Yes Boss! said:
It is a good little game. Normal is easier than typical Gradius games but you have options to choose from Very Easy all the way to Very Difficult.
Nothing is blurry on my set...just very low-res. The online rankings are very nice...but not too many folks are on there yet.
I'd recommend it. Not too many shooters on Wiiware but this and Star Soilder R are nice to have in the background.
edit: Made some edits to my impressions after playing the game more.
SD card strike or not, I had over 340 blocks open (I still refuse to get anything as big as a Strongbad ep, nor could I if I wanted since this leaves me with 169 blocks and I refuse to do any more shuffling) so I got it. Love the game so far, the opening cinemas have a nice amount of fan service for MSX Konami fans like me. Control is tight, it plays fine with both Wiimote and CC. Graphics look nice, I'd put them somewhere between Gradius III and Gaiden's graphics.
The game DOES run in 480p unless my plasma is lying to me but I haven't noticed any blur in the visuals or the text. There's quite a bit of pixelation but no more than what you'd expect from a sprite based game running in progressive scan.
It's feels a bit easy for a Gradius game
at first. But once you get past stage one (stage 2 is a sweet Life Force tribute level) you'll get thrashed if you lose your weapons. I'd say so far the challenge is on par with Gradius III, so it's forgiving but it's not for wimps either. And as Yes Boss! said, you can always up the difficulty if you want.
Also, my only real gripe so far is no weapon edit mode. Which means if you want proper force field, you're gonna have to take the ripple lazer. Otherwise type 1 and 3 only offer the skimpy star shield.
Online leaderboards are always a welcome feature, there are separate boards for each difficulty level.
Anyways, it's a fine game so far and definitely a value at $10, especially if you're a long time Gradius fan.