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Gradius (グラディウス^?) is a horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up released by Konami in 1985 for video arcades. The original arcade game was released outside Japan as Nemesis, although most of the home versions released worldwide used the original title.

Gradius has the distinction of popularizing a weapon selection bar called "Power meter", based upon collecting capsules to 'purchase' additional weapons. The game was ported to many systems, most notably the Nintendo Entertainment System (with this version also appearing on the Wii's Virtual Console) and the Japanese MSX computer. The game has also been ported to the PlayStation Network.

Gameplay Edit

The player controls the trans-dimensional spaceship Vic Viper, and must battle waves of enemies through various different environments.

The game became synonymous with the phrase, "Shoot the core!", as the standard of boss battles in the Gradius series involved combat with a giant craft, in the center of which would be situated one to several blue colored spheres. These bosses would be designed in such a way that there would be a straight passage from the exterior of the giant craft which leads directly to one of these cores. The player must fire shots into this passage whilst avoiding attack patterns from weapon emplacements on the body of the boss. However, small but destructible walls are situated in this passage, impeding the bullet shots from damaging the core, and must be whittled away by repeated well-placed shots. In a way, these tiny walls represent the boss' shielding gauge until its core is finally vulnerable to attack. Some bosses have the ability to regenerate these walls. When the core has sustained enough hits, it usually changes color from blue to red, indicating that it is in critical condition and its destruction is imminent. Upon the destruction of a core, a piece of the boss may be put out of commission, seeing that it is no longer powered by a core, or if all of the cores are destroyed, the entire boss is defeated and explodes satisfyingly. Note that these cores are not present on the more organic bosses of Gradius. Such bosses have weak spots in places such as a mouth, head or eye.

The name "Gradius" refers to the human-inhabited planet which the Vic Viper is from (also known as planet Nemesis), and not a mistranslation of the word "gladius" (cf. Engrish) as one might assume. ^{[citation needed]} Though only mentioned in the MSX titles, the anime, and Wii's Gradius Rebirth, there are planets other than planet Gradius/Nemesis. The planets are Latis, Odysseus, Kierke, Sard, Procyon, Lavinia, Antichthon, Midport, and Eioneus.

Weapon system Edit

When gameplay begins, the Vic Viper is relatively slow and has only a weak gun. This level of capability is generally insufficient for engaging enemies, but the Vic Viper can gain greater capabilities by collecting and using power-up items.

While most arcade games utilize distinct power up-items that each correspond to a specific effect on the player character, Gradius has a single power-up item. The effect of this power-up item is to advance the currently selected item in a power-up menu that appears at the bottom of the screen. When the desired power-up is highlighted, the player can obtain it by pressing the power-up button, returning the menu to its initial state in which no power-up is highlighted.

Ports Edit

Ports of Gradius were also done for the Amstrad CPC 464-6128, Commodore 64, Microsoft Windows, MSX, NEC PC-8801, NES, PC Engine, Virtual Console, Sharp X1, Sharp X68000, Mobile phones, Sega Saturn, PlayStation and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The NES version of Gradius introduced a cheat code that would later became known as the Konami Code, as it would be used in numerous future Konami games. In this game, inputting the code while pausing the game would grant the player's ship to its maximum level.

Gradius was also converted for the Nintendo Vs. Series arcade platform. It is identical to the NES version, but includes no cheat codes and allows the player to continue indefinitely.

A light open source clone called Monadius was completed in 2005 implemented in Haskell using OpenGL^[2].

The arcade version of Gradius is included in the Gradius Collection for the PlayStation Portable and in Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits for the Nintendo DS.

A version for the Game Boy was also released in 1990 under the European name Nemesis.^[3] It is the first portable game in the Gradius series and contains five levels which play similarly to previous Gradius games. Players select the stage and the number of available extra lives at the start. The game was later included in the compilation Konami GB Collection Vol. 1, where it is titled Gradius.

LegacyEdit

Gradius spawned several sequels, the first of which was 1986's Salamander. The series has continued into the seventh generation with Gradius ReBirth for WiiWare.

ReceptionEdit

Gamespot stated the toughest game of Scroll-shooter in NES only second behind Contra.

Soundtracks Edit

• Alfa Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Konami Game Music Vol.1 – 28XA-85) on 27/06/1986.
• Apollon Music released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Original Sound of Gradius – KHY1016) on 05/05/1987.

See also Edit

• Scramble – predecessor, also by Konami
• Parodius (series) – a series of games also made by Konami that parody the Gradius series and also draws on other Konami games
• Otomedius
• Thunder Cross (arcade game)
• Xexex

ReceptionEdit

References Edit

External links Edit

• Gradius (video game) wiki guide at StrategyWiki

• GameStone - Gradius Home World
• Gradius Base, an extensive resource on all Gradius games

• Gradius at the Killer List of Videogames

ko:그라디우스ja:グラディウス (ゲーム) pt:Gradius fi:Gradius sv:Gradius th:กราดิอุส (วิดีโอเกม)