Gradius (NES)

Shoot 'Em Up week begins!

Difficulty - ***1/2
Controls - ***1/2
Sounds - ***
Graphics - ***
Overall - 13 stars out of 20

Planet Gradius is in peril! The evil enemy Bacterion fleet is coming, and boy are they hungry! You've been entrusted with the planet's prototype ship, the Warp Rattler. The objective is clear, blast the Bacterion armada and destroy its super fortress.

Strictly speaking, if you're playing this game with the Konami code or using any of the warp tricks or full power-up tricks, this game is not that hard. Sure you'll lose some of your 30 lives, but you should be able to beat it. However, if you are playing this game as is, it will be quite the challenge. Specifically when you're in levels 4 to 6. One slip up and bam! Your ship upgrades are gone. Left with a slow lumbering sack of soon-too-be space junk. You're done. Game over.
That's Gradius!

Konami is well known for having tight responsive controls. The 'B' button fires your current weapon and the 'A' button upgrades your ship. Pretty easy. The only real problem I have with the game is if you power-up your speed way too much. Your ship will fly around and most certainly smash into some terrain. But all in all, very good stuff.

Pretty basic tunes in this game. Some variety in stage music, but in the later levels it does repeat. One thing that bothers me is at the beginning of any stage you'll hear the space flying theme and no sound effects will be heard. When the actual stage begins, you'll hear the sound effects! What the hell?

The graphics in Gradius are pretty simple compared to later shoot 'em up games. Your Warp Rattler looks pretty plain and so do most of the enemies (nice animation when you move your ship up or down though). You'll face the same looking boss ship for the first few stages. There is however some variety down the way. The giant brain boss at the end looks really cool. Even the title screen is ho-hum.

It is one of the games that paved the way for future shoot 'em up games. Gradius while sometimes plain and dull to look at, sports some OK tunes, tight controls and tense knuckle biting action. The bosses are big and somewhat detailed, but the enemies for the most part are...nothing special. And what the hell is a Warp Rattler? Pretty dumb name Konami! Oh well, pick this game up, its a classic for a reason! Now where did I put my Warp Rattler?