Ultimate Gradius Review Part 2.
(Covers Gradius I, II, III, Advance, V, Rebirth, GB Gradius I, GB Gradius II)
Hello this is Mali/Mals/Pitaya/whatever you’d like to call me, and we are back with another Gradius review! Except this time, we’re going to be skipping Salamander as I have already made a comprehensive review on that game, along with International and Japanese Lifeforce which is covered in that same review. Gradius II, otherwise known as the bizarre title of Vulcan Venture internationally, is the 1988 successor to the original Gradius or in my opinion, the successor to Salamander.Most, along with Konami has said that Salamander is just a spinoff of Gradius, but I disagree. I don’t believe that for a game that has been so relevant to the series, it gets the spinoff treatment. I’m looking back at Puyo Puyo and how that game is also a spinoff of a Japanese exclusive dungeon crawler dubbed Madou Monogatari! It’s great too, and it also features Puyos as enemies in the game.
But honestly, while many consider Gradius II as the best in the series, I disagree because after replaying this game, this game feels more like a remix of the original Gradius, Salamander, the MSX Nemesis 2 (different game as the MSX games follow a more cohesive story, I might get down to them later down the road) and even Japanese Life Force, to some extent. There's some weapons that gotten carried over (Pulse/Ripple Laser, Spread Bomb (a revised Napalm from MSX Nemesis 2), 2-Way Missile,), but then new to this game, there’s the Force Field, which finally protects your entire ship rather than guarding the front, a tail gun, which is a double that shoots a bullet from behind, and the Photon Torpedo, which is a missile that drops straight out of the options and the ship. It’s unconventional but it can pass through all targets except for something that’s indestructible. With the weapons, also comes in the stages that are also inspired by the stages found within the ones from the above. How about we talk about the story first, and then we can get to the stages, alrighty?
~
Story
We take a good 2 steps back, and we revisit to the original Gradius where the Vic Viper has been sent to destroy and defeat the Bacterians, but this time, a new force from them was to be reckoned with: Gofer is the new antagonist and once again, the Vic Viper has been sent to stop them from succeeding in taking over not just Planet Gradius, but the
world as a whole. That’s actually it for the story!
Graphics
I have a bit of a mixed review with the Graphics. While they are impressive indeed, I don’t think that they have much of an upgrade compared to the Gradius and Slaamander. Especially with the latter! The latter was more colorful with the sprites and backgrounds, and LifeForce also added a fresh coat of paint to the original, even if some things had to be recolored. This one feels more like an upgrade of Gradius I which ironically is, and I think it really has to do with the limits of the time.
Gameplay
I actually addressed how this game works with the above, so I’ll just skip to my opinions on the stages themselves:
~
Artificial Sun (Phonenix)
The first stage of the game. This one is like Latis in Salamander to which that the place is all on fire, but this one work akin to the vertical scrolling stages in the original Gradius. This one has a bunch of suns with dragons coming out of them shooting out rocks with some enemies here and there. This one takes a bit long but it’s not too hard, either. The boss is just a giant Pheonix that shoots in blue wind (or whatever they are, I don’t know), and fire out of its mouth.
Alien (Big Eye)
Just like the first stage, this stage is not that bad, and it feels more like a beginner stage than anything. It reminds me of an expanded version of the second stage in the first Gradius, and in terms of the boss, you shoot the big eye when it’s open. Do be careful though cause after opening and closing his eyes, he will shoot a boulder out.
Crystal (Crystal Core)
Now we have our first Crystal stage. This one is pretty short and simple with a bunch of crystals coming from the right to the left. Depending on how well played you know the right path, this one should be fairly simple especially since most of the crystals can be destroyed by your shots. I will say though that there’s some difficulty in terms of how weird the crystals move and such. But then again, it could be due to hardware limits at the time. (Even though it’s not smooth on later ports)
The Crystal Core is honestly a great core and I’m glad that they referenced it in future Gradius games. It’s one of my all time favorite cores in the series because it’s normal in terms of how easy and hard it is. It falls in between both of them.
