I'm working on a review for Gradius, and would like to get some community involvement for a few odd opening paragraphs..don't worry, it'll be easy!
All you have to do is describe the first Gradius game in one word. You can make as many one word statements as you'd like, but keep it down to one word per statement. Thanks!
.word $beef
Sorry, I couldn't resist the attempt at humor.
SMDLO? (SpeedUp, Missile, Double, Laser, Option, "?" as Force Field).
- Viper.
Since when are we supposed to obey to evil doctors ?
thanks guys for participating. The review is now up! I asked many communities about Gradius and some of what you guys had to say had me rolling on the floor. Good times.
SatoshiMatrix wrote:
The review is now up!
- Where?
It is interesting to see that you used the AC 2010 fan hack for the review, but too many stuff have changed in this incredible version so I think this cannot be used as a measure for readers to judge how the original game was like.
I played both versions back to back and the differences are rather minor so I can't agree with that. Yes, there are some additional bosses as well as four options and a button config added, but the game still is Gradius. I own the Famicom cart and would happily recommend it.
No. They're very different. I can list some of them here:
1. Graphical changes, including palettes and completely redrawn graphics to make them more faithful t o the arcade version:
Among these the Font was changed, the title was changed, the shield was changed (to become larger and thus it's always flickering now) and an eye was added to the boss of the second last stage.
2. There is now an option screen in the title, which enables you to reconfigure the control (you can even use a 3-button set-up like the arcade version) and even change the title screen to the foreign "Nemesis".
3. Lasers behave differently. They're long lines like the arcade version now, not the two bullets in the original Famicom version.
4. You can have 4 options instead of 2 in the original.
5. Some stages can be scrolled in the vertical direction like their arcade counterpart now (e.g. Stage 2).
6. When you fight a boss you won't scroll to empty space like in the original, and so you can hit the background and die now.
7. Many cut enemies are inserted back, like the laser pods before the boss in Stage 1, etc.
IMO changes from point 3 onwards are very significant and so you can no longer say it's the same version of the game.
Hm, point taken. I guess you could consider this a review of the "enhanced" version of Gradius rather than the regular release. The best console port is actually the PC Engine release and is still one of my favorite games for the system.