GRADIUS ORIGINS |OT| Shmup Buffet

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kacho
  • Start date Start date
  • Featured
Kacho

Kacho

Gold Member
header.jpg


This collection features 18 versions across all 7 arcade titles in the series, including the first-ever appearance of Gradius III AM Show Version on home consoles.

A variety of helpful new features have been added to the games, including save states, a rewind feature, and Invincible Mode. The new Training Mode lets you adjust settings like restart points, loop counts, and power-up statuses to help hone your skills to perfection. There's also a gallery feature that includes music from the game, a variety of images from each title, and much, much more!

1. SALAMANDER III

2. GRADIUS
JP ROM Ver. / JP Bubble Ver. / NA Ver. (NEMESIS) / EU Ver. (NEMESIS) / NA Prototype (NEMESIS)

3. SALAMANDER
JP Ver. / NA Ver.(LIFE FORCE)

4. LIFE FORCE
JP Ver.

5. GRADIUS II: GOFER no Yabou
JP Early Ver. / JP Mid Ver. / JP Late Ver. / NA Ver.(VULCAN VENTURE)

6. GRADIUS III: Densetsu kara Shinwa e
JP Old Ver. / JP New Ver. / Asia Ver. / JP AM Show Ver.

7. SALAMANDER2
JP Ver.

GnD438mWAAER2Lt


GnD45GuWAAIQxWi


GnD46VxWAAYAkaS


GnD47lWWAAQJzXv




DF Retro detailing the quality of this collection handled by M2 (spoiler: it's excellent)
 
Last edited:
Kacho said:
header.jpg


This collection features 18 versions across all 7 arcade titles in the series, including the first-ever appearance of Gradius III AM Show Version on home consoles.

A variety of helpful new features have been added to the games, including save states, a rewind feature, and Invincible Mode. The new Training Mode lets you adjust settings like restart points, loop counts, and power-up statuses to help hone your skills to perfection. There's also a gallery feature that includes music from the game, a variety of images from each title, and much, much more!

1. SALAMANDER III

2. GRADIUS
JP ROM Ver. / JP Bubble Ver. / NA Ver. (NEMESIS) / EU Ver. (NEMESIS) / NA Prototype (NEMESIS)

3. SALAMANDER
JP Ver. / NA Ver.(LIFE FORCE)

4. LIFE FORCE
JP Ver.

5. GRADIUS II: GOFER no Yabou
JP Early Ver. / JP Mid Ver. / JP Late Ver. / NA Ver.(VULCAN VENTURE)

6. GRADIUS III: Densetsu kara Shinwa e
JP Old Ver. / JP New Ver. / Asia Ver. / JP AM Show Ver.

7. SALAMANDER2
JP Ver.

GnD438mWAAER2Lt


GnD45GuWAAIQxWi


GnD46VxWAAYAkaS


GnD47lWWAAQJzXv




DF Retro detailing the quality of this collection handled by M2 (spoiler: it's excellent)
Click to expand...

Bought! And Burning Heat is one of the all-time kickass chiptunes, holy shit. Love the version they made for Dance Dance Revolution:

 
Pre-ordered months ago for the slight preorder discount.

Everything M2 does is an instant purchase. One of the few auto-buy devs left in the entire industry.
This collection is a true treasure trove of content.

Love that this is coming to all platforms and is seemingly the return of the M2 Shottriggers line to the Xbox platform.
 
The collection doesn't even have all the games, pass. Unless a second collection comes that includes the rest I can wait.
 
This is M2 Shottriggers hence the $40 price tag. The modes in these games and the gadgets on the sides of the screen make this collection well worth the price if you are into shooters, or as they are called nowadays, shmups. You also get an M2 developed Salamander 3, a brand new entry into the series. This game alone is worth the money to me. The last two weeks have been an amazing time for the genre with Earthion dropping last week and then this.

Gradius is a horizontal shooter series with the Salamander side series adding in vertical sections for variety and stands as the gold standard for the genre. Before CAVE came along, these were IT as far as the high bar of the genre. The infamous Konami code traces its origin back to this series, which Contra later incorporated.

My start with the series was Gradius on the NES. Back then, when you got games, you played them until you mastered them as they were so few and far between. I got my copy as a trade at school in the 7th grade. I can't remember what I traded, but both of us were satisfied with the games we received and I specifically remember my friend telling me that even his dad couldn't get past the second stage back then. I was obsessed with it to the point to where I mastered the game and could run through it without using the code.

I got Life Force as soon as it dropped on the NES, which was actually easier than the original to me and had better stages and bosses. Gradius 3 was one of my first Super NES games and was quite a showpiece game at the time which holds up today and is arguably better than the arcade game it is based on. Many hold that Gradius 3 in the arcade is impossible to 1 credit clear (1CC). Check the official Konami YT channel and they have recently posted that seemingly impossible task. It would be a number of years before I actually played Gradius 2 via the PC Engine CD (most of us thought Life Force was the sequel). Gradius 2 never got released on the NES in the U.S., unfortunately, but it's well worth tracking down and is one of the best looking 8-bit games and is quite a bit different than the arcade and PCE CD ports.
 
These are way too hard for me, but glad the collection exists. I'll probably pick it up in a sale later on.

It's always the same with this series, for me. As soon as I get to the stage with the Moais and/or the section where the screen also scrolls vertically and you have to navigate some barriers, I can't keep up with everything coming from all directions at once.

I seem to remember playing Salamander in a previous shooter collection. The final part of the game was simply insane, and I maintain there's some parts that are impossible if you die and have to lose all your power-ups.
 
Dacvak said:
Shmup fans are eating good lately!
Click to expand...

