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Jherbold's Gradius 3 (SNES)
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| [February 21, 2008 12:20:27 AM]
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Gamelog Entry #2
GAMEPLAY
My second run-through saw little improvement in my skill over the first. I finally died in almost the same place I did the first run-through, despite my better knowledge of the power up system and enemy attack patterns.
This time, I tried slowly building up my ship while protecting myself for as long as possible. This strategy seemed to work- at one point I was equipped with 3 wingmen and a ripple laser. It was really fun to destroy enemies this way, and really frustrating when I died. I was still relying on the massive destruction attack, but I found that using it would reset the powerups I had built up until then so I had to be more careful with my usage of it. The game definitely showed promise- it could easily reward skilled players and make you feel good when you managed to finally change your craft into a death machine.
The enemy formations this time were mostly the same, but I learned some new things about how the game worked. For example, I found that, in most cases, destroying an entire wave of enemies almost guaranteed a powerup, so I had to maneuver my ship carefully so as to not miss any of the wave. If I ended up missing one or two enemy ships, I would focus my attention away from those enemies knowing I probably would not get rewarded with a powerup. Small little things like this in the game made it pretty fun, although still at times very challenging, almost to a point of cruelty.
DESIGN
From what I’ve witnessed, there are three main things that make a shmup. The first is the powerup system, and the ways you can increase your ship’s capabilities. Gradius 3 does a good job in this aspect, allowing for interesting combinations of powerups and careful strategical planning to ensure that you remain alive with as much power as possible. The second is the enemy formations and level design. Forcing a player to be in certain places at certain times and offering the powerup rewards in certain locations allow the designers to carefully manage where your ship will end up, and they can edit the attack patterns of the enemy ships using that principle. The third aspect of a shmup that I noticed here was, of course, the bosses. I never really had much difficulty with the bosses in this game, as I had unlimited bombs. However, I did, at times, allow the bosses to live and watch and see what types of attack patterns they had. The bosses look cool and unleash a variety of interesting attacks, always forcing you to move throughout the screen. I was disappointed with the lack of challenge, however.
The atmosphere of the game, although basic, added to the fun that I experienced while playing it. I liked going through space and shooting enemies, and I really enjoyed the level design when I finally made it to the volcanoes in the third level. Maneuvering in-between erupting volcanoes while dodging enemies and shooting powerful weapons was definitely the high-point of my game experience. My only criticism with the atmosphere is the repetition- in the first few levels I played, most of them where the same, with slight color variations. The volcano section was able to stand out, and I’m sure as you progress further into the game the environments become even better.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the design, however, was the difficulty. Getting hit with one attack after carefully avoiding so many and having built up such a strong ship was aggravating and at times made me want to stop playing. Gradius 3 could have had an easier learning curve, allowing the player more room to master the controls and learn how to avoid enemies. I felt, however, that the more I played I really didn’t improve, and the sporadic movement of the ship that I was forced to make to avoid attacks got to be, at times, very tiring. The game seems better suited toward fans of the genre, with some prior experience preferred.
Overall though, I thought this was an excellent game. I enjoyed the upbeat music and atmospheres, especially liked the powerup system, and enjoyed gaining new powers to kill enemies with. The difficulty was a slight put-off, but with more skill I’m sure the game will only improve.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 21st, 2008 at 00:21:04.
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| [February 21, 2008 12:20:05 AM]
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Gamelog Entry #1
SUMMARY
For this gamelog, I chose to play Gradius 3 for the Super Nintendo. I’ve never really played shmups much, so this should be a fun experience.
Gradius 3 is a side scrolling adventure in which you pilot your spaceship through waves of enemies and bosses. As you kill more enemies, you gain distinct new powerups, which you upgrade your ship’s firing and defensive capabilities.
GAMEPLAY
I began Gradius 3 with no knowledge of the controls or with shmups in general. However, it didn’t take too long to get into the game. I quickly learned the controls and picked up generally how the powerup system worked.
The game begins with some pretty easy enemies, all coming at you with various attack patterns. The patterns allowed for easy shooting, and if you carefully positioned your ship in front of a wave of enemies, you were usually able to kill them all. The attacks were relatively easy to dodge, good for an introduction level for someone who never played. I soon learned that one hit would kill you, and I was worried I’d have to start over completely. Luckily, there was a checkpoint, and I continued on my way.
The second part of the first level had me going into a cave and fighting enemies there. The fights were much harder at this point, and I died several times. As I messed around with the controls, I soon found out that you could launch an attack that would destroy everything instantly, and there was (seemingly) no limit to the amount of times you could do it. I used this new technique to easily clear the rest of the level, and wondered why something like that would be in the game. On my next play through, I’ll have to test and see if I accidentally set an option that did that.
Aside from the infinite mass destruction attack, the powerup system was very interesting. As you collect powerups you become vulnerable to attacks, and several times I died trying to pick one up. The powerups accumulated in you like points, and you could spend them on different tiers of upgrades. The first tier was a simple speed up, later ones were various offensive skills. I really enjoyed the strategical aspect of the game that emerged from this- do I save my powerups for the really good attacks and possibly die trying to get there, or do I build up my ship first with cheap powerups like increased speed or the double attack and then slowly improve my ship’s power but with less chance of death? I found that I was more often saving up the powers, and it became frustrating when I was almost a really cool ability and died.
The difficulty of the game also ramped up immensely as I progressed. With one hit deaths, I found it very hard to move forward. Luckily, as checkpoints kept showing up, I did progress.
I really liked the way the developers situated the various enemies and the cool attack patterns they made. The bubble level was interesting and I felt good when I successfully destroyed a wave without dying myself. I managed to get to the third boss before finally losing all my continues. I can see that this game is not as beginner friendly as it could be, but I’m sure many fans of shmups like it better that way.
For my next segment of play, I hope to learn more about the powerup system and see new and interesting enemy patterns.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 21st, 2008 at 00:21:28.
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Jherbold's Gradius 3 (SNES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 20 February, 2008
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