Super FamiComplete #8: Gradius III (Redux)

Title: Gradius III: Densetsu kara Shinwa he (From Legend to Myth) (JP), Gradius III (US)

Release Date: 12/21/90 (JP), 8/13/91 (US)

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

The Gradius series is often considered one of the most difficult "schmup" series out there. It is not quite up to the bullet-hell levels of the more arcade style shooters (a la Cave shooters like DoDonpachi), but it definitely has old school toughness in spades. Schmups have become an acquired taste for me over the past couple of years. I have started to get into twin stick shooters such as Enter the Gungeon, Ruiner, Pocky & Rocky, and Assault Cactus. I have started to branch into some modern schmups like Jamestown and I got to play the classic Donpachi when I was in Akihabara a few summers back. Before this recent heyday, though, the only shoot-em-up I had ever owned was Earth Defense Force for the SNES, and I found that game challenging but not impossible. I first tried this game for the blog, and I managed to beat the game (granted on Easy) on my third attempt. Was it tough? Yes. Impossible? No. Manageable? Yes.

Story/Background
What is the story of this game? Well you are the pilot of the ship known as the Vic Viper, and you are flying to fight against the Bacterion Empire. And...that's it. Basically you are a one man air force and you are just tearing through the enemy fleet.

The series Gradius is a staple Konami franchise that started in the arcade. This game was the brainchild of Hiroyasu Machiguchi, who worked on this franchise previously, but this was his first game as the director at Konami.

What's Konami you ask? Well Konami is one of those staple video game companies that started a ton of classic franchises (in the same league as Capcom). Konami's claim to fame were series such as Metal Gear, Castlevania, and Silent Hill. Lately, they have caught a ton of shit from gamers due to eschewing many of their "favorite" franchises in favor of developing mobile games and pachinko machines. Some fun wikipedia facts: Konami started as a jukebox manufacturer. Also, the name Konami comes from a portmanteau of the founders of the company: Kagemasa Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, and Tatsuo Miyasako.

Gameplay
The game is structured over ten levels, and the game segues seamlessly from level to level. Each level begins with an "outer space" section that allows you to mow through smaller enemies in order to farm power-ups, then moves onto the main stage itself, and finally ends with a boss fight.

The game is packed: the screen is filled with enemies, obstacles, and swarms of projectiles. What makes this unique from other schmups, and has become the Gradius series special sauce, is that you are able to customize and choose your upgrades that you will use throughout the game. You can customize everything from the path of your ancillary missiles, what pattern your guns and lasers will shoot, the type of shield your ship will use, and in what formation your "options" (secondary pods which replicate your ship's attack patterns) will fly in next to your ship. This was my personal "build" for my play-through, and I found it pretty effective.

Missiles: 2 way back (this way the missiles spread behind you and hit anything coming from behind)
Double: Doesn't matter, never use it.
Laser: Twin Laser (once you have options enabled, this becomes ridiculously powerful)
Option: F Option (it creates a blanket of cover fire)
?: Reduce (makes your hit box much much smaller)
!: Full Barrier (gives you an extra hit)

This customization continues into the game itself: you must collect power-ups from defeated enemies, which will charge up your "weapon meter" one slot per power-up collected.

The meter is right there on the bottom (selected power highlighted in yellow)

Once the power-up is selected, you can activate it by pressing the A button. All activated power-ups will stay on until you die, whereupon you will be forced to start all over again building your ship back up. When starting a game, it usually takes till about half-way through the second level to be completely built up, so the process does take a while. The amount of power-ups you get later in the game do diminish greatly, so it pays to avoid death as much as possible. 

In fact this is one of the reasons the game can be so challenging. When you are fully powered-up, you are pretty damn hard to kill. Your ship is fast, you can take two hits, and you are firing projectiles in every direction. If you get killed, though, all this power is taken away, and your base ship is pretty darn worthless. You move very slowly, and you are basically a sitting duck in some of the later stages. One of the last stages of the game actually has you flying through a space station, and the stage itself moves faster than normal, meaning you must dodge the walls just as much as the enemy fire. If you die in this stage, your base speed is so slow that it is impossible to beat the stage. This is actually the stage that stopped my first and second playthrough.

To beat this stage, you have to be almost fully powered-up when it comes to speed, and even then it is incredibly difficult. The best way to beat this stage, consistently, is through memorization. 

Now Gradius III purists will not use options (not the menus, but the secondary pods that fly with your ship) when playing the SNES port, or at least try not to, as many feel that using options is kind of like cheating. This isn't because of the extra fire power they provide, but instead because the game's framerate moves to a crawl; the options, when firing at full blast, seem to be too much for the poor little SNES to handle. Now even slowed down this game is very difficult, but for the average gamer, this game would be near impossible without options. I admit, I beat this game using options, but I don't think I could have otherwise. Here are some clips that will show the difference in speed.

Quite a bit of difference in speed and difficulty, wouldn't you say?

The bosses in this game are pretty fantastic, in that they are both challenging yet fun. There is definitely a high-science fiction/bio-organic feel to the enemies in the game (I mean the bad guys are called the Bacterions). Look at this plant boss towards the middle of the game; it is terrifyingly huge and creepy in its design.

It's got baby hands...

There is even an old fashioned boss rush before the final level, though the bosses in this level are all completely new; it is just one new boss after the other!

My one criticism is that the last boss is kind of a joke. He definitely looks imposing (and definitely freaky)...

Yet all he does is shoot those three blue orbs at you which trail slowly across the screen...they don't even follow you. Really he just grunts at you, pukes out those orbs, and then dies after a short bit. It is kind of pathetic for such a tough game. The level before him is certainly tricky; it has walls that must be destroyed but regrow at random while you are traveling through them, yet this boss is a lackluster ending to not only a tough level, but a tough game.

What about them tasty licks?
The music in the game is fantastic, and definitely sets the mood for a high space adventure. As well the sound effects are dead on, and the pew-pew of lasers and the explosion of space-ships have never been more satisfying. Here are some of those quality SNES jams.

Ads, Art, and Commercials

Sadly there is no Paul Rudd in this commercial. It is pretty straight forward.

Final Verdict
In the end, it is certainly a great schmup due to its difficulty and its customizability. As well, it is pretty easy to pick up; just about $10 on Amazon for the loose cart. This one gets a very high recommend.