Now this, this is it. This is the Gradius experience I've been looking for. Gradius is a series I've wanted to love but it's constant stagnant level design, enemy design and visuals just made every game feel almost like remixes of the original. They felt uninspired, stale and though there are flashes of promise they never hit a height to open up that potential. Gradius Gaiden feels like the first true sequel to the original Gradius, it just took Konami 11 years to get there, or 20 for it's eventual Western release. Gaiden takes all the aspects of Gradius and builds or reuses them in fresher ways to make it both exciting yet familiar all at once.
This being a console release immediately made it more accessible for a start. That artificial arcade difficulty has been removed so it's now still challenging without being controller throwing obnoxious. After a cool cutscene you can choose between 4 different ships with their own unique weapons, the Vic Viper, Lord British (a ship from the spin off Salamander series), Jade Knight and Falchion β.
Once the game starts the action doesn't take long to get going and many staples of the series like the Easter Island Statue heads, volcanoes, and flame dragons are there though with some twists. The Easter statues fire giant lasers, volcanoes can now be destroyed before erupting and the flame dragons are used as attack weapons out of a bacterial ship rather than a solar flare in an interesting twist. The new stuff though is more important mixed in with giant snow caterpillars, ship graveyards, crytal levels and many of the bosses are really cool to fight and don't just feel like the same basic ship from every other Gradius game. The game is fun, feels pretty action heavy and stage 8's sequence while hard was especially intense. I loved it.
Visually Gaiden really uses the PlayStation's capabilities with coloured detailed sprites, transparency effects etc. There are some really cool little features like one boss that spins the whole level around you whilst enclosed, or crystals that reflect lasers for example. It is very intricate looking and has a good soundtrack to boot, and I don't just mean music as the vocal narration the series is known for is a lot more pronounced and audibly clearer with my favorite part being the spinning boss mentioned above verbally taunting you during the fight which I've not really seen before in a shoot 'em up. The OST is fantastic with the traditional Gradius theme ramped up but the whole OST is really worth a listen too.
Honestly I don't have much bad to say about this game. It's balanced right, it looks gorgeous, the music is great, it's a blend of old and new in a fresh way and have you seen that cover art?
This being a console release immediately made it more accessible for a start. That artificial arcade difficulty has been removed so it's now still challenging without being controller throwing obnoxious. After a cool cutscene you can choose between 4 different ships with their own unique weapons, the Vic Viper, Lord British (a ship from the spin off Salamander series), Jade Knight and Falchion β.
Once the game starts the action doesn't take long to get going and many staples of the series like the Easter Island Statue heads, volcanoes, and flame dragons are there though with some twists. The Easter statues fire giant lasers, volcanoes can now be destroyed before erupting and the flame dragons are used as attack weapons out of a bacterial ship rather than a solar flare in an interesting twist. The new stuff though is more important mixed in with giant snow caterpillars, ship graveyards, crytal levels and many of the bosses are really cool to fight and don't just feel like the same basic ship from every other Gradius game. The game is fun, feels pretty action heavy and stage 8's sequence while hard was especially intense. I loved it.
Visually Gaiden really uses the PlayStation's capabilities with coloured detailed sprites, transparency effects etc. There are some really cool little features like one boss that spins the whole level around you whilst enclosed, or crystals that reflect lasers for example. It is very intricate looking and has a good soundtrack to boot, and I don't just mean music as the vocal narration the series is known for is a lot more pronounced and audibly clearer with my favorite part being the spinning boss mentioned above verbally taunting you during the fight which I've not really seen before in a shoot 'em up. The OST is fantastic with the traditional Gradius theme ramped up but the whole OST is really worth a listen too.
Honestly I don't have much bad to say about this game. It's balanced right, it looks gorgeous, the music is great, it's a blend of old and new in a fresh way and have you seen that cover art?
TheQuietGamer
7 months ago