Gradius (Video Game Review)

Video Game Review
Gradius
Nintendo Entertainment System
1986
Developed by: Konami
Published by: Konami

If it weren’t for one special thing about Gradius for the NES, the game would be an average shoot-em-up for the system. The power-up selector made Gradius a worthwhile game. Not only does it make it better than most of the games in its genre on the NES but also makes it a standout game compared to titles of the same genre on more powerful systems. Konami got lucky with Gradius because aside from this major part of gameplay, the game at its core feels very generic. Still, Gradius is still an enjoyable game.

There isn’t much of a story to Gradius. The player controls the Vic Viper spaceship; navigating it through seven levels and destroying anything in its path. The Vic Viper is equipped with one main gun although the ship can be upgraded by collected power pods. It’s up to the player to decide in the heat of battle what type of upgrade they want to perform on the ship. The upgrades are listed in a table at the bottom of the playing screen and the current one available is the one highlighted. Once a player hits the upgrade button, the power-up is activated and the player needs to begin collect power pods again to work their way up the upgrade list. Upgrades include improvements to the weapons, a quicker ship, and shields. The upgrades can also be combined allowing skilled players to make their ships really powerful.

The game is presented as a horizontal side-scroller shooter. The controls are very simple because there’s not much to do outside of moving the ship and shooting. The d-pad moves the ship across the screen while the A button fires the weapons. The B button selects the highlighted power-up and activates it. It’s all very simple to use and essentially anyone can pick up the game and play it without worrying about the controls getting in the way.

The graphics look like what you’d expect a NES game to look like. That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but this game didn’t really tax the system’s hardware all that much. It has that perfect 8-bit feel to it and everything moves along nicely at a silky pace. All the sprites have a bit of detail to them and are easy to differentiate between each other. It must be noted though that the few backgrounds—like the soil on the top and bottom of the screen in the first level—are very well detailed for a NES game.

The same thing goes for the soundtrack too. While the music is enjoyable and is something that you’d expect to come from a quality NES game, none of the tracks are all that catchy. Konami had some really great sounding soundtracks on the NES but this isn’t one of them. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the musical score but it seems more generic than anything else. It’s sole purpose in this game is to function as a way to create a mood and environment and that’s it. Which is fine, because it could have been worse as they could have made a soundtrack that tried to do too much and in turn became grating on the ears.

Despite the fact that the graphics and the sounds of the game feel sort of average or generic for the NES, the game still stands out for providing solid gameplay. The power-up system is lots of fun and adds an extra bit of challenge and strategy to the game as players experiment with the various power-ups until they find the right comfort zone for them. The shooting aspects of the game are solid. The game has a decent difficulty level; while amateur players to the genre will most likely see quite a number of game over screens while playing, someone who is used to playing shoot-em-ups will find themselves facing a decent challenge before completing the game (although the game ultimately doesn’t end as it keeps replaying the same levels over again with increased difficulty). With this perfect balance, the game is a blast to play for any type of gamer.

The downside is that other than the power-up system, there isn’t much to the game to make it stand out. It’s level design, graphics, and sound don’t make it all that different from anything else in the genre and there are plenty of games out there that are available for the NES or on other consoles that are better. This is the not even close to being a must own shoot-em-up game on the NES. There are a slew of shooters on the NES that are either better than or at least comparable to Gradius that aren’t supported by a major gimmick but have better graphics, sound, and gameplay. Some would argue that 1942, R-Type, Tiger-Heli, and others are superior to Gradius.

In the end though, Gradius is still very fun to play. Even though it does feel like a generic shooter with a gimmick, it’s a pretty great gimmick. Konami may have phoned in the core design aspects of Gradius but the power-up system makes the game so appealing. One could argue until they’re blue in the face whether “Game X” is better than Gradius but it doesn’t matter if one game is slightly better than the other; you won’t go wrong by picking up Gradius. Sure, it’s simple fun. However, gaming is supposed to be fun and chances are you will not be disappointed by this game.

☆☆☆☆