Table of Contents
Page 1: Gradius, Gradius 2 MSX
Nemesis - Gameboy (1990)
There are a handful of brand new bosses, which at least sets it apart from the original Gradius. Most of the music is snagged from Gradius and Gradius II. The game controls just fine, but for some reason, your ship doesn't animate when it moves up and down, so it looks a little bit weird. There's no weapon selection, but you can choose to have up to 99 lives without having to bring up a cheat menu, which is a bit odd. Like most of Konami's Gameboy games at the time, it's a fine downscaling of the series, but there's nothing really special about it, especially with the black & white graphics and tiny resolution.
In Japan and Europe, Konami released a line of "Konami Game Boy Collection" games, featuring four Gameboy titles compiled onto a single cartridge. The Japanese version had Super Game Boy support while the European versions had Gameboy Color support. Nemesis is found on Vol. 1 in both regions.
Nemesis
Nemesis
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault / Nemesis II : The Return of the Hero - Gameboy (1991)
Your weapon selection lets you individually pick out for Missile, Double and Laser selections, with three available in each category. The graphics are a step up from the first Gameboy game, and the music is pretty catchy too. The controls feel a bit unresponsive, and the ship still doesn't animate when moving, so it's still not on the level of the grown-up Gradius games, but it's still unique enough to warrant a look. The music is quite excellent too. This can also be found on the Konami Gameboy Collections series - Vol. 3 in Japan and Vol 4. in Europe.
MP3s Download here
The Ruins
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
Gradius Galaxies / Gradius Advance / Gradius Generation - Gameboy Advance (2001)
The levels aren't too interesting, with only a few cool innovations here and there. The second level is reminiscent of one of the stages in Gradius 2 MSX - it consists of glass platforms, which can be shattered by shooting at them. If you're not careful, you can destroy the foundations of these platforms, causing the ceilings to collapse down on you. The underground level contains waterfalls that hover in midair, which is also similar to a stage in XEXEX, another Konami shooter. There's an outer space level, an underground level, a fire level, a moai level (featuring a cybernetic moai boss), a mechanical base level. The final boss is essentially just a huge brain in a tank. For some reason, the famous Gradius cores look more like eyeballs than orbs, and actually shudder when you hit them. There are only four weapon configurations, which is barely any different from the setup in Gradius III. Each config makes your Vic Viper a different color.
Gradius Galaxies is a pretty solid game, even though it doesn't bring anything new to the table. It's not nearly as frustrating as its arcade counterparts, and the ability to pick off at any checkpoint - without worrying about limited continues - make it an easy pick up and play game. But it also lacks any real identity, and so it feels a bit unfulfilling. Still, it was the best way to get a portable Gradius fix, at least until Gradius Portable came out.
Strangely, Gradius Galaxies was released in America and Europe before it was released in Japan. The Japanese version has some extra bonus challenge missions added in.
Gradius Galaxies
Gradius Galaxies
Gradius Galaxies
Gradius Galaxies
Gradius Galaxies
Gradius Neo - Mobile Phones (2005)
In addition to the standard power bar, you also have a secondary power bar that's controlled by green colored orbs. By selecting from this bar and pressing the numeric keys, you can change your option formation. It's similar to the same idea found in Gradius III, except you can switch them in-game. There are also a few cool new formations, like the Advance mode, where the Options will fling themselves forward and retreat back to your self, a bit like a boomerang. There are only five stages, and the whole thing can be beaten in about five minutes or so. The final level is kinda cool, because it has a little maze you can navigate. You're encased in a small room and need to fend off enemy fire for a few seconds, then you can pick which direction to fly in to reach the next room. There's even some new catchy music to go along with it.
There's also a sequel called Gradius Neo Imperial, which unfortunately has not been released outside of Japan. In this version, you play as one of the Big Core enemy spaceships, and the levels scroll right-to-left rather than left-to-right. There's also some other mobile game called Gradius Wide which seems to have fallen off the charts.
Gradius Neo
Gradius Neo
Page 2: Gradius II, Gofer no Yabou Episode II MSX
Page 3: Gradius III, Gradius Gaiden
Page 4: Gradius IV. Gradius V, Gradius Rebirth
Page 5: Salamander/Life Force
Page 6: Portable Games
Page 7: Solar Assault, Cosmic Wars, Cameos, Anime
American Cover
Nemesis
Nemesis
Like most Gameboy conversions, Nemesis isn't really a completely new game, but it isn't a really a port either. Although the levels themselves are technically different from the console/arcade versions, most are familiar variations, like the cave level from the original Gradius, a Moai level, an alien-type biological level, and a graveyard similar to the bonus stage in the PC Engine/MSX versions of Gradius. p>
American Cover
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
Unlike the first Gameboy installment, Gradius: The Interstellar Assault is a completely original game. If anything, the developers took things one step further and removed some the aspects that the series of known for - for instance, there are no more navigation segments at the start of each level,, most of the bosses are very different from the usual "shoot the core" enemies (although there are a couple of them). The first level actually begins with a chase scene, as the Vic Viper is being chased by a gigantic battleship through an asteroid field. You end up losing your pursurer in some caverns, but after making your way through, you're captured and need to fight your way through the interior to freedom. Once you escape, you fly down to the surface of a planet and mount a final assault on the bad guys. It's relatively short, but it's cool to see some continuity between the stages.
Dodge
American Cover
Gradius Galaxies
Gradius Galaxies
Gradius Galaxies was developed Mobile 21, a joint venture between Nintendo and Konami which focused on portable games. It's not exactly innovative, but as a miniature version of Gradius, it's quite good. For starters, it's obviously not nearly as compromised as the previous Gameboy titles, so despite the low resolution, it's still quite playable.. The graphics are better than Gradius III but not quite up to the level of Gradius Gaiden. Some of backgrounds, like the bright red moon in the cavern stage and the comet in the warp level look pretty impressive. There's also some occasional use of rotation and scaling effects, like huge, slowly rotating asteroids with narrow openings in the middle. All of the previous Gradius games, there's an invincible boss that will slowly make its way back and forth across the screen, forcing you to hide in small nooks to avoid getting crushed. Here, it's a buzzsaw-like machine that inflates to take up a huge portion of the screen - it's similar to the one in Gradius Gaiden, but much more menacing. While the graphics are quality, the same can't be said about the music. Much like Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, the music quality is severely compromised, featuring obnixously shrieking bleeps and bloops that sound significantly worse than your average NES game.
Gradius Neo
Gradius Neo
Gradius Neo
Gradius Neo
A number of Gradius titles - including the original and even some of the MSX games - have gotten cell phone ports. One of the few mobile exclusive games is Gradius Neo - and unlike most mobile games, it's actually kinda relatively good. The auto-fire is turned on by default, and the pacing is much faster than most Gradius games. The playing field is also much more wider open, and outside of the Moai level, there's not much obstacles to dodge. Your auto resurrect right where you die - even when you continue - and always have at least two options.
