Constant Limit

You may remember Gradius, a side-scrolling shooter featuring the space ship, the Vic Viper. If you have never heard of this game on Nintendo (NES), you can view a video of it hear on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUPWWuI2EY4

Here is the art for the cover box of Gradius:

Unfortunately, Gradius is only a single-player game. If you are familiar with Life Force, the sequel to Gradius, Life Force allows two players to play simulataneously. Gradius, however, is still a great game and is similar to the also popular, R-Type.

Choose Your Weapons 

In most shooters, you destroy enemies who leave behind power-ups that can strengthen your ship. These power-ups are colored orange. The blue ones destroy all of the enemies on the screen just like those smart bombs other shooters use. These powers might increase your fire power, give you a secondary weapon like bombs or missiles, or make your ship move faster. In gradius, you can actually select which upgrades you want first using the weapon selection bar at the bottom of the screen. The weapon selection includes speed for quicker maneuverability, missiles, a 45 degree angled double shot, laser beams, options which increase your firepower, and finally a protective shield. This has to be one of the main highlights of gradius as it allows you determine the order in which you power-up your ship.

My Weapon Selection Order

I do have a preference when it comes to order of selecting the power-ups. Personally, I like to start off with a couple speed ups since they only cost one power up each, then move onto the missiles. I recommend getting the laser over the double because you have up to two options that mimic your fire power. These options are enough to position your weapons so that you can hit anything. Plus the lasers are stronger than the double shot. Next I get a couple options then go for the shield. Then what I do next is gather enough power-ups and leave them on the shield upgrade until my shield runs out. When my shields have been deplete I immediately reactivate my shields so that I fully protected again and repeat the process. This really helps out with your survivability as later stages have enemies that tend to shoot at you from every conceivable angle.

Need a little help? The Konami Code

What game would be complete without all the hidden codes that help those who needs a little (or sometimes major) boost? The infamous Konami Code is a code that has appeared in many of Konami’s titles, including Contra and Gradius’s sequel, Life Force.

In Gradius, to use the Konami Code, just pause the game and enter the following sequence with your controller:

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start.

After you press “start” to unpause and return to the game, you should notice that your Vic Viper is equppied to the brim with a fully loaded arsenal. Your ship will have almost every single weapon available. This code is great when you need to gain an edge over the enemies.

Gameplay: 8

The controls are responsive as long as you go easy on the speed ups and do not over do them. This game can be challenging because you lose all of your upgrades if you die and if you have no shields activated, you die in one hit. This can be extremely frustrating and requires you to constantly watch the path of enemy bullets.

Sound: 8

The music is of course nothing like Megaman, but it does what it needs to do.

Graphics: 8

The only real issue with the graphics is when there are so many bullets on the screen at once that everything is just mashed together and things start to look blurry. I really like those Moai statues that shoot out of their mouths. I have to say that this is the most interesting and possibly most recognizable enemy in the game.

Overall: 8

Gradius is a great game with a customizable weapon system, a fully-powered up code, and big statue heads for enemies. This really is one of those classics that serve as a blast from the past.