Wednesday 31 January, 2007

After an attempt at playing though a much to be desired shmup for the super nes I decided to try my newbie skills on the classic Gradius for the NES.

With in the first seconds I noticed the customization avaliable to me though the control of my power bar. This is a awesome feature compared to the previous shmup's i've played as it allowed me to customize the game to my playing style.

After starting the game and playing a little while I became aware that shmup's are really challanging. I now appeciate the fatastic gameplay displayed in class.

While the side scrolling game play and level design is of Gradius is really great. It feels fresh ever few seconds and so there is little bored time there are a few things I dislike.

One, it takes to long to reappear after you died. If I die I want to be back in the game as soon as possible.

Two, bullets and enemys can go though terrain. This to me was simply annoying an as a new player it also cost me a few lives.

Three, A difficulty setting would be nice.

This game was very difficult for a new player like me. I had a very rough time even making it though the first level with in my initial game session. Of course I am completely new to shmup's and so that created more difficulty in the game play. But seriously, I feels like the game was completely designed for experianced players.

This brings up a important point, make a game which appeals to all skill levels.

Lastly, I would like to mention some interesting attribute of Gradius. It seems to have a frustrating addiction quality. Its something I have not felt since I was a little kid and use to want to throw my controller. There is this super frustration you experiance while playing that only makes playing the game more addictive. It seems this is much less common in present games.

And now I begin another frustrating yet fun session of Gradius.

Well after another super hard attempt at playing I am seeing some improvement. Ive managed to make it to the second level boss.

I am now seeing the full use of the power bar and the stratagy that it offers. It seems this last boss which is basically a series of tiles moving at you. This tile effect was reused in a number of games as a boss. I remember one in Zelda for the snes which was nearly the same concept entirely.

Well it seems this last boss is much easier if you have a multidirectionally firing ability as you can sweep the road of any enemy tiles. This greatly enhances my survival time when battling the boss.

Of course I could not beat it just yet. Perhaps in another hour of game play I could progress to the next level. I suppose progression at about an hour a level is not too bad.

A new aspect of frustration that I feel should be addressed in Gradius or shmup's in general is the problem of dieing and losing all your power ups right when you need them the most.

I think there should be the option of storing powerups for more difficult areas.
Mario brothers 2 or 3 introduced this idea with the ability to store mushrooms or fire plants. This was a great idea as it allowed a more fair difficulty as the game difficulty increases. With out handicaps on the difficulty you experience a exponential growth in difficulty rather then a linear one.

This is my thoughts.
Todd