Gradius
REDISCOVER RETRO GAMING - CLASSIC 8-BIT NINTENDO NES
NINTENDO NES
Game Title:Gradius
System:Nintendo NES
Players:1 Player
Genre:Shooter
Developer(s):Konami
Release Date(s):1986 - US
1988 - EU |
Gradius is a scrolling shooter video game published by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986.
Gradius puts the player in the pilot seat of the Vic Viper war ship, where they must struggle against the evil forces from Bacterion.
A horizontal scrolling shoot ’em up, the gameplay is usually fast and furious, with a wide array of power ups, although overall game diversity is somewhat lacking compared to later entries of this type. Gradius introduced the power meter concept for controlling your ship upgrades, something that carries through to the majority of the Gradius series. Certain waves of enemies, and some solo enemies, leave behind a power capsule when destroyed. This power capsule is used to advance along your power meter, and each step in the power meter represents a different available upgrade. Everything from a basic speed boost, to piercing lasers, air to surface missiles, and ‘Option’, which provides up to two glowing sidewinders that follow your ship and duplicate all your weapon output. So, for instance, you must collect two power capsules to get the ‘Missile’ upgrade, and after purchase, your power meter resets to the beginning. Gradius is an early game for the NES (1986), and it shows in a number of places. Overall, the game is very simplistic visually compared to later side-scrolling shooters, but that is to be expected, and it doesn’t hinder gameplay at all. Other things start to hit you though, like boss repetition, In fact, with the exception of the end boss, every stage ends with the exact same fight. The sound as well can get a little obnoxious. The music is passable enough, almost decent for the time, but the constant chatter of your weapons going off swamps out just about any other noise you can expect to hear, the lasers are particularly annoying in this regard. Also somewhat poor is the hit detection, our actual hit-box is much smaller than the sprite that represents your ship, meaning you can often take bullets across your nose or tail without detriment, although I doubt anyone has ever truly complained about this! And the Verdict is...
The gameplay is fast and responsive, the controls again are the same, the action can be frantic which often leads to frustration when the screen is filling with bullets and there is no escape!. But this was one of the first of its kind, and newer games could learn from the lessons made by this NES classic!. Good solid game. |