It has been 18 years since the first Gradius game came home from the arcades on the Nintendo Entertainment System. In the years since 1986, Gradius games have appeared on at least one console in every generation of hardware. In 2004, Gradius V has arrived on the PlayStation 2. And while the game delivers all the hardcore shooter thrills that have been the trademark trait of the series, the series does not really seem to be innovating and the game is a little short.
In Gradius V the player takes command of a Vic Viper super spatial-temporal fighter of the Wide Range Strike Force in the fight against the Bacterion Army. Yep, that simple, one mission and really only one way to play – unless you count the fact that you can also take a friend on the mission to fight at your side.
At the beginning of each game the player is given a choice of power-up weapon loads for their fighter. These extra power-up features become available as the player collects power-up capsules in the course of the game. Power-ups are in the categories of speed up, missile, double shot, laser and multiple drones known as “options.” This power-up loading choice is a new aspect of Gradius and it does add something to the strategy of a game that basically has no strategy other than to shoot fast and learn the attack patterns of your enemy. The manual says that if certain conditions are met the player gets to edit the standard load-outs with both new weapons and weapons that have appeared in previous Gradius games. That could be fun.
Like the majority of Japanese shooters of this type, there is usually a storm of fire on the screen at any given time and one hit results in a ship death. The thing that makes these games playable at all is that the enemies always attack in exactly the same way each time they are encountered. It is as if most enemies don’t even notice the player. They just fire in their assigned pattern and the player must be sure not be in the way when a shot is going through a given space.
This does not mean the game is easy. Gradius V is a hard game. Like an arcade game, the player is given a certain number of lives to fight his way through the game. Once all ships are exhausted, as in an arcade game, the player is given a chance to continue from the point where the last ship was lost. Unlike an arcade game, the number of continues is limited. With no continues left, it is “Game Over” and the player will have to start over from the beginning. Konami kindly added a stage select that allows the player to work on stages they have previously attempted.
Control in this type of game has to be very tight to avoid all that flying crap the enemies generate. Gradius V delivers just that. The ship instantly responds to movement of the left analog stick or, if you’re feeling nostalgic, the directional pad. Only three buttons control all aspects of the weaponry. Quite thoughtfully, Konami made these buttons 100 percent configurable so the player can set things up just the way he wants them.
Graphically the game is stunning. Yeah, I know it is just a 2-D shooter, but the items on screen have a distinct 3-D look and many stage and level transitions break into beautiful, though non-playable, 3-D graphics. The large Bacterion ships have an eerie organic design to them. While the graphics are thoroughly updated, at the same time you can see elements that hearken back to the original 1985 arcade graphics that inspired the series. Audio is very good with some exciting themes as the player fights his way through the game.
Hey, you PS2 newbies! Yeah, I’m talking to you! If you buy this game, take out the disc and turn it over. See that pretty blue color? Now look at your other new games and you’ll notice they are all the silver color you’ve come to expect on DVDs. You’re now probably wondering what this means. Those readers who have had their PS2s since 2000 know. The Gradius V program is so small it actually fits on a CD. I can’t recall the last time I saw a PS2 game distributed on a CD. Maybe someone else can.
About the only things that keep the game from scoring higher is the lack of any meaningful innovation in the gameplay and the fact that the game only has seven stages to play. A real Gradius pro could probably play through it in a day. Of course if you are a Gradius pro you’ll almost surely want to pick Gradius V up and test your mettle against the Bacterion forces once again. It is also well worth picking up if you don’t have any 2-D shooters in your library. It is a genre that has a long and illustrious history and is still probably the ultimate test of a gamer’s reactions. And while not a true bargain title at $29.99, it won’t hurt the wallet too much.
© 2004 GameShark.com