Volcano (Death Mark II)
This and the stage after this one are just repeats of the original Gradius stages. More specifically, the first and fourth stages. And honestly, I cannot find a single difference other than the fact that the layouts are different than each other. While the boss is from Salamander, not all hope is lost in terms of reusing bosses and assets. The Death Mark II gotten a huge upgrade! (even though the design of the ship looks the same). Instead of moving pathetically slow shooting the occasional enemy, this one is more erratic and shoots multiple missiles instead of one single easily defeated enemy, and upon breaking the small barrier, he actually shoots a LASER... Playing this game and going back to Salamander, I couldn’t stand the fact that Death Mark I doesn't even shoot a laser when I break the front of the ship. They have done justice to the change with Mark II, and I rather have this more than the Mark I
Revenge of Moai (Jumping Moai ︱ Big Moai)
This stage resembles the Moai stage from Gradius I, but with a new twist: the Moai turn red and shoot more aggressively. The boss, an aggressive Moai, leaps across the screen but can be quickly defeated by staying near its mouth, similar to the others. Upon its defeat, you encounter a three-headed Moai beast with heads on the top, bottom, and right. Each head releases five mini Moais that emit tiny rings. Simply target the heads to conquer this boss. Alternatively, you might allow the boss to self-destruct if you struggle to hit the top large Moai head, whichever strategy you prefer.
High Speed Maze (Big Core Mark II)
The first high speed stage! At this stage there’s barely any enemies, but the challenge comes from the speed, and the barriers that close in on you if you’re too slow. Sticking more to the right at the cost of having an extremely reduced reaction time will be the choice to go. After this, the Big Core Mark II comes in. This is a refreshed upgrade of the stupid Big Core Mark I from the original Gradius where instead of moving up and down with a tiny pea shooter as a weapon, this one does... the same thing, but there’s more lasers. At least the lasers combined look like a ship which is kinda cute.
Boss Rush/Parade (Big Core Mark I, Golem, Tetran, Gaw, Intruder, Covered Core)
Now we finally have our first true Boss Parade. Where it includes most of Gradius I and salamander’s bosses into the game for a comeback, along with changes made to make them harder.
~
Big Core Mark I
I hate taking about this ship with a burning passion. This is the most overused Gradius core ever and just seeing it makes my head hurt. And within the changes he’s received from Gradius II, all that’s different is that he is faster, the barriers break into pieces that count as projectiles, and that’s about. Just blast him and get to the next enemy.
Golem
The Golem from Salamander works the same just as you’d expect it to: Wait until he opens his eye while dodging his hands, and shoot until it’s dead. The change with this one is that he closes and opens his eyes, and I believe that the ends of the hands shoot projectiles.
Tetran
Tetran has all of the hands fully extended out of the ship instead of gradually coming out during the boss, and what’s new to this boss is that the barriers also break into projectiles with the arms of the ship going in and out to spray more bullets at you. Eventually, it’ll just be stuck out spinning around the ship and it’s just the matter of using the same start as last time: get the options directly into the core and shoot until it’s dead.
Gaw
I’d say that this is one of the biggest changes from the original boss to the newer boss in this game. While it works like Death Mark I in terms of shooting out enemies (or the eyes of Gaw), these shoots out multiple and eventually it will start shooting a bunch of lasers. This one is erratic and itsit'srd to keep up with the boss itself.
Intruder
Finally for the returning bosses, this one is the intruder from Salamander which hs shoots out blasts of fire towards the player. This time, if you shoot him enough, hell scream and then split into three which is pretty much does the same as if they weren’t separate from each other.
Covered Core
And to end it off, we have another new core that’s the hardest of them all. This one constantly shoots missiles from the top and the bottom, and the barriers thankfully don’t break into projectiles. This one is difficult because you’re going to have to be moving all of the time and the missiles don’t always stay from the core into where it’s going.
