GRADIUS ORIGINS

The best game i ever tried of Gradius, I've been a fan of it since i was a lad and now with this origin collection came out it was a blast playing it.

Another fantastic collection by the masters of ports at M2. This unlike their Contra and Castlevania collections does have online leaderboards which include replays. Multiples saveslots for savestates, stage practice, easy modes, a multitude of CRT filters. The only negative I can come up with is the high difficulty of the whole series, credit feeding wont save you without skill. The easiest title is Salamander 3, which is a new game made by M2 specifically for the collection and even that will test your skill if you're aiming for a prized 1cc. Give Gradius a try if you want to have a blast with an epic(in all the sense of the word) soundtrack, addictive gameplay, somewhat iffy hitboses and most importantly, SHOOTing THE CORE! Dont be turned off by its high price, the work put into these ports by M2 is nothing short of a bargain at its full price, no one in the industry does ports like those crazy bastards.

este videojuego es como si la pastabase se pudiera follar, totalmente zukistrukis, c mamo

One of the absoloute best Shmup collections ever created, You can disect and take apart everything in-game and play the way you want to play this is the perfect collection for beginner players as well. 10/10 M2 can do no wrong.

I had this one on the wish list for awhile. I enjoyed it. I knew of Gradius in the arcades. I knew of Lifeforce on the NES. It was an interesting concept, To be a ship inside a giant body. Like an antibody against germs. A concept explored in science fiction. Like the movie Innerspace, or perhaps the giant Vger cloud in Star Trek the motion picture, or the transformers inside Unicron's belly on The Transformers the cartoon movie. I appreciate that Konami put an invincible option for these games. Unlimited credits is one thing and it would have certainly mesmerized us as kids, the thought of unlimited money to play these games, but this in many ways much better. Allowing me time to admire the architecture of these games. Kind of like riding shotgun in a car VS actually driving. Or at a moving ride at a theme park. I suppose that Gradius and Life Force / Salamander are in ways sight seeing games. Like Ghost N Goblins or Castlevania. Explosions - I have always thought that Konami had the best explosion sprites w / sounds in their arcade games. Whether it was X men, TMNT, Contra, Super Contra, Gradius, Lifeforce, Or even the knew Contra Galuga. A silly idea but with so many getting into game development these days I think they could probably sell an explosions sprite pack w / sounds. In hindsite I am thinking that the straight beam weapon is the best weapon in Gradius or LifeForce. I am thinking that that weapon is to these games what the knife is to Ghost N Goblins. Options / Multiples - these glowing orbs follow and orbit around the player allowing them to use their primary fire and bombs through each of these satelites or drones. I always thought that gave Gradius / Life Force a uniqueness among all the other shoot em ups throughout history. Like a ninja swinging nun chucks. There are patterns there and techniques the player learns and uses to clean the screen with them. Bonus Features - It was a nice touch seeing some of the original clip art for the enemies and bosses. The sound player for each of the themes was cool, like its own little Winamp of sorts. But I am not a fancy dude really, stuff like that in a game for me is surely appreciated but not at all necessary. I just wanted to play through these games again. And I can now say I have won all of the Gradius / LifeForce / Salamander games. Thank you Konami for all of your games.

I haven't played too much, but the quality of the port and the original games is evident. It's surprising how quality the original Gradius is for a game from 1985, for a game that predates me by a few years - the upgrade vs enemy rank strategising, the tactics the developers use to pressure the player and the general pacing are altogether very compelling. There are parts I don't care for but what is here is impressive.

Almost a perfect collection. The only real complaint is that the fullscreen mode still shows the desktop along on the very edges of the screen.