I like Konami from these old days. Not every game they made was good but they still made some stuff I love like Contra the Hard Corps, Xexex, and Pop'n Twinbee. I do like their Gradius series though. I've never loved it though mostly because I feel like the punishment of death scares me too much to do a honest run of the game not using save states. I will never admit I'm good at shmups but I do enjoy them.
Nemesis is a weird one, it was Konami's 3rd GB game with the previous two being Motocross Maniacs and Castlevania the Adventure. Nemesis surprises me by being an actual competent shmup for the handheld that wasn't even a year old at this point I think. I also appreciate it for trying to be it's own thing while not totally abandoning the original.
Nemesis feels like some new take on the first Gradius game with similar level ideas and bosses like the volcanos still being here and the first boss being the one you see in Gradius 1. The rest of the bosses all seem to be totally unique unless they are from a different game in the series. I love the size of them really trying to show the GB can do some cool stuff.
The game did shock me in how easy it was for a Gradius game. I only died like three times. You can even start the game with 99 lives. Though this game does have that dreaded lose everything and it's basically over for later levels. Luckily you can start on any level though don't think you can go to stage 5, use the Konami code and beat the final boss to win because they knew you were gonna try doing that and you still gotta do the other stages now if you want that ending. Can I just say I'm so glad the shield works good in this game, after playing 5 different versions of Parodius where the barrier was just complete garbage it was nice to just actually have a good shield again.
The game also runs pretty nice and doesn't look bad graphically though they didn't bother to animate the ship which is odd to say the least. The music is also that quality Konami sound you expect to hear. Also why does the exploding animation for when you die look so good? Konami you didn't need to make it look kind of clean for a GB game.
Nemesis is not going to impress really many nowadays when much better shmups are to be played but I can't help but appreciate the work behind this. They could have just made a lazy port of Gradius but no they knew the limitations and designed a fun good game for shmup fans to enjoy that you can beat in what feels like 30 minutes. A sequel would be made for this handheld and a port of Parodius would come too. If you want to play this in color, play the EU only Konami GB collection Vol 1 for GBC. Really don't have much to say, it's fun. What? The review is over, you can leave now.
Nemesis is a weird one, it was Konami's 3rd GB game with the previous two being Motocross Maniacs and Castlevania the Adventure. Nemesis surprises me by being an actual competent shmup for the handheld that wasn't even a year old at this point I think. I also appreciate it for trying to be it's own thing while not totally abandoning the original.
Nemesis feels like some new take on the first Gradius game with similar level ideas and bosses like the volcanos still being here and the first boss being the one you see in Gradius 1. The rest of the bosses all seem to be totally unique unless they are from a different game in the series. I love the size of them really trying to show the GB can do some cool stuff.
The game did shock me in how easy it was for a Gradius game. I only died like three times. You can even start the game with 99 lives. Though this game does have that dreaded lose everything and it's basically over for later levels. Luckily you can start on any level though don't think you can go to stage 5, use the Konami code and beat the final boss to win because they knew you were gonna try doing that and you still gotta do the other stages now if you want that ending. Can I just say I'm so glad the shield works good in this game, after playing 5 different versions of Parodius where the barrier was just complete garbage it was nice to just actually have a good shield again.
The game also runs pretty nice and doesn't look bad graphically though they didn't bother to animate the ship which is odd to say the least. The music is also that quality Konami sound you expect to hear. Also why does the exploding animation for when you die look so good? Konami you didn't need to make it look kind of clean for a GB game.
Nemesis is not going to impress really many nowadays when much better shmups are to be played but I can't help but appreciate the work behind this. They could have just made a lazy port of Gradius but no they knew the limitations and designed a fun good game for shmup fans to enjoy that you can beat in what feels like 30 minutes. A sequel would be made for this handheld and a port of Parodius would come too. If you want to play this in color, play the EU only Konami GB collection Vol 1 for GBC. Really don't have much to say, it's fun. What? The review is over, you can leave now.