1999 Game Boy Color Game Returning Very Soon With Re-Release

A 1999 Game Boy Color game is making an unexpected return 26 years after its release. Where the original was a Nintendo exclusive, though, this new release is coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. It isn’t coming to PS5 or Xbox Series X, but it will be playable on these machines via backward compatibility. And it’s going to be playable on everything above very soon. Right now, there is no exact release date for this re-release, but there is a release window of “this winter.”

The game in question is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up made by developer Irem and published by Nintendo called R-Type DX. This 1999 release was actually a re-release itself, and a compilation as well that combined R-Type and R-Type II, not into just one product, but into a single game. This version also added color to both. The former, for those that do not know, is a 1987 Arcade release that came to the original Game Boy in 1991. Two years after the former, R-Type II, its sequel, was released in 1989. Unlike the predecessor, though, the sequel never got its own standalone release on any platforms.

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What’s New

This new re-release, which is being handled by City Connection, is called R-Type DX: Music Encore. The subtitle part of this name, “Music Encore,” teases the new content this new release comes with. This includes additional scoring metrics for the arcade game, such as “hit ratio” and “number of continues.” In other words, it gives the game more high scores to chase.

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Meanwhile, modern features like rewind, quick save and load, full power-up start, a toggle for rapid-fire shorts, and more were added for those who want a more modern and easier experience.

Worth Revisiting

While some may have never heard of it, R-Type — the first not game, not the series as a whole — is a classic. Many consider it not just one of the best games of its time, but all time. To this end, it really helped popularize the genre and paved the way for many copycats in the following years. That said, neither game — especially the second — is accessible in the modern era, so this new re-release, if done well, is going to do both nostalgic gamers and game preservation a mighty service.

This revival of a Game Boy Color is not the first of this year, but there actually hasn’t been much for Game Boy Color nostalgics to celebrate in 2025. That said, one of this year’s most promising remaining releases looks like a love letter to this era of gaming, so this wrong may still be corrected before the end of the year.

All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.