I played this one on an emulator, which is probably the only way to play it. It is a space shooter or sometimes called bullet hell games where there is so much on the screen you literally have to watch your ship and deal with the incoming obstacles and try to ignore everything else which is not easy! These games tend to be super hard and this one was pretty hard, but I thought I did okay. The arcade versions of these games tend to actually be easier to play when on an emulator rather than a home console because you can insert as many "coins" as needed to get through it while the console versions tend to have limited continues.
The story, some evil computer is trying to create a perfect paradise, but it has malfunctioned and thus is attacking other planets. It is up to the R-type ship to blast through several levels to get to the final boss and rid the universe of this threat! Pretty standard stuff.
The game play has the usual power ups and in this case two satellite ships you can send out to do massive damage to enemies, but you risk leaving yourself exposed. I was unclear if the S power up was shield or speed and I am not sure how damage was taken because it seemed like if you had the twin satellites they did nullify some types of enemy fire. Hard to tell though as all the stuff is flying all over the place!
So, nothing new here or all that innovative other than using the satellites as destructive weapons, but still fun. One feels good about themselves if they can navigate a particularly nasty stretch without dying or getting by a boss without taking a hit. Though one wonders why they do not just make the ship out of the same stuff the satellites are made of? Then you would be invincible! Of course, then all the challenge would be gone...