Gradius Review (Nintendo, 1986)

Gradius was a game I didn’t much like when I was a kid. You see, whenever I had the pleasure of visiting an arcade my quarters were heavily limited. This is one of those titles that just loved to steal all of my money. It was fun while it lasted, but I was only ever able to last a minute tops before I was prompted to insert more quarters. Gradius was one of the very first forced scrolling shooters ever created, and went on to have a profound but short lived effect on the video game industry. It was a hit in Japanese arcades, and though released under a different name in the U.S. (Nemesis) it too was popular in this region. With the rise of the Nintendo Entertainment System Konami opted to port their hit over. It’s worth noting that this release was saw the first integration of the infamous Konami code (the one that almost every gamer in the 80s still remembers to this day) and this was a helpful aid to combat the unfair difficulty level. Now that I’m able to beat the game (not without a lot of frustration) I can offer up some fresh perspective; Gradius is still a very fun yet simple game and this port rocks.

In Gradius you play as the pilot of a lone space ship. The evil Bacterian Army threatens the planet, and you’re the only pilot with the guff to stop them. To even out the odds (but not entirely) you’re given command of the state of the art Vic Viper ship. Unfortunately you’re still up against a veritable army of incoming ships and other enemies. Gradius is your basic horizontally scrolling shooter. You can move your ship freely around the screen in all eight directions. By default you’re equipped with a single shot laser blast, but this is weak and generally ineffective. Defeating specific formations of enemies (or just those that are colored red) results in the foes leaving behind power-up capsules. On the bottom of the screen is a row of different enhancements and collecting one of these capsules results in the first option being highlighted. You’re given several different options for this. You can either collect more and move further along the row, or activate the capsule at any time by pressing the B button.

The power-ups are varied and well designed. The first of these increases the Vic Viper’s speed (and believe you me this is helpful because, for being a spaceship, it’s incredibly sluggish). Next up we have missiles which add a downward projectile to your basic attack. These are most useful in hitting ground foes because they travel along any bottom surface. The third power-up is the double shot. This adds an upward angled shot to your basic attack. Following the double shot is the laser which is easily the most powerful weapon in the game. It replaces your basic shot, and on top of being more powerful can also travel through enemies. Another useful addition is the option. This creates a small drone that follows you around and fires in tandem to the Vic Viper. What’s especially cool is the fact that you can have up to two drones at once even if this is a far cry from the four available in the arcade version. Lastly is the shield. This protects you from any frontal attacks but only lasts for a couple of hits. Additionally you’re still vulnerable in the rear of the ship and enemies certainly aren’t shy about exploiting this.

While Gradius is a fun game it’s very basic. The stages are very linear (which isn’t unexpected) and there’s not very much diversity. They’re all divided into two sections; one that takes place purely in space and the other that introduces terrain hazards. These lack variety, and while they do feature sub-bosses these repeat more often than not. This is all forgivable, but the real drawback here is the high difficulty. Games from this era were generally tough, but Gradius is on a whole other level. You’ll routinely be dodging incoming fire from all directions, and a single hit is all it takes (while not shielded) to put the Vic Viper out of commission. Unfortunately you’re not simply thrown right back into the action, and instead restart from the last checkpoint you reached. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that you lose all of your power-ups. Some areas of the game are almost impossible without at least a few speed upgrades, and when you’re in one of these sections it can almost feel like you’re trapped. I was able to complete Gradius, but believe you me, I was white knuckling it through the later sections.

Gradius is a far cry in terms of graphics from its arcade counterpart. Is that a problem? Not in this case. The visuals are very nice for an early release on the Nintendo. Through a big portion of the game you’re simply flying against a black background with single pixels used to represent distant stars, but the enemy designs are really well done. The incoming ships and other enemies animate decently, and I really like the general style applied here. When you do reach solid terrain things get a little surreal. There’s a wide variety with organic forests and dirt mounds later changing to mechanical scenery that is very pleasing to the eye. The Easter Island heads are a nice touch because of just how out of place they are. The soundtrack is limited, but all of the music is very well composed and his since become iconic. The composer, Miki Higashino, did a wonderful job with the various compositions. They help establish a wonderful sense of adventure that works well to establish the wonderful atmosphere.