~
Gofer Ship Interior (Demos, Crab, Gofer)
And now we finally shoot the opening to Gofer’s ship and finally into the mechanical base of Gradius II. This one works similar to the original but closer to the end of the stage, there’s moving blocks that attempt to close in on you (similar to the high speed stage) that you mostly have to stay to the right of the screen for which like usual, it’s dangerous due to hazards that that you can easily ram yourself into due to it showing off the screen. For the second in the series (I count the 4th boss stage in Salamander), there’s a wall core that you must shoot with the barriers shooting projectiles when broken and enemies coming out of the turrets from the top and the bottom. Breaking the wall core summons our first true walker: or the Crab in this game. This is a large enemy that’s indestructible that walks left and right and serves as the ultimate test of movement due to you being forced to move every time it moves, and what’s worse is that you have enemies coming from the left and right to make this even more rigorous.
And then we finally have Gofer, which thankfully, he doesn’t look like an egg. I still don’t know why they have designed him so poorly in that game, I swear... But he’s practically the same thing but in his original incarnation: He just says dialogue, you shoot the things that are connecting to him (or wait like a chad) and he’ll be dead. Now you finished the game with credits to congratulate you for the second time! Now you can continue this loop, or just call it quits and kill yourself until you get to the ranking screen.
~~
Soundtrack
This has got to be one of the biggest upgrades in terms of everything that the original Gradius and Salamander had started off with, ngl. With the Konami’s Yamaha YM2151, the soundtrack is able to sound a lot more richer and action-packed, something that is carried over for the rest of the series. Like, can we talk about Burning Heat ? The music for Gradius has gotten an intense overhaul that adds more to the experience of the stages, making them a lot more lively with each entry. Another important one to talk about is The Old Stone Age where it starts off as normal, but two loops in, it starts to become faster to go with the aggressiveness of the Moai heads. For this one, it starts off with one loop (don’t know why), but in-game, it’s two. Even the boss music from Gradius and Salamander have gotten upgrades to sound a lot more intense than the originals. And it makes sense! They are now harder than what they’re used to (except for good ol Big Core Mk I) and the upgrades reflect this new revised versions.
~~
Other Thoughts
As I conclude my reflections on Gradius II, I must acknowledge an oversight I've been conscious of throughout: my discussions of the bosses lacked strategies for defeating them. While this aspect I plan to delve into in my next Gradius review, I shall start taking into consideration the best ways to defeat the bosses. But then again, why would I do that if the start to most of the bosses remain the same? This is something that I'll do my best to revise as time goes on.
(Covers Gradius I, II, III, Advance, V, Rebirth, GB Gradius I, GB Gradius II)
Hello this is Mali/Mals/Pitaya/whatever you’d like to call me, and we are back with another Gradius review! Except this time, we’re going to be skipping Salamander as I have already made a comprehensive review on that game, along with International and Japanese Lifeforce which is covered in that same review. Gradius II, otherwise known as the bizarre title of Vulcan Venture internationally, is the 1988 successor to the original Gradius or in my opinion, the successor to Salamander.Most, along with Konami has said that Salamander is just a spinoff of Gradius, but I disagree. I don’t believe that for a game that has been so relevant to the series, it gets the spinoff treatment. I’m looking back at Puyo Puyo and how that game is also a spinoff of a Japanese exclusive dungeon crawler dubbed Madou Monogatari! It’s great too, and it also features Puyos as enemies in the game.
But honestly, while many consider Gradius II as the best in the series, I disagree because after replaying this game, this game feels more like a remix of the original Gradius, Salamander, the MSX Nemesis 2 (different game as the MSX games follow a more cohesive story, I might get down to them later down the road) and even Japanese Life Force, to some extent. There's some weapons that gotten carried over (Pulse/Ripple Laser, Spread Bomb (a revised Napalm from MSX Nemesis 2), 2-Way Missile,), but then new to this game, there’s the Force Field, which finally protects your entire ship rather than guarding the front, a tail gun, which is a double that shoots a bullet from behind, and the Photon Torpedo, which is a missile that drops straight out of the options and the ship. It’s unconventional but it can pass through all targets except for something that’s indestructible. With the weapons, also comes in the stages that are also inspired by the stages found within the ones from the above. How about we talk about the story first, and then we can get to the stages, alrighty?
Story
We take a good 2 steps back, and we revisit to the original Gradius where the Vic Viper has been sent to destroy and defeat the Bacterians, but this time, a new force from them was to be reckoned with: Gofer is the new antagonist and once again, the Vic Viper has been sent to stop them from succeeding in taking over not just Planet Gradius, but the
world as a whole. That’s actually it for the story!
