Sound effects are good, but unimpressive. Backgrounds are also rendered nicely when they’re not boring black starfields. Character sprites and landscapes look really good, with fine detail and nice animation and there’s a lot of variety from stage to stage. Gradius III is a great-looking game, with bright colors and well drawn graphics.
I don’t mind a challenge, but this game pushed the difficulty to absurd levels. Only the most skilled and dedicated gamers will ever be able to see the ending without using cheats or other methods of help. I played it all the way through and not only would I never be able to get near the last levels without save states offered by my Retron 5, it was hard to get to the end even leaning on an excessive use of save states. But if you have your speed powered up and the game snaps from slowdown to normal speed, you very well might crash.Īll being said, this game is HARD. That being said, it actually helps in some areas where you’re being hit with bullets and enemies from every direction.
GRADIUS 2 SNES FULL
You’ll actually probably play through more of the game at half speed rather than full speed because the slowdown is so horrible.
One thing I have to mention is the massive slowdown problem. Most of the bosses are a bit similar, though some are really nice to look at and fun. The game is quite a bit longer than the original and has a nice variety of stages, from technological bases to a level that surrounds you with fire and lava. The gameplay is more or less a more advanced version of the original, with bigger enemies, more weapons and better graphics and sound. This adds some nice strategy and replay value to the game, as you can try to play using different styles that are possible thanks to the different powerup options.Īnyone familiar with the original will feel right at home with Gradius III. You’re given several options about what weapons will appear in your powerup trees and you pick your favorite set before you begin. Every time you pick up a capsule, it moves the highlighted item one space to the right, so powering up your speed only uses a single capsule, but to grab a laser you would need to cash in 4 capsules.Ī nice addition to Gradius III is the option of four different powerup trees. You have a set number of powerups available to you that are displayed horizontally at the bottom of the screen and you use these capsules to ‘buy’ your powerups. Rather than picking up weapons dropped by shooting enemies, they instead drop power up capsules.
GRADIUS 2 SNES SERIES
What makes the Gradius series unique is its power up system. How does it fare compared to the original? Gameplay After Gradius II failed to get a US release, we did manage to get Gradius III as an early release on the Super Nintendo. Gradius III is worth playing, but I’d recommend getting the PlayStation 2 port.A few weeks ago, I reviewed the original Gradius on the NES, a space shooter that established many of the common elements of the genre. But the game doesn’t even look good, so the performance problems are quite the mystery. I know I beat the game, so it couldn’t have bothered me too badly when I was a child. With how fun Gradius III is, the slowdown is a major bummer. You wouldn’t think there could be four meaningful differences in laser beams, but there are.
You can outfit your ship with a customized loadout, including missiles, lasers, and floating red balls called Options that fire whatever munitions your ship has equipped. It’s just annoying because the game feels so unresponsive when lots of things are happening.īut Gradius III features a ton of great powerups that are a joy to play with. Paradoxically, the slowdown makes Gradius III a bit easier since it allows you to more easily maneuver around bullets and bad guys. And it gets even worse when there are lots of enemies on the screen. Because you’re constantly earning powerups that fill the screen, eventually the game just starts slowing down and chugging. This was the Gradius game I played most growing up, and it’s still fun, but I have no idea how I dealt with the awful technical problems of this arcade-to-console port. I’m not ashamed to admit I turned the difficulty in Gradius III down to Easy. Approximate Release Date: AugGenre: Side-scrolling shooter Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami
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