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Dragutin's Gradius (NES)
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| [January 28, 2007 09:27:44 PM]
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Gradius is still very frustrating. The reward structure is set up to give you weapons, but I find it too hard to continually shoot and dodge everything at the same time to be worried about what powerup I want and when I need to press b in order for me to select it. The level I'm on is nearly impossible- bubbles fly everywhere, and if they're in front of you you can shoot them down. If they're in back of you however, you are forced to dodge all of them, which can be extremely difficult. There are no cutscenes or bonus 'level complete' rewards, shields, extra lives... just weapons. There is no real reason for me to continue playing this game, it just gets me frustrated. If the game had a difficulty selection it would be nice.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 28th, 2007 at 21:29:25.
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| [January 27, 2007 10:25:01 PM]
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Gradius is a really hard and frustrating side scroller space shooter. The game feels decent, without any 'ick', but doesn't feel solid- it just doesn't seem quite as polished as other games of its era like mario or feel as nice as later shmups. Compared to later shmups, it is really primitive and the weapons are lackluster. However, the gameplay is still incredibly hard. I'm playing on an emulator, so I am able to save the gamestate. I tried playing without saving states but I couldn't even make it past the first half of the first level.
After saving the gamestate frequently, I was able to make it to level 4 in about an hour.
Since it is a shmup, there is no real character development besides weapon upgrades. The story is non-existent and there is no narrative. Since it is the most basic of shmups, it is not terribly innovative- the games that follow build on it and add extra features, but the original Gradius is quite basic.
The level design is decent, each level having different strategies needed to win. The first 'boss' battle is a battle to survive while two mountains are spewing rocks everywhere onto the screen. I found the easiest way to win was to hide in the corner and keep shooting, eliminating rocks that would kill me before they reached me. The second boss battle requires you to keep flying everywhere around the screen, however, because the big teal rocks that spawn all around the map start tracking you wherever you fly.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 27th, 2007 at 22:29:01.
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Dragutin's Gradius (NES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 27 January, 2007
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