#Gradius gaiden different music series
#Gradius gaiden different music psp

Gradius III is the toughest game in the batch, giving you the impression that Konami simply took its shoot-'em-up formula past some sort of logical extreme with that game. The original Gradius looks dated by now, but the rest of these games still hold up great. Seeing all this makes Life Force's absence a lot easier to accept. The very first level has you maneuvering around huge, fiery planetoids spewing forth fireball-spitting flaming dragons every which way. It's nearly 20 years old, but it's superior to the original game by leaps and bounds and offers some of the most finely tuned challenge of any game in the package. What's amazing is how good Gradius II is.

#Gradius gaiden different music series

Really, the only game in the series that hasn't held up particularly well is the original Gradius. Predictably, the later games in the series, including Gradius IV and the PlayStation's Gradius Gaiden, feature the best visuals, and they still look quite impressive to this day.

It's important to consider these games in their proper context to appreciate them, which is to say, they don't all stand tall and proud on their own merits by today's standards. Despite these omissions, it's hard to be disappointed by how much quality action is presented in this collection. 2004's excellent Gradius V is also absent, though maybe it's too much to expect this relatively recent game to be included. That's a lot of Gradius games, though the one that's notably missing is Life Force, the spin-off sequel to Gradius that introduced two-player gameplay and vertical-scrolling stages. This game, of course, is part of the package in Gradius Collection, along with Gradius II (1988), Gradius III (1989), Gradius IV (1998), and Gradius Gaiden (1997). The original Gradius game dates back to 1985 and stands as the definitive side-scrolling space shoot-'em-up, in which you, as a lone fighter pilot, are expected to vanquish an entire alien armada without any backup. Instead, it's the name of the greatest star fighter since the X-Wing. Vic Viper could have been the name of a heavy metal rock star. It's a must-have for any shoot-'em-up fan, but even those who weren't pumping quarters into arcade cabinets during the series' heyday should be able to appreciate the pure action and challenge these games deliver.

#Gradius gaiden different music psp

Now five games from the Gradius series-most of which have never been released before in North America-are available on one PSP disc, in the form of Gradius Collection. The Gradius series' primary innovation was its customizable power-up system, though the games also featured some distinctive level design and excellent presentation quality. This style of game simply challenges you to survive wave after wave of enemies, by maneuvering to avoid them and their bullets while returning fire. This spacecraft and its distinctive split-nose design is the unlikely hero of Gradius, possibly the all-time greatest series of shoot-'em-ups. While the Vic Viper might not be a household name on quite the same level as Mario or Master Chief, it still is emblematic of what makes video games great.