As the very first entry in the Gradius series, I can say that this is the space shooter game ever made. It is pretty impressive for being made in 1981, and it does feature a lot of abilities and layouts different from other games at the time, but nowadays, given how the game can be played with save states now, you can beat it in 10 minutes. Not even joking. So, I can't rate it any higher than this.

Game #51