Gradius III: I had played the SNES version before and didn't remember it being this hard. I don't mind if the game is this punishingly difficult, but the last stage in this title has a section with lasers in which I had to look a guide online about how to beat (the infamous cube rush was hard and randomly generated but it was evident you had to try and build a wall around you). Turns out on the section with the lasers you have to try not to slowdown the game by firing everything you got because the slower scrolling desyncs the pattern of the lasers and you can end up not having a way to escape them. If you are too good at the game, you fuck up the level design. There's unfairly designed hard and then there's hard by inept programming, and even though my account here doesn't take into account gameplay that much, this is a technical issue akin to delivering a painting with the canvas having a hole in it not allowing to see something important (with no postmodern intention behind it)

Gradius IV: The game makes use of real time 3D to portray some of the enemies, which allows for some smoother movement for them compared to previous titles... And that's it. Gradius Gaiden released prior to this had a really impressive and distinct look to it while only using 2D and this just recycles ideas from the previous games in the series with no interesting twists to them (how many times have I seen that Salamander spinning tentacle core this month...), in a franchise which I already see as having problems distancing itself from its formula and without making use of the 3D for some cinematographic looking backgrounds, like what little I have seen for Gradius V.

Well, at least I have these two completed, so when I eventually play Treasure's entry I won't have to go through these underwhelming experiences just before to see if it doesn't become as derivative as Gradius III & IV.