Amazon.com Product Description: An evil force has taken over a distant star system and only you can stop it. You will soar through waves of enemy attacks, battling with photon missiles, laser beams, and other weapons (14 in all). All the elements that made the previous Gradius games popular are back, with all-new levels and a dramatically enlarged scale of your foes (bosses can now fill the entire screen). For novice players, there is a new beginner mode and three levels of difficulty so that everyone will be able to enjoy the game.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A perfect choice for shooter fans.
This game has everything that makes Gradius games good, and a little bit more:
Visuals: 4/5 First off, the graphics are top notch, with great looking backgrounds, and some nice looking enemies. Everything has a good amount of detail to it, and the game even looks good when blown up on a big screen, when using the GC adapter. The only complaint about the graphics is that the game is really dark, but if you are using the Advance SP, or if you have a good lighting addition to your GBA (and there are hundreds out now, so you should), it's not a problem at all.
Sound: 3/5
Nothing spectacular here. Better sound effects than III or IV, but not by much. Instead of going "BOP" when a baddy gets shot, it makes a small crush sound. The lazer shots don't quite sound as annoying either, but the music score is a little annoying sometimes.
Gameplay: 4/5
Everything you'd expect from a Gradius game, except for one thing: In previous Gradius games, if you pumped the difficulty up as high as it would go, and you died in the middle of a stage and lost all your power-ups, it was extremely difficult to come back. That does not hold true for this game. You can continue from just about any part of the game and make a comeback fairly well, as the designers usually place a significant amount of powerups at each respawn portion of the game. The only time that the game is next to impossible without powerups is when you've beaten the game several times through, and are playing on a high loop setting.
Extra: 4/5
It's great that you can continue from any respawn point that you have reached on any difficulty setting! This allows for gamers to pick up, play for a few minuettes, and when they die, put it away so that they can play later at almost the spot they died. I also like the hint section, even though it doesn't do any good if you are playing on anything higher than normal difficulty.
The reason I gave 4/5 for extra, is because in previous Gradius games, the player could customize the ship more. In this one they have a bunch of presets that are fairly well balanced out.
Overall 4/5
It's a great game for gamers that are new to shooters and shooter fans alike. The lower difficulty settings, good respawn points, and hint modes, make the game pretty eassy for beginners. The ability to continue from spots after looping through the game allows for advanced shooter gamers to play at extremely difficult settings. I'd call this game a must have for GBA owners, unless you're really not interested in intense gameplay.
Rating: - Two old memories come back for a visit.
One is the Gradius game and the other is arm cramps. That's right children, this game hurts. There's no such thing as Turbo or Rapid fire here. One press of the button makes one shot. You wanna shoot another, press the button again. This leads to some very inventive cradling of the GBA system. I found it best to keep it on my lap, lift my right hand completely off the GBA, and start whacking away at the fire button. With all the enemies that show on the screen, in the later levels, you'll have to pause he game just to catch your breath....literally. But is it fun you say? Well, Yes and No. If you have fond memories of this game, from your youth, then you'll enjoy shooting a ton of enemies one more time. But once you find out that there's 6 stages, or more, for the 13 or so levels in the game, you really don't feel like playing anymore. It's a good game, but it's not That good. Do yourself a favor, play this with the Game Shark enhancer. It'll save you from Carple tunnel.
Rating: - An insult to Gradius
The older Gradius games were great back in the day, but this GBA version bothered me so much I had to return it. The graphics are below average for GBA standards, but what really frustrated me was the gameplay.
Gradius gives lots of cool and customizable options, but your ship's starting speed is so slow you can't even avoid being hit by enemies with 2-3 seconds to react! Once you can get a speed power up things balance out, but seriously the game is complete frustration trying to dodge slow moving enemies with a sluggish ship and still not being able to do so.
Avoid this game unless you are a Gradius freak and need to re-live the old days.
Rating: - THE OK AND GOOD GAME
My brother got this game and at first hated it. Then he finally started to like it a little more each day until he really liked it. The gameplay is very basic,a space invaders kind of game with boses. The graphics are good. My brother would give this 5 stars, but I think this game is kind of boring.
Rating: - a good game
this is a pretty good game. the graphics are so-sobut gameplay is good and swift. you can switch which type of ship you want, each with different powerups. you can only take one hit before you are destroyed, which [stinks] but then you can get one of two types of shield, forward(10 hits) or surround shields(3 hits). both protect you from anything but crashing. graphics are super, and the controls are simple and changable,surprise surprise. all in all, a great game.
- A perfect choice for shooter fans.
- Two old memories come back for a visit.
- An insult to Gradius
