Japanese visual technology company Eizo have inadvertently given fans of the classic R-Type series a glimpse at what a potential sequel to the side-scrolling arcade game would have been. In a promotional tweet for an Eizo monitor, the test footage used on the screen to display its fidelity was familiar to users who recognized it as what looked like an R-Type game. Former Irem director Kazuma Kujo then took to Twitter to confirm that the screenshot in use by Eizo was, in fact, an early piece of concept art for a potential sequel internally known as R-Type Final 2.
First discovered by Twitter user @OKA_B_1B3, the concept art was used by Eizo to showcase the monitor’s potential range of display options. Kujo, who previously worked at R-Type developer Irem, confirmed that the art was real but that the project never went beyond preliminary stages of development.
According to Kujo, the R-Type team at Irem were discussing the potential of a sequel to the game’s latest entry, 2003’s R-Type Final, but eventually dropped the idea. The art was still given to Eizo for promotional purposes and even used as part of an Irem April Fools joke, but beyond some very preliminary gameplay notes, the potential R-Type Final 2 never got off the ground.
Kujo went on to discuss his regrets about using the word final in the last game’s title, stating that the team only did so because they believed there would never be market demand for another R-Type game. The discussion around the discovered art and his subsequent tweets, however, has also caused Kujo to think more about the future of the franchise, noting in another post that he was surprised at how much his initial R-Type Final 2 comments had taken off.
For those who are looking for an immediate R-Type fix, a collection titled R-Type Dimensions EX is currently available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.
