Product Description
With Gradius 3 & 4 you get two shooting games on one disc! Gradius 3 starts with a dazzling intro movie and then settles into a side-scrolling shooter. You must shoot your way against numerous alien ships hurtling toward you while picking up different power-ups--such as speed tune-ups, missile weapons, lasers, and shields--to keep your end up in an ever more intense battle. Also, you can pick up the husks of burned-out foes for more rewards.
Gradius 4 is essentially the same type of game, but the side-scrolling action often breaks up and allows you to move in less restrictive ways. Of course, that newfound freedom doesn't necessarily work to your advantage; wild enemies can now come sweeping at you from all angles.
Amazon.com
Every console system pays homage to the past, even as consumers leap into the future. The Dreamcast hosted various Midway and Namco arcade packages, and there was the famous (or infamous, depending on how you feel about 2-D space shooters) GigaWing. Sony and Konami are getting into the act by bringing the Gradius series to PlayStation2--at launch, no less. While it gives many, if not most, people a significant "warm, fuzzy" feeling to revisit the past, one can make a strong case that developing a PS2 version of Gradius III & IV was more about padding the launch lineup.
If you're a fan of the side-scrolling-shooter genre, however, this edition likely will please you. It has almost everything that a trigger-happy arcade hound could want: rapid-fire framerate, lots of color and animation, and that wonderful '80s feel. It also has some of the glitz that younger video game fans demand, such as two completely new CG intro videos that look pretty dang cool.
Konami has pulled out all of the stops in revamping the look of the gameplay, too. The two games now are quite polygonally charged and texturally sophisticated. The graphics now use environmental mapping, and polygon morphing makes the animation very smooth. Another nice feature, especially for a game like Gradius is that a stage-selection mode and a continue feature have been added to allow players to go back to wherever they want to start over, revisit, and/or practice a tricky spot.
While it might not register in the minds of those of us who are addicted to high-profile launch games like Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, Gradius III & IV might be good to buy for casual gamers of all ages and skill ranges, since Konami has added modes for beginners and advanced players. Everyone from granny to baby brother should be able to pick up this title and thrash right out of the box. --Todd Mowatt
Pros: Enhanced gameplay nostalgia New stage-selection and continue features Cons: Appealing to casual gamers and fans of the genre only
Review
The popularity of retrogaming is unquestionable. Between the remakes of old franchises and the repackaging of old arcade games into "best of" console compilations, it's obvious that today's game players have a huge soft spot for recent nostalgia. With this in mind, Konami has brought Gradius III & IV, a name that no doubt warms the memories of many NES players, to the PS2.
The Gradius series is one of the unsung heroes of the gaming world. All of the now-standard conventions of side-scrolling shooters - screens filled with enemies and enemy fire, gigantic bosses, and a large, multifaceted weapons system - were popularized in the Gradius series. For the PS2 release, Konami has skipped any sort of augmentation of these titles and instead has opted for straight emulation. Gradius III & IV are both identical to their arcade counterparts, down to such minutiae as imitating the same slowdown found in the originals. The world-famous Konami code is included as well. All of this will either light up the eyes of players jonesing for some healthy retro gaming or be a wicked disappointment to gamers looking for something new.
Since the release of the original Gradius in 1985, and the subsequent releases of Gradius II, III, an
FEATURES
