Gradius is a neat little shooter to play on the NES. It was ported over from its 1985 arcade original, and this was also Konami’s first NES game to be released in America. The funny thing is I never saw this game in our family’s NES library back in the day…although we had Contra and Double Dribble. I didn’t discover this game until the second time that I got an NES in the house in 1996. Gradius came with it and I was immediately interested in seeing the game because it had that classic Konami box art. You know–the whole “grey box with the lines on both sides” look. The artwork really jumped out at me and made me want to play it.

Gradius really brought something new, yet practical to the shooter genre. Something that really appealed to me was the fact that you didn’t just shoot a power up capsule and automatically gain a quick upgrade. You have to pick and choose which ability you want to enhance every time you pick up one of those power up thingies. As a result of that kind of power up system, it added in a little strategy element, that still made the game very fun to play. Something else that I found to be very unique, for it’s time, was the Option drones. I never could figure out exactly what they were, but it’s like they had a life of their own. The Options prove to a real big help in any situation that you may run into, as you take on more hordes of enemies. My only regret is that you are limited to only 2 Options. The arcade version let you have up to 4 of them. Even so, 2 Options still work just fine for the NES version.

This is a very good example of an arcade port done right. Nothing is really missing or changed from the original in terms of game play and overall content. The graphics are crisp and easy on the eyes, and the sound effects are very well done too. Not annoying or just plain embarrassing…it fits the NES very well. What I like the most, though, is the music! Despite the limitations that any developers will run into while porting an arcade title to a home console, Konami didn’t let that stop them from making the music mimic, almost perfectly, the original stuff. Not to mention, the music is also quite catchy and you’ll probably be humming some of tunes in your head too.

There is one thing that many, including myself at times, have found a bit troublesome about the game. When all tricked out with Options and weapons and all that good stuff, you’ll be fine…as long as you don’t get killed. If you die, you’ll be stuck with a slow ship and the basic pea shooter weapon. Sometimes you’ll get restarted to a particularly tough section of a level, and if you can’t move around fairly quickly, then you’re toast. But then again…that’s why they made the Konami code…up, up, down, down….well, you know the rest.

Play or Stay? Gradius is a solid game that most fans of the old school shooter genre wouldn’t mind playing when they have 20 minutes to spare. If you don’t have an NES, you can still download it on the virtual console for 500 points. Happy blasting!