The Gradius Experience

[retro junkie]

I took my fall Vacation this week. Always in October. Been retro gaming and found myself going through Gradius on my SNES. Back in the SNES era there were two games I brought home with my SNES, Gradius and R-Type. Yeah Mario was the pack-in but I wanted to save the Galaxy. At one point I thought slow down was my friend. But go through this game on normal only to be rewarded with a restart in hard mode, stripped down to nothing, bullet hell going on now, faster enemies, and slow down becomes a nightmare. Still this is one awesome game that still packs a punch for me after all these years. It feels so good just to sit back and hack my way through this, again, and again, and again. There are some places in this game I know where to sit and let my "options" do the deed. That is if that nasty scorpion doesn't steel them. I learned a long time ago that you watch your ship and spend your time dodging bullets while holding down, or tapping, the fire button. This game rocks! 

[targetrasp]

I had so much fun with Gradius and Rtype on the snes, i'd almost forgotton until I saw your screenshot of the little shop of horrors plant boss guy. The nostalgia came flooding back

[BLUEVOODU]

@retro junkie and @targetrasp don't forget about UN Squadron 

Gradius for the Super Nintendo is a great game... Like targetarsp... seeing your screenshots made the memories run back.  The part you have pictured where the floor cannons shoot up at you was a pain in the butt.  Great stuff... but a pain.  The Game Boy Advanced version revisited this  where there were a ton of floor cannons to work through while you fought other stuff on screen.  Unless you had the bomb that dropped down... this was a very difficult part.  Strike that... It was difficult even with those bombs.

Might I say I'm a little jealous of your time off.  I need time off now and fast    It's been "go go go" at work and everything else.  I've probably been working until 630-730 each night... sometimes logging back in until 10-1030 due to tasks going on.  It needs to slow down a bit.

[Grindspine]

I had played Gradius III and Darius Twin back on the SNES and revisited (and beat) both a few years ago on a free Saturday.

I have yet to beat Gradius IV on the PS2 though!

[targetrasp]

Gradius 3 and 4 can be found on the same disc in ps2 format, does it still play like its counterpart on snes? Also why is 5 so expensive?

I've never played 4 or 5, I can't imagine either being better than 3.

[retro junkie]

I know I have all of those Gradius games, but it has been so long that I have pulled them out, I can't remember how they were. This is the Gradius that I keep coming back to, and the one I use as a watermark for any other instalments. Maybe it is just the 16 bit era ingrained into my brain, but this is the one I love.

I also tackled Space Mega Force this week.

[BLUEVOODU]

Speaking of Gradius... you should check out this post on this game called Super Hydorah.  Maybe you have heard of it?

Super Hydorah

There are a lot of similarities to Gradius.

I believe I have the Gradius Collection for the PSP as well... this post made me want to break that out AND Gradius Galaxies for the Game Boy Advance.

[targetrasp]

Ditto - I'm adding Gradius and Rtype to the Christmas list!

[BLUEVOODU]

Ditto - I'm adding Gradius and Rtype to the Christmas list!

The originals?  Or?    Did you check out the Super Hydorah?

[targetrasp]

the originals. Super H-whatever looked cool but looked expensive.

[Grindspine]

Gradius 3 and 4 can be found on the same disc in ps2 format, does it still play like its counterpart on snes? Also why is 5 so expensive?

I've never played 4 or 5, I can't imagine either being better than 3.

I have PS2 Gradius III/IV.

The PS2 Gradius III is Japanese Nintendo hard vs the US release for the SNES.

[targetrasp]

"Japanese Nintendo hard"

that'll be going into rotation!

[BLUEVOODU]

I need to pick more of these up... we probably need a post where we can list all the Gradius games and variants.  That would be a fun topic.

I've had a bit of a Shmup addiction the last month.  I picked up another one for the PS4... there will be a post / small review of it coming soon.