GRADIUS ORIGINS |OT| Shmup Buffet
- Thread starter Kacho
- Start date
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Diseased Yak
Gold Member
Finally getting a chance to fire this up today! Can't wait!
I love reading others' impressions. I know already most of this collection is too hard for me, but I'm going to embarrass myself anyway because I love shmups.
I love reading others' impressions. I know already most of this collection is too hard for me, but I'm going to embarrass myself anyway because I love shmups.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Omnipunctual Godot
Member
I love how creepy all the bosses in Gradius are. I think they freaked me out as a kid.
Kacho
Gold Member
Yeah, it's the same in R-Type. 2-3 speed ups is enough. Any more and death by wall is inevitable.
DonkeyPunchJr
World’s Biggest Weeb
Man this game is so cruel lol. And they punish you so severely when you die. Trying to make a comeback when you're at the slowest speed with only the basic gun is almost impossible. I don't know if I'd be able to beat the arcade games even if I had infinite quarters.
Kacho
Gold Member
Gradius has awful recovery. That and R-Type are products of their time as far as being brutally punishing. Having rewind makes these games much less frustrating.
The console version of Gradius 3 was much easier because a lot of the "gatcha" parts were removed or toned down, and the slowdown helped tremendously.
John Bilbo
Member
Ah yes the Gradius syndrome.
TheDuskwalker
Member
For console games it was US game rentals, there logic was making it too hard to beat over a rental would make them buy it instead (non issue in Japan since game rentals were illegal). For arcade though, not sure. Maybe they thought Americans were so conditioned to hard games that they would be more willing to drop quarters to brute force a hard game/try over and over again. Wasn't uncommon for EU versions to use the Japanese version as the base.
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NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
For curiosity, how are they different?
I played the European NES version as a kid and I remember that just passing the volcanoes at the end of stage 1 was basically a matter of luck, I could never find a safe spot.
Since I discovered emulation, I always tried the US version, so I don't know of any differences with the Euro version. If we're talking about the NES port, that is.
Kacho
Gold Member
The collection contains arcade versions only. It gives a brief description of each game and how they differ.
Chittagong
Gold Member
Is arcade stick the correct way to play Gradius?
Dev1lXYZ
Member
Gradius games had stick in the arcades, so that is the preferred method. But, these games can be played with a pad, too-just a lot of tapping involved for precision. Analog stick is definitely the hardest method.
John Bilbo
Member
I play shmups and other arcade games with Haute board which is like a small keyboard.
Guy_who_thinks_hes_cool
Member
You all gonna hate me on this...
but remember what they did with the new Raiden Game... Raiden Nova?
yes
DO IT!! KONAMI!!!
but remember what they did with the new Raiden Game... Raiden Nova?
yes
DO IT!! KONAMI!!!
apple_of_enlightenment
Member
Parodies would turn that buffet into a Michelin love feast.
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Finally got around to trying Salamander 3. The visuals are definitely a bit disjointed, but otherwise it's super good. It's absolutely got the classic Gradius formula, but with a hint of modern sensibilities, which I appreciate.
The price of the collection is worth it just for Sal 3 imo. I've only gotten 3 stages deep, but it has excellent design so far. It's exciting to have a new Gradius game like this, even if it weirdly lives somewhere between the 16-bit and modern era.
The price of the collection is worth it just for Sal 3 imo. I've only gotten 3 stages deep, but it has excellent design so far. It's exciting to have a new Gradius game like this, even if it weirdly lives somewhere between the 16-bit and modern era.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
My biggest issue with most Gradius games, and it seems the most abhorrent in salamander 3, is that the background color saturation can make you lose sight of your ship.
Red ship and red backgrounds of the same hue with the visual clutter in general makes the game not easy to decipher which should never be an issue for a shmup worth its stones. There's also some super janky enemy placements that feel like "gotcha" moments from games in other genres.
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
I haven't had any issues tracking my ship, but there are definitely a ton of "gotcha" enemies and obstacles that are just impossible to avoid in a first run. Part of the design philosophy (for better or mostly worse) was to toss those artificial moments out in these games, and force you to memorize your positioning in order to avoid it.
It's not good game design, at least by modern standards. But I will say that once you do conquer those moments, you start to feel like Neo in the matrix, just dodging all kinds of absolute bullshit. 80s/90s Konami and Capcom are absolutely full of moments like this, and there's really no way to win except to learn the patterns and brute force it.
I just beat Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the first time, and let me tell you… that game is absolutely full of total fucking bullshit that you just need to memorize or get lucky with. Especially when you're on the second loop. It's just how those games were back in the day.
For me, I usually only pick one game to really try and learn in a collection like this, and then just use the rewind function for all of the other games, just to experience them.