Graphics
I have a bit of a mixed review with the Graphics. While they are impressive indeed, I don’t think that they have much of an upgrade compared to the Gradius and Slaamander. Especially with the latter! The latter was more colorful with the sprites and backgrounds, and LifeForce also added a fresh coat of paint to the original, even if some things had to be recolored. This one feels more like an upgrade of Gradius I which ironically is, and I think it really has to do with the limits of the time.
Gameplay
I actually addressed how this game works with the above, so I’ll just skip to my opinions on the stages themselves:
Artificial Sun (Phonenix)
The first stage of the game. This one is like Latis in Salamander to which that the place is all on fire, but this one work akin to the vertical scrolling stages in the original Gradius. This one has a bunch of suns with dragons coming out of them shooting out rocks with some enemies here and there. This one takes a bit long but it’s not too hard, either. The boss is just a giant Pheonix that shoots in blue wind (or whatever they are, I don’t know), and fire out of its mouth.
Alien (Big Eye)
Just like the first stage, this stage is not that bad, and it feels more like a beginner stage than anything. It reminds me of an expanded version of the second stage in the first Gradius, and in terms of the boss, you shoot the big eye when it’s open. Do be careful though cause after opening and closing his eyes, he will shoot a boulder out.
Crystal (Crystal Core)
Now we have our first Crystal stage. This one is pretty short and simple with a bunch of crystals coming from the right to the left. Depending on how well played you know the right path, this one should be fairly simple especially since most of the crystals can be destroyed by your shots. I will say though that there’s some difficulty in terms of how weird the crystals move and such. But then again, it could be due to hardware limits at the time. (Even though it’s not smooth on later ports)
The Crystal Core is honestly a great core and I’m glad that they referenced it in future Gradius games. It’s one of my all time favorite cores in the series because it’s normal in terms of how easy and hard it is. It falls in between both of them.
Volcano (Death Mark II)
This and the stage after this one are just repeats of the original Gradius stages. More specifically, the first and fourth stages. And honestly, I cannot find a single difference other than the fact that the layouts are different than each other. While the boss is from Salamander, not all hope is lost in terms of reusing bosses and assets. The Death Mark II gotten a huge upgrade! (even though the design of the ship looks the same). Instead of moving pathetically slow shooting the occasional enemy, this one is more erratic and shoots multiple missiles instead of one single easily defeated enemy, and upon breaking the small barrier, he actually shoots a LASER... Playing this game and going back to Salamander, I couldn’t stand the fact that Death Mark I doesn't even shoot a laser when I break the front of the ship. They have done justice to the change with Mark II, and I rather have this more than the Mark I
Revenge of Moai (Jumping Moai ︱ Big Moai)
This stage resembles the Moai stage from Gradius I, but with a new twist: the Moai turn red and shoot more aggressively. The boss, an aggressive Moai, leaps across the screen but can be quickly defeated by staying near its mouth, similar to the others. Upon its defeat, you encounter a three-headed Moai beast with heads on the top, bottom, and right. Each head releases five mini Moais that emit tiny rings. Simply target the heads to conquer this boss. Alternatively, you might allow the boss to self-destruct if you struggle to hit the top large Moai head, whichever strategy you prefer.
High Speed Maze (Big Core Mark II)
The first high speed stage! At this stage there’s barely any enemies, but the challenge comes from the speed, and the barriers that close in on you if you’re too slow. Sticking more to the right at the cost of having an extremely reduced reaction time will be the choice to go. After this, the Big Core Mark II comes in. This is a refreshed upgrade of the stupid Big Core Mark I from the original Gradius where instead of moving up and down with a tiny pea shooter as a weapon, this one does... the same thing, but there’s more lasers. At least the lasers combined look like a ship which is kinda cute.
Boss Rush/Parade (Big Core Mark I, Golem, Tetran, Gaw, Intruder, Covered Core)
Now we finally have our first true Boss Parade. Where it includes most of Gradius I and salamander’s bosses into the game for a comeback, along with changes made to make them harder.
