land a hit on you. Some bosses can even do 50-75% of your HP in one shot. So you really need to put in some work and memorize the hard parts, figure out good strategies for the bosses (the first Catwoman, and especially the Penguin fight is very tricky on Mania difficulty), and play carefully when you need to. Its fun, but Id have liked it balanced a little differently. But regardless, its a great game that every fan of beat em ups, or Batman in general should try out.
0:00 Intro
4:35 Scene 1 — Ambush in Gotham Plaza
9:40 Scene 2 — Battle in the Streets of Gotham City
17:07 Scene 3 — On the Prowl
21:20 Scene 4 — The Penguins Trap
26:03 Scene 5 — To the Batmobile!
29:37 Scene 6 — Circus Train
34:34 Scene 7 — The Penguins Lair
41:35 Ending & Credits
I played this on the BSNES emulator, but watching the replay back, it looks a little choppy at points. Maybe this emulator doesnt play nice with OBS? Im kinda annoyed about that to be honest. I own the game on the SNES, but playing on my PC is a lot more convenient for a bunch of reasons... Maybe Ill try a different emulator next time. Oh well.
Beat em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71")
