On the Japanese side of the web, there's not much to say about Gradius that hasn't been said before. One of the most important video games period.
One of the first games to sell one million copies in Japan. The direct influence behind countless games such as Konami's own Axelay, Salamander, or Parodius series. A staple in Yu-Gi-Oh cards to the point of appearing in GX. One of Kamiya's primary influences. A soundtrack so beloved it appeared at the Tokyo Olympics. The origin of the KONAMI CODE, eat your heart out Contrabros.
On the English side of the web however, the first Gradius is widely considered an "aged" product and a semi-obscure curiosity that was thrust into a bit of spotlight by its inclusion on the NES Classic Mini and Nintendo Switch Online.
Having played most of the Gradius and Parodius games beforehand, even 1LCing Gradius 2 yesterday, I wasn't quite sure what to expect playing Gradius 1 again. After all, the last time I played it was for 5 minutes in high school. While I very rarely am one to critique graphical fidelity, I'll admit it took me a moment to adjust to the original Gradius' pixel art. Coming off Gradius 2, one of if not the most impressive looking NES games which had the VRC4 to give it a boost, Gradius 1 felt antiquated even compared to its direct sequel on the same console. However, once I had adjusted I was truly blown away by the world laid out in a mere 64 kb of rom data.
Gradius 1 is a very simple game. The same way Final Fight 1 can be considered a metric to measure other beat em ups by, Gradius 1 is my new metric for shmups; if a shmup is as good as Gradius or better, it's at least a passing grade. There are no custom loadouts to be found. There is the trusty laser, the double, 2 options, and a frontal shield. The sense of routing is surprisingly complete; for example the player can rank up to fly past ghostly easter island heads IN SPACE and come up with loadout plans between levels. There are just enough fodder enemies in between levels for me to come up with plans such as using the laser for the entire game but switching to the double shot in the last level due to the lack of a boss to worry about. Other games of the era like Galaga had their secrets in the form of twin ships, and Gradius has... flying between broken mountain pieces for extra points?
This may be the part where it's expected I go on a tangent about how Gradius must be judged for its time. However, I do not believe in the idea a game's quality can age honestly. Even at the time, Gradius 1 pales in some areas. Other 80s shmups had far more interesting stage secrets as mentioned before. There is also only 1 true boss fight in Gradius 1, which is repeated roughly half a dozen times until the player fights a final boss who does not even move. This is in stark contrast to, say, Sega's Fantasy Zone which has a varied array of mechanically complete boss fights.
Gradius 1 is a bit clumsy in its execution. Even at the time, I'm sure Konami was conscious of serious flaws such as the lack of proper bosses, which is why I imagine Gradius 2 is borderline an outright boss gauntlet game with a drastically increased difficulty (it took me roughly 10 hours of practice to 1LC Gradius 2 and 2 hours for Gradius 1 despite both being the same overall length, though I don't think in any Gradius game I will ever defend the checkpoint system lol)
However, it is also a game of great ambition, breaking new ground for the shmup genre as a whole. Treasure is my favourite studio and without Gradius 1, I can safely say your favourite shmup or mine could very well not exist.
Machiguchi wanted a game that could surpass Namco's Xevious. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, and Konami's single step here was all so brilliant and ambitious. The satellites (or Options as they are referred to here) went through 20 different programming revisions before settling on one that could work.
The cinematic tone of the game was unparalleled for such an early NES release. There are no stage transitions, it feels like one continuous adventure. Making the final boss into essentially a victory lap shootout was a ballsy move in an era where devs were intent on making final bosses as brutal as possible for longevity in otherwise short experiences. The execution is not my favourite, but it is inspired. Even the iconic easter island heads were included simply because the idea of them stood out in the otherwise traditional space shooter world.
Gradius is not as great or as legendary as something like Galaga or Space Invaders could hope to be. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in sheer scale and wonder. I may have given Space Invaders 5 stars, but I do not think about Space Invaders very often. Gradius as a series has a habit of coming to my mind. We achieve greatness by looking on the back of giants. For the shmup community, Gradius is one of those giants.
"It's decent, for a 1985 NES shoot em u-" it's a landmark release, for any medium.
