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motorbreath's Gradius (NES)
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| [January 25, 2008 09:32:13 PM]
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Gamelog #2
GAMEPLAY
The second time playing this game is nowhere near as fun as the first time. Extended play of this game gets very tiring. There is not very many ways to play and beat this game. The first three levels I kind of just go through the moves of where I should fly and who I should kill. Once I get past level three, it gets better again.
I have to constantly keep my upgrade meter highlighted over the shield option because it later becomes very easy for me to lose it. It becomes a real challenge not to collect power-ups because collecting one would reset my upgrade meter to the beginning, and I do not always have enough time to collect enough to cycle through the list again.
The final level is the true test because the amount of space available to move around in is reduced to less than half of what is normally available. It is very easy for enemies to run into your ship and there is very little room to evade the barrage of fire power that your enemies deploy. I often scream out in a torrent of curse words whenever I’m about to restore my shield but instead I don’t and die.
DESIGN
I really enjoy the color scheme for this game. It uses a lot of bright colors against a dark, starry background. I think this is what enthralled my as a baby. Also the music seems to really set the mood and goes well for each level. For example, I thought the music in the first level was very bouncy and thought it was interesting how some of the enemies are bouncing around on the ground like they were dancing.
I can understand why people get so easily discouraged with this game. It is near impossible to survive after losing a life and therefore losing all of your power-ups. Unless you are an extremely skilled player or know the cheat code (up up down down left right left right B A) it is impossible to continue on after losing a life. However, that is what I love about this game. I normally would rather play a game that took me several tries to beat it then simply having to go from room to room to advance. I would however make the AI take a little more time to go back up to their hardest level. The game does that a little bit but not enough. As long as I do not die, I can get through the game without cheating (but not often).
The bosses were poorly designed. Level 1 and 4’s bosses were exactly the same except reverse (volcanoes on the ground, volcanoes on the ceiling). Level 5’s was exactly the same as the level itself except that the screen was not scrolling. Level 6’s shot randomly similarly to the volcanoes and the final boss put up no fight whatsoever. Level 2 and 3’s bosses were a little more interesting. Level 2 required you to evade a bunch of green squares instead of allowing the player to sit in one place and level 3’s boss were sphere that came directly at you and required you to destroy them. They often shot out littler spheres that could not be destroyed so you had to evade them while trying to destroy the larger spheres.
I think at some point the creators ran out of ideas for level design. Level 4 was near identical to level 1 except upside down and level 6 was very similar to level 2 in that you could shoot certain objects out of the way to make more paths for yourself. Level 5 was a very plain level. Nothing but rocks with tentacles on them came after you. There was no background for this level. I think the reason why it was made like that was because the tentacles graphically took too much power (whenever there was more than one, the game lagged). They could as used a simpler design for them or just dropped the level entirely.
And finally there is the upgrade system. It makes it more of a challenge to get certain upgrades, like the shield, because it cycles through the list instead of accumulating power-ups that could be traded off or specific power-ups that instantly change the current weapon system. Some power-ups require the user to use a little bit of strategy. You cannot choose both the double and the laser upgrade so it is a matter at figuring out when which one is more suitable. Also there seems to be no limit to the amount of speed-up boosts you can get. I once got so many that just tapping on the D-pad sent me from one side of the screen to the other.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 25th, 2008 at 21:34:02.
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| [January 25, 2008 09:30:47 PM]
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Gamelog #2
SUMMARY
Gradius is a 2-D side scrolling space shooter where the user has to save Gradius from invading forces using the Vic Viper (the game does not explain the storyline; I had to look it up). The player can destroy certain colored enemies or destroy a sequence of enemies to gain power-ups, which can be used to add a shield, speed, or other weapon upgrades.
GAMEPLAY
As a baby, the only way my dad could get me to stop crying was to play video games for hours at a time until my mom got home. Gradius was one of the games he played. I think this is one of the major reasons I do not get so easily discouraged playing this game.
I love this game. It is one of the most exhilarating games for me to play because it keeps my hands busy the entire time. I do not have to sit back and listen or read some story to play the game. While the controls are very simple (up, down, left, right, A to fire and B to upgrade) I’m using almost every button at all times (the upgrade not so much).
The gameplay gets extremely difficult starting at level three. At this point enemies will shoot a barrage of fire power at you. The eastern island heads in level three also make the gameplay insanely hard because it takes several shots in the mouth to destroy them. I consider this level the hardest next to the final (7th) level because it is so easy to crash here. Even though I consider it harder than subsequent levels, it is easy enough to beat without too many upgrades (I can get through it with two speed-up bonuses alone). After this level, is near impossible to survive without a shield.
I am very disappointed with the bosses however. Most of the bosses are simply objects that fire rocks or something constantly and randomly and all I really had to do was tap A over and over to destroy them before they hit me. The final boss however is the worse. The boss is nothing more than a giant brain that sits there and lets you shoot it. Maybe a real pilot fighting to save his planet would enjoy that, but not me. After all the insane intensity I had to go through, I was expecting for some ultra, near impossible mission, where if I somehow managed to defy all logic and win I could be declared the all time greatest gamer ever, but no.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 25th, 2008 at 21:33:37.
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motorbreath's Gradius (NES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 25 January, 2008
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