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Awesome Juice's Gradius (NES)
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| [February 23, 2007 11:32:08 PM]
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Playing again, I found that I've gotten good enough to make it all the way through the first section without dying, but that seems mainly because I've already died so much that I've learned what not to do... like on of those experiments where the monkey is in the cage and one button gives him a shock while the other gives food. That is not my idea of a good experience; games shouldn't punish the player for holding in a direction for a split second too long.
Anyways, I got stuck at the same place as before, the segment where the easter-island heads shoot blue discs at you. Somehow I died even though I had a fresh shield, and it was basically over after that because I'm not good enough to maneuver through all those discs without any power-ups.
One good thing though, is the fact that all the enemies that have power-ups are red, which is a good way to make them recognizable to the player.
Now that I am good enough to make it two or three sections into the game, it feels like a scramble to gather upgrades at the beginning and then a desperate struggle to hold onto them once there are more enemies, narrower paths and more shots flying at you.
While this game is fun and definitely challenging, I feel like it would be more accessible and fun if they had made it a little less forgiving, for example make it easier to maintain a shield.
I'm not going to keep playing this game, but it has made me interested in playing some more balanced space shooters.
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| [February 23, 2007 10:51:15 PM]
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Gradius is definitely a classic ancestor of the space shooter genre. It has that "easy to play, difficult to master" quality, for at least the first 3 minutes. The simple controls are just move the ship, fire, and use upgrades. I like the cycling upgrade system which adds a surprising depth to the gameplay, considering it such a simple system.
However fun the gameplay is taken by itself, I very quickly found myself extremely frustrated at this game. Although you have three lives, usually dying once makes it pointless to continue unless you are an expert, which probably requires a certain amount of memorization. Since you lose your upgrades (except any that are unused) on death, and since death usually happens at the more difficult parts of the game, you suddenly find yourself surrounded by swarms of pixelated plasma and alien ships without your precious laser, shield, or speed boosts.
Even if you make it past the first cavern or whatever you fly through, at the end you have to dodge the eruptions from twin volcanoes, something I found impossible without having a shield when I got there.
After playing the first 3 minutes of the game over and over for about 40 minutes, I began to realize the importance of the upgrade strategy, especially in the first few moments of the game. I learned that by taking the right upgrades and moving in the right pattern I could collect all the upgrades before reaching the cavern and by then have several speed boosts, laser, and the "option" companion gun. Having these allowed me to rake the entire screen of enemies much more effectively so that I could build up upgrades to get a shield, which helped me get through the last few waves and then the volcanoes.
The first boss was a pushover compared to the level before him. The levels got considerably more difficult after that, adding in some new enemies and barriers that have to be shot out of the way.
Overall my initial impression is that this game is fun and very good but that its difficulty is too unforgiving to the player that just wants to play it without having to memorize endless patterns.
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Awesome Juice's Gradius (NES)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Got frustrated
GameLog started on: Friday 23 February, 2007
GameLog closed on: Friday 23 February, 2007 |
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