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Thursday 21 February, 2008
GAMELOG ENTRY 4 (Part 2)
GAMEPLAY
This play through was amazing compared to my last; I finished two and a half levels on my last run. The changes I made consisted of plugging an Xbox controller into my laptop to play and editing my ships power ups. I found that the standard configurations for the ships weren’t great for my style of play. I also tried using different power ups and was amazed at how important the speed up ability was.
The more I played through the less frustrated I got because I became more comfortable with the style of play. I was able to predict the movements of enemies and bosses quite quickly. Although the new control and power ups helped me advance, I am not saying the game became easier to me at all, it hadn’t, but because of the repetition and the more comfortable I got with my custom ship I was able to advance. There is definitely a groove effect to this game; the longer the player goes without getting hit the more powerful he becomes and opportunities of death present themselves less often and on a smaller magnitude.
DESIGN
I have been waiting for quite a while to discuss the design section of this game. The design of Gradius III is stellar, the levels are extremely fun and consistently present challenge to the players. The enemies are very interesting and the variety keeps the player constantly on his toes to destroy them.
The best design aspect to this game is the option to edit your space ship with the power ups that you want. There are example power up schemes a player can use or make their own. I made a custom ship every time for my second play through and did much better than the first run through with pre-chosen power ups.
The system of power ups is genius; I haven’t seen any shmups like it to date. Certain enemies drop power up capsules after they are destroyed for the player to pick up. The player can use them right away by pressing a button; the key is for the player to hold onto them and accumulate them because the more received, the better the skill is when initialized; however, if the player dies while retaining power up capsules, they are lost. So it’s up to the player to manage his abilities conservatively.
Gradius III will present a challenge to all players, it is known for making many people frustrated and I would be included to this crowd if it had not been designed so beautifully. The challenge presented is easily tolerable when using power ups at the right time.
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