

The good old Vic Viper features the standard Gradius payload with the usual Missile, Double, and Laser weapons. This time, you can select from four ships. Unfortunately, the weapon selection isn’t quite as vast as in Gradius III, although it’s still fairly expansive. This also affects the intro, which is done in English with a Star Wars-style text scroll. There’s even the option to switch between male and female voiceovers. It’s definitely classic Konami, top caliber stuff that feels considerably more evolved than previous entries. The Moai stage has an exotic instrument that sounds a bit like a bagpipe, while the final fight has an epic, faux-orchestral quality to it. The boss theme has an unnaturally catchy rhythm, and is far more memorable than the repetitive tunes in most of the other games. The music, again like Symphony of the Night, consists of a wide selection of genres, ranging from peppy new age to upbeat rock to cool atmospheric tunes. The game climaxes with the usual boss rush – one of the toughest parts of the game, of course – as well as a speed up zone, a bipedal robot with rocket powered skates, and a final boss that puts on an impressive light show while cycling through images of bosses from Gradius’ past. It’s a replica of the first level from the original Gradius, except it’s being torn apart by a black hole, requiring that you dodge bits of scenery that are being tossed at you. The biological and plant stages are cool, but the real standout is the “Event Horizon” stage. (The Moais even taunt you with voice clips, yelling “You think you can beat me with that? Loser!” when you first fight them.) The level boss is a square room with four huge Moai heads on the wall that spin around, which brings to mind that famous level in Super Castlevania IV, where the entire screen rotates. The statues in the Moai stage fire huge lasers, which continue to radiate even after being destroyed. The third stage is another crystal level, but here, the crystals bend and refract your laser shots, which looks really, really cool. The second stage is a ship graveyard filled with wrecked remains of old Gradius bosses, some of which still fire off some shots despite being buried deep in rubble. Gradius Gaiden really excels because it has lots of familiar moments with cool twists. The whole thing is interrupted by a gigantic white caterpillar which bursts out of the ground and begins to attack. It’s a beautiful trip through a snow field as colorful auroras shine peacefully in the background. The tone is set by the first stage, a snow filled area called “Beyond the White Storm”. It features gorgeous, splendidly detailed 2D graphics that totally blow away most other shooters, with improved color depth, transparency effects, and rotating and scaling sprites, with barely a polygon in sight. Graphically, it does to Gradius what Symphony of the Night did for Castlevania.
#GRADIUS GAIDEN PSN HOW TO#
The game uses 2D graphics with some polygonal elements and features 2-player co-op gameplay as well as the option to select from four starfighters to take into battle.Gradius Gaiden is the perfect example of how to evolve a series.


and Limit, which renders you invincible for three seconds), and even re-arrange what's in your bar. You can also power-up the Missile, Double, and Laser power-ups to become more powerful, select two new types of shield (Guard, which protects against physical barriers. You can collect power-ups which fills your power-up bar and which can then be triggered at any time for a specific effect depending on what bar is active at the moment. Gameplay consists of moving your fighter across side-scrolling stages, shooting everything in sight and avoiding enemy fire, with your objective being to reach the end and defeat the stage boss to move on. Now only you, aboard your trusty Vic Viper starfighter, can put an end to the Dark Nebula in Gradius Gaiden, yet another shooter in the Gradius series. Desperately, the Gradius army launched an attack on the source with four ships in hot pursuit. This started a domino effect which ended in the colonies around Gradius attacked and most of the planet's army in ruins. But one day, a science vessel disappeared into the Evil Range nebula. It's 200 years into the future and Gradius is prospering. Evil lurks out there in the universe - even after you defeated the Bacterian forces.