One of the first games to sell one million copies in Japan. The direct influence behind countless games such as Konami's own Axelay, Salamander, or Parodius series. A staple in Yu-Gi-Oh cards to the point of appearing in GX. One of Kamiya's primary influences. A soundtrack so beloved it appeared at the Tokyo Olympics. The origin of the KONAMI CODE, eat your heart out Contrabros.
On the English side of the web however, the first Gradius is widely considered an "aged" product and a semi-obscure curiosity that was thrust into a bit of spotlight by its inclusion on the NES Classic Mini and Nintendo Switch Online.
Having played most of the Gradius and Parodius games beforehand, even 1LCing Gradius 2 yesterday, I wasn't quite sure what to expect playing Gradius 1 again. After all, the last time I played it was for 5 minutes in high school. While I very rarely am one to critique graphical fidelity, I'll admit it took me a moment to adjust to the original Gradius' pixel art. Coming off Gradius 2, one of if not the most impressive looking NES games which had the VRC4 to give it a boost, Gradius 1 felt antiquated even compared to its direct sequel on the same console. However, once I had adjusted I was truly blown away by the world laid out in a mere 64 kb of rom data.
Gradius 1 is a very simple game. The same way Final Fight 1 can be considered a metric to measure other beat em ups by, Gradius 1 is my new metric for shmups; if a shmup is as good as Gradius or better, it's at least a passing grade. There are no custom loadouts to be found. There is the trusty laser, the double, 2 options, and a frontal shield. The sense of routing is surprisingly complete; for example the player can rank up to fly past ghostly easter island heads IN SPACE and come up with loadout plans between levels. There are just enough fodder enemies in between levels for me to come up with plans such as using the laser for the entire game but switching to the double shot in the last level due to the lack of a boss to worry about. Other games of the era like Galaga had their secrets in the form of twin ships, and Gradius has... flying between broken mountain pieces for extra points?
This may be the part where it's expected I go on a tangent about how Gradius must be judged for its time. However, I do not believe in the idea a game's quality can age honestly. Even at the time, Gradius 1 pales in some areas. Other 80s shmups had far more interesting stage secrets as mentioned before. There is also only 1 true boss fight in Gradius 1, which is repeated roughly half a dozen times until the player fights a final boss who does not even move. This is in stark contrast to, say, Sega's Fantasy Zone which has a varied array of mechanically complete boss fights.
Gradius 1 is a bit clumsy in its execution. Even at the time, I'm sure Konami was conscious of serious flaws such as the lack of proper bosses, which is why I imagine Gradius 2 is borderline an outright boss gauntlet game with a drastically increased difficulty (it took me roughly 10 hours of practice to 1LC Gradius 2 and 2 hours for Gradius 1 despite both being the same overall length, though I don't think in any Gradius game I will ever defend the checkpoint system lol)
However, it is also a game of great ambition, breaking new ground for the shmup genre as a whole. Treasure is my favourite studio and without Gradius 1, I can safely say your favourite shmup or mine could very well not exist.
Machiguchi wanted a game that could surpass Namco's Xevious. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, and Konami's single step here was all so brilliant and ambitious. The satellites (or Options as they are referred to here) went through 20 different programming revisions before settling on one that could work.
The cinematic tone of the game was unparalleled for such an early NES release. There are no stage transitions, it feels like one continuous adventure. Making the final boss into essentially a victory lap shootout was a ballsy move in an era where devs were intent on making final bosses as brutal as possible for longevity in otherwise short experiences. The execution is not my favourite, but it is inspired. Even the iconic easter island heads were included simply because the idea of them stood out in the otherwise traditional space shooter world.
Gradius is not as great or as legendary as something like Galaga or Space Invaders could hope to be. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in sheer scale and wonder. I may have given Space Invaders 5 stars, but I do not think about Space Invaders very often. Gradius as a series has a habit of coming to my mind. We achieve greatness by looking on the back of giants. For the shmup community, Gradius is one of those giants.
"It's decent, for a 1985 NES shoot em u-" it's a landmark release, for any medium.
Vee
9 months ago