R-Gear is an unreleased title in the Ray series. It was conceived as an successor of RayForce but ended canceled in the middle of development in favor of RayStorm. However its legacy was preserved in form of a demo gameplay video included in RAY-RAY CD-ROM and the name of a playable ship in RayStorm HD. The game's prototype with a single playable stage would later be included in Ray'z Arcade Chronology compilation as a bonus.
Summary[]
Not much is known about R-Gear outside of what is shown on the short gameplay demo footage found in RAY-RAY CD-ROM. There are two different playable ships, a red ship (possibly Player 1 exclusive) sporting a lightning Lock-on Laser similar that to R-Gray 2's and a blue ship (possibly Player 2 exclusive) resembling a modified RVA-818 X-LAY with traditional lock-on lasers. Unlike RayStorm however, both ships have straight shot as primary shot weapon.
Most of the assets and several enemy objects (the HUD, Game Over font, small Zako, large missiles) still reuse those from RayForce, but the stage design is completely new. The demo shows a stage set in a forest inside what appears to be a space colony. The stage's boss (mid-boss?) is a six-legged mech with three turrets and four large missile launcher ports. In the end of the demo, once the mech is destroyed the mech's "core" detaches itself, flies away and transforms into a large spacecraft. The scenery zooms far out revealing colony's interior in the backdrop. An Earth-like planet also can be seen in the background. According to the information currently available, this game only has two completed stages[1].
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