Michael Caine GIF


Next week
www.nintendo.com

Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.1 for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.1 and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com

www.nintendo.com

Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.2 for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.2 and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com
 
Kacho said:
Michael Caine GIF


Next week
www.nintendo.com

Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.1 for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.1 and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com

www.nintendo.com

Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.2 for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.2 and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com
Click to expand...
Nice, cheers for the head up. Not played some of those in years.

Edit. Bit steep imo that should all be one collection. Not paying 60 notes for both.
 
Last edited:
clarky said:
Is that a port of Salamander?
Click to expand...
it is basically a sequel to gradius 1 for the msx , released as nemesis in europe , it was released before the arcade version of gradius 2
game has a different storyline told through cut scenes , brilliant game ,
 
Last edited:
roosnam1980 said:
it is basically a sequel to gradius 1 for msx , released as nemesis in europe , it was released before the arcade version of gradius 2
game has a different storyline told through cut scenes , brilliant game ,
Click to expand...
Had a quick butchers at a video. The fire level looked like lifeforce/Salamander.

Good times with these games. I used to be able to clock Nemesis a few times off one 10p back in the day.
 
These are games I WANT to be into. They look and sound awesome. I always buy one, play for ten minutes, get shit on over and over, do it again the next month and so on. I suck ass at these games.

PS: Username checks out!
 
Last edited:
Worse thing about the arcade version of Gradius 3 while it plays a lot better than the SNES version, the music is so much better on the SNES.
 
I love shmups but I have never liked gradius.

I was maybe going to support it but $40 is too big of an ask lol.

Edit: Now I know I'm burnt out from work. I confused Gradius with R Type for some reason.

6 titles for $40 is fair. I thought it was just one game multiple versions.

May pick this up after Earthion next month. Broke boy problems.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the topic, OP. I guess I missed this announcement if it had one.

Just preordered on PS5. Got 10% off to boot!

Sweet GIF
 
This has been one of my moonshot dream PC ports for a long time. I hope impressions are good. I can never get really invested in a save file with emulators. I wish it wasn't that way. I play physical cart based SNES Gradius a lot, and everyone knows it can get a little rough in ol single digit FPS periods. Still a rock solid SHMUP and a titan of the genre to me.

Connificent said:
Konami keeps blessing us

Kenan Thompson Snl GIF by Saturday Night Live
Click to expand...
You guys thinks it's safe to a dream a little dream about a PSX SotN port to Steam? I don't know if my heart can take it. I literally bought an iPhone contraption that makes it a Razer Switch thing for SotN (but really has been a sleeper purchase if you're only semi interested in super casual ""mobile"" gaming ie: the couch during football season.). Decimus collection was a huge breath of fresh air and frankly hobby invigorator in the gaming release window it came out in. I've had an eBay cart loaded up many times with a PSX and disc...
 
Last edited:
simpatico said:
I can never get really invested in a save file with emulators. I wish it wasn't that way.
Click to expand...
I'm the same way. Emulation in general is not very appealing to me whenever I try it. I'll play something for 10 minutes and never return. Not sure why.


simpatico said:
You guys thinks it's safe to a dream a little dream about a PSX SotN port to Steam?
Click to expand...
I'm sure M2 is already working on it for Konami. There's enough Castlevania left for a few collections.

SotN, Rondo, The Adventure Rebirth, and Castlevania Chronicles would pair well together.
 
Salamander_stage4_boss.png


Some sadistic asshole must've designed this boss, WTF

I was thinking to myself "wow Gradius 1 was fucking brutal, Salamander seems a lot more fair in comparison"… then I reached this boss.
 
Kacho said:
I'm sure M2 is already working on it for Konami. There's enough Castlevania left for a few collections.

SotN, Rondo, The Adventure Rebirth, and Castlevania Chronicles would pair well together.
Click to expand...
So far all the ports have been of the PSP version. I hope Konami sees value in doing a new port of the PSX. See? I'm already letting myself get carried away. I need to stop.
 
Kacho said:
Finally beat Gradius 3. Way harder than the SNES version. God damn.
Click to expand...

The game was made for people that had mastered the arcade games as a final send off for the series. It was just short of a decade before IV came out in arcades in Japan.

A friend of mine got stationed over there and I remember him calling me to fill me in on how shooters were still alive and pretty popular in arcades there and that I needed to get Radiant Silvergun. The thing was that it got such a limited release on the Saturn over there that my import house got like three copies of it and it was almost double what the normal game was at the time and I passed on it. They never got it back in and I kicked myself for years for never buying it then.
 
Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm finding that powering up your ship's speed too high makes the game harder. Very difficult to maneuver through tight spaces or weave through enemy bullets without over-correcting and crashing into something.

The rewind feature is a huge lifesaver.
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm finding that powering up your ship's speed too high makes the game harder. Very difficult to maneuver through tight spaces or weave through enemy bullets without over-correcting and crashing into something.

The rewind feature is a huge lifesaver.
Click to expand...
The speed-ups are there as a trap. Once you get to a speed you're good with, the goal becomes to avoid them.
 
Looking forward to playing this later.

Between this, Earthion, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, and the Shinobi demo, I'm just drowning in 2D action goodness.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

DF Retro EX: Gradius Origins Review - The Ultimate Collection + Brand-New Salamander 3!
5
211
near replied
Gradius ORIGINS | Releases Aug. 7 | Developed by M2 | Includes new game: SALAMANDER III!
40
2K
apple_of_enlightenment replied
Switch 2 all you can eat Crow buffet here! Before/after veal!
17
1K
Robb replied
  • Featured
Lost Soul Aside |OT| Souls-free Action
|OT|  2 3
109
134
adamsapple replied
  • Featured
NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound |OT| Peak Is Back
|OT|  2 3 4 5 6
265
3K
Punished Miku replied
Top Bottom