There are often discussions about retro gaming that refer to the term "NES hard." This defines games that are extremely difficult to compensate for their short length. Nobody wants to beat a game they spent $50 on the same day they brought it home and many NES titles are remembered for offering these types of brutal challenges. These games usually ease you in, but quickly ramp up the difficulty so that only practice and memorization will help you reach the end. While many people remember Contra as being really difficult, its a cakewalk compared to what Gradius expects from you.

OK, bring it on old friend!

Gradius is a very important title in the shooter/shmup genre, as it more or less set the standards for the side-scrolling spaceship shooter game. Not only did it influence other game developers, but received 4 main sequels spanning the NES through the PS2 and inspired spinoff series Parodius, which sadly never left Japan.

Gameplay

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Get used to seeing this game over screen

The game begins with you in control of your ship, the Vic Viper, in a field of stars as the screen scrolls to the right. Enemy ships start coming at you from the right side, some in formation and others in their own set patterns. Destroying orange versions of the enemies causes them to drop upgrade capsules, which is the trademark powerup system of the Gradius series.

At the bottom of the screen is a bar with six different powerups you can 'buy' with your upgrade capsules. Each time you pick one up, the bar advances to the next powerup in the list. Predictably, more powerful upgrades require more capsules to acquire. In order, 'speed up' increases the movement speed of your ship, 'missile' fires missiles that drop below your ship and travel along the floors until they find a target, 'double' shoots a second bullet at a 45 degree angle in front of you ship, 'laser' changes your default shot to a much more powerful laser beam, 'option' creates a flying orb that mimics your ships movements and becomes a secondary set of guns and the last upgrade is '?' which is actually a shield that absorbs bullets, but doesn't protect you from collisions.

These powerups are vital to making any progress in Gradius. When you die, you lose everything and must start over and the default ship is horribly underpowered quickly into the game. Staying alive and keeping your powerups is essential in this game. Because its really, really hard.

I was only able to make it to the third stage in my playthrough in preparation for this review. Once you die, it becomes a desperate scramble to power your ship back up before the next erratic enemy or stray bullet takes you down. And if that wasn't bad enough, bumping into anything will kill you. Bump into an enemy? Dead. Graze the floor? Dead. Touch a rock? Dead. Thankfully, the controls are tight and responsive.

Presentation

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Colorful, but fairly basic visuals

While the game won't win any awards for its visuals, it features fairly well-drawn sprites and peppy music. Its not bad considering it was released roughly in the first year of the NES lifespan.

Most of the backgrounds are basic black starfields, but levels are varied and throw different themes at you along the way. The first level is rocky, mountain-like area, and later you're flying through stages filled with destructible walls, floating Moai heads, organic alien landscapes and high-tech bases. Though for the masochists devoted to completing this game, the ending reached in about twenty minutes. Its just a sprint most of the way through the game.

Verdict

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Yeah, you're probably not going to get this far

While not remembered as well as other "NES hard" games, Gradius was a groundbreaking game and a standout title so early in the NES library. With more stages and a more reasonable difficulty, the game would score higher, but considering when it was released its a bit unfair to really hold that against this classic title too much.

Score: 7/10

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