Irem's R-Type never graced the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, and was instead exclusive to the PC Engine, SNES, Master System and Game Boy back in the day.
This egregious oversight is being fixed by TheRoboZ (Andrea Baldiraghi), who has been hard at work unofficially porting the 1987 arcade classic to Sega's 16-bit system for the past few years.
The developer has now revealed that they are not content to simply convert the game to the Genesis / Mega Drive, but improve it, as well. Mega R-Type will include a brand-new ship named the Middo, which is a fighter that has been "overtaken and fused with the Bydo to become an organic weapon."
The Middo will also showcase a new type of Force control, which is shown in the video below.
You can download the latest demo of the game here.
R-Type was a revelation when it hit arcades in the late '80s and was ported to a wide range of home systems (but not the Mega Drive, as we've already established). It spawned several sequels, the most recent of which, R-Type Final 3 Evolved, launched quite recently on PS5.