Gradius is among the first shmups I've played and the first horizontal one as well, and for the most part it was pretty fun. The ability to choose different upgrades for your ship is pretty neat, though admittedly after a while you're just sticking to the same strategy for picking them. I think this system sadly also causes a big issue with the game, whenever you die you lose all your upgrades, and past the first stage it really just feels insanely difficult to build them back up. To this end, I basically played until I lost my first life and then considered the run over there.

The levels themselves are mostly susceptible to learning, but a few can be quite troublesome especially without a fully upgraded ship. Stage Three with the Easter Island heads feels pretty unreasonable without an option or two to help deal with the projectiles they shoot, and the final stage to this day I cannot beat. Everything else I think makes for a good starting point for Shmup beginners since it certainly was suitable for myself.

Unfortunately since I don't think I have the skill or will to beat every stage in one go yet, I'll mark this as completed for now. I can definitely see myself coming back to it with more experience in the future though, because it was pretty fun. If interested, my hi score is 262100.