(CC) Gradius (Arcade) - 2-ALL No Miss Hardest Clear (1,209,800 to 3-4)

(Subtitles/CC available for gameplay tips and additional notes)
Gradius (Arcade version)
©1985 Konami

Here it is, the game that started it all. Well, you could say Scramble is what truly started it all (see the Gradius Galaxies intro for clarification), but we'll ignore that game for now. Sure, compared to the later games in the franchise, this one's pretty simplistic. Hell, Big Core is the boss for the first five stages. But that's what gives this game its charm: It shows that a game can be enjoyable without going too overboard in content and design. This game paved the way for future great games to come, and for that, I thank Konami for bringing us this gem.

The gameplay of Gradius (otherwise known as Nemesis in Europe) is pretty simple. You control the Vic Viper, a spaceship employed to take on the ruthless Bacterian forces. You go through seven stages in a looping fashion (where the game gets progressively more difficult with each loop you complete), shooting aliens and exploring various terrain, all culminating in a boss fight at the end of each stage. Basically, shoot everything in sight and don't die. (It sounds easier than it is.)

Various waves of enemies or orange-colored enemies drop power-up capsules that advance a slot on the power-up meter on the bottom. Speed-Up increases your speed up to five times (I go with 2), Missile gives you a downward firing missile that slides along the ground until it hits something, Double gives you an extra shot going upwards at a 45 degree angle, Laser gives you a laser with a wide hitbox that can pierce enemies, Option spawns up to four orange orbs that follow your ship and fire along with you (their behavior in this game is quite buggy), and ? is a Shield power-up that only protects you from the front and can withstand 15 hits.

Scoring in this game mostly revolves around killing enemies; you'll see that I go out of my way to farm every so often. That's just a thing I do in Gradius games; I like seeing that score value go up. :)

The game's initial difficulty can be adjusted in the DIP switches, and this run was done on the hardest difficulty setting. Though, saying that really doesn't mean much. All the initial difficulty does is change the starting rank value initialized at game start. Most of the game's difficulty comes from its rank system, which is based on a combination of your power-up status, current stage/loop progression, and how long you've made it without dying. So, starting on Hardest makes the rank start out a little higher, but it evens out as you get powered up and go later into the game.

I'm fairly happy with this run, though further progress into loop 3 would've been nice. I had a total of 4 runs get to 2-7: two that failed at 2-7, one that made it to 3-2 but I wasn't happy with it, and this. No missing the first two loops is what makes me satisfied enough to put this one up, and I'm glad I finally have a decent replay of this game up.

This game has been bringing shoot 'em up fanatics all over the world joy, challenge, frustration, and achievement since May 29th, 1985, and without this series as a whole, I wouldn't be the passionate gamer I am today. And it all started with this simple little 38 year-old game with little variety in stage design. Who would've thought? But seriously, thank you, Konami, for bringing us this wonderful franchise of games--and for changing my life. Long live Gradius!

Played and recorded using MAME 0.252.