(I don’t know about you, but I think that’s incredible) Amazingly, Higashino composed Gradius at the very start of her career as a part0time composer at the young age of just 17. So where did this awesome music come from? Gradius was composed by a young miss Miki Higashino, who would go on to become one of Konami’s most prolific composers they’ve ever had. The theme itself is simple, memorable, and just downright awesome, and is just one of many themes that play to the same effect. Take for example the theme from the fourth stage.As you spray lasers and missiles on your enemies and are under constant counter fire, this undeniably uplifting song screams “go for it!” like no other shooter game does. From the heroic and inspiring main theme of the Vic Viper, the adventurous and uplifting melody of the first stage, the urgent and frantic boss battle music to the moody and plotting theme that plays in the final stage, every peice of music is lively and perfectly captures the imagination and embodies the very soul of what shooter games are all about. It is not an exaggeration to say Gradius has one of the best scores ever produced for a videogame. Much of what transforms Gradius from being just another shooter is it’s legendary soundtrack. What other game has you navigating a space cavern where volcanoes erupt below you or has you flying through a field of intergalatic Easter Island Moai heads that blast oval lasers at you? The rather bizarre backgrounds and locations lean toward the surreal, but this is part of the charm of Gradius. Due to the blackness of space, the colorful bullets, missiles, lasers, obstacles and enemies are clearly vivid and show a level of detail that was very impressive for its time and still looks good today. Enemies are colorful and uniquely shaped. While Gradius may not look like much by today’s standards, when it was released it was an amazing step forward for the shooter genre and arcade games as a whole. The Famicom version, while obviously more basic than the arcade, is surprisingly faithful and is a very good port. Gradius was among the earlier Konami arcade shooters and when it was ported to the Famicom in 1986. Can the Vic Viper save the planet Gradius? You are the best pilot the people of Gradius have and have been chosen to pilot the Vic Viper and end the war. When war is inevitable, the top Gradian scientists design the Vic Viper – a adaptable state-of-the-art hyperspace fighter with energy absorbing abilities to boost its own power. The peaceful people of the planet Gradius are suddenly threatened by the invasion force of the evil Bacterian Empire. The original Gradius was ported to systems that could handle it very well such as the PC Engine and also to systems’ that couldn’t such as the X68000 or even the MSX and Commodore 64, but for now, I’ll be reviewing the version that most of us probably would associate with, the Famicom/NES release. If you’ve ever played a Gradius game, you already know that the series is one of the best shoot ’em up (shmup) series out there and also one of the most difficult. Smartasses also said “option” and “destroy the core.” Damn kids. I recently asked retro gamers across many communities about Gradius and heard the same words over and over to describe the game like how it’s “difficult”, “addictive”, “rewarding” “frustrating” and above all, “memorable”. It may be one of the granddaddies of all classic shooters, but the name alone is enough to conjure up an array of emotions for anyone who has ever played it.
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