Big Core Mark I
I hate taking about this ship with a burning passion. This is the most overused Gradius core ever and just seeing it makes my head hurt. And within the changes he’s received from Gradius II, all that’s different is that he is faster, the barriers break into pieces that count as projectiles, and that’s about. Just blast him and get to the next enemy.
Golem
The Golem from Salamander works the same just as you’d expect it to: Wait until he opens his eye while dodging his hands, and shoot until it’s dead. The change with this one is that he closes and opens his eyes, and I believe that the ends of the hands shoot projectiles.
Tetran
Tetran has all of the hands fully extended out of the ship instead of gradually coming out during the boss, and what’s new to this boss is that the barriers also break into projectiles with the arms of the ship going in and out to spray more bullets at you. Eventually, it’ll just be stuck out spinning around the ship and it’s just the matter of using the same start as last time: get the options directly into the core and shoot until it’s dead.
Gaw
I’d say that this is one of the biggest changes from the original boss to the newer boss in this game. While it works like Death Mark I in terms of shooting out enemies (or the eyes of Gaw), these shoots out multiple and eventually it will start shooting a bunch of lasers. This one is erratic and itsit'srd to keep up with the boss itself.
Intruder
Finally for the returning bosses, this one is the intruder from Salamander which hs shoots out blasts of fire towards the player. This time, if you shoot him enough, hell scream and then split into three which is pretty much does the same as if they weren’t separate from each other.
Covered Core
And to end it off, we have another new core that’s the hardest of them all. This one constantly shoots missiles from the top and the bottom, and the barriers thankfully don’t break into projectiles. This one is difficult because you’re going to have to be moving all of the time and the missiles don’t always stay from the core into where it’s going.
Gofer Ship Interior (Demos, Crab, Gofer)
And now we finally shoot the opening to Gofer’s ship and finally into the mechanical base of Gradius II. This one works similar to the original but closer to the end of the stage, there’s moving blocks that attempt to close in on you (similar to the high speed stage) that you mostly have to stay to the right of the screen for which like usual, it’s dangerous due to hazards that that you can easily ram yourself into due to it showing off the screen. For the second in the series (I count the 4th boss stage in Salamander), there’s a wall core that you must shoot with the barriers shooting projectiles when broken and enemies coming out of the turrets from the top and the bottom. Breaking the wall core summons our first true walker: or the Crab in this game. This is a large enemy that’s indestructible that walks left and right and serves as the ultimate test of movement due to you being forced to move every time it moves, and what’s worse is that you have enemies coming from the left and right to make this even more rigorous.
And then we finally have Gofer, which thankfully, he doesn’t look like an egg. I still don’t know why they have designed him so poorly in that game, I swear... But he’s practically the same thing but in his original incarnation: He just says dialogue, you shoot the things that are connecting to him (or wait like a chad) and he’ll be dead. Now you finished the game with credits to congratulate you for the second time! Now you can continue this loop, or just call it quits and kill yourself until you get to the ranking screen.
Soundtrack
This has got to be one of the biggest upgrades in terms of everything that the original Gradius and Salamander had started off with, ngl. With the Konami’s Yamaha YM2151, the soundtrack is able to sound a lot more richer and action-packed, something that is carried over for the rest of the series. Like, can we talk about Burning Heat ? The music for Gradius has gotten an intense overhaul that adds more to the experience of the stages, making them a lot more lively with each entry. Another important one to talk about is The Old Stone Age where it starts off as normal, but two loops in, it starts to become faster to go with the aggressiveness of the Moai heads. For this one, it starts off with one loop (don’t know why), but in-game, it’s two. Even the boss music from Gradius and Salamander have gotten upgrades to sound a lot more intense than the originals. And it makes sense! They are now harder than what they’re used to (except for good ol Big Core Mk I) and the upgrades reflect this new revised versions.
Other Thoughts
As I conclude my reflections on Gradius II, I must acknowledge an oversight I've been conscious of throughout: my discussions of the bosses lacked strategies for defeating them. While this aspect I plan to delve into in my next Gradius review, I shall start taking into consideration the best ways to defeat the bosses. But then again, why would I do that if the start to most of the bosses remain the same? This is something that I'll do my best to revise as time goes on.