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Gradius V

Stroker Ace

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Stroker Ace

Stroker Ace

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It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

It's as well crafted a shooter as it gets. The fact is, it's Gradius, so there's little that'll revolutionise the genre, but everything that it does do, it does spectacularly well. I haven't hit any 'ARRRAGH!' bullet waves as seen in the likes of Mars Matrix or Giga Wing, but the game remains consistently challenging, with the environment often providing the danger, rather than the enemies themselves. The meteor shower level in particular is inspired - a regular shoot-em-up level, played out with you being pelted by giant rocks the whole time, as if it weren't already awkward enough.

That's as far as I've gotten so far (on three credits, on Normal mode), and I'm very much looking forward to what comes next. The thing is, whilst it's 'tough', it's not ass-rapingly 'punishing'.

I enjoy my Japanese shooters, but do find the trend of 'let's throw as much as we can at them and see if they can take it' gameplay to be a bit annoying. I'd rather see the well planned, strategic bullet waves of Ikaruga or Psyvariar than the absolute frantic keep-firing-until-there's-no-room-left nonsense of Mars Matrix. I haven't wanted to put the controller through the floor thus far, as I did with ESPGaluda. Much like Treasures other shooters, I haven't felt that the game's been unfair - every death I have incurred has been through my own mistakes. Treasure don't take the simple route and just plaster the screen with bullets - instead, they put bullets ONLY in the places where you'd want to be, preventing you from sitting back and letting your 'Option' drones do the work for you.

It's brilliant. It's been a good year for shooters on the PS2. The game is entirely in English, so there's no excuse not to import. Preferred Ikaruga. Preferred Silvergun even more. But that shouldn't count as marks against.

Final thought - The music... Isn't very good. It's entirely acceptable; but compared to the majestic scores of Ikaruga, Silvergun, and other non-Treasure stuff like R-Type Delta and Psyvariar, it's all rather average.

Other than that, Burt Reynolds gives it nine bandits out of ten. Top stuff.

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martTM

martTM

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Only complaint - we've found a few areas (only a few, mind) where unless you've got the complete compliment of weapons, you're forced to die - a barrier might not blow up in time or whatnot, meaning the scrolling pushes you into it and you snuff it. Which then makes the next bit impossible, as you've got no weapons.

Obviously, most people will say 'Well, that's Gradius' but even so, it got to me. Still, looks and plays lovely.

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RobJam

RobJam

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I'd rather see the well planned, strategic bullet waves of Ikaruga, R-Type or Psyvariar

Huh? Are you sure R-Type belongs in that sentence? I'm having trouble connecting it in even a passing way to the other two, except that you shoot things in all of them (so heck, let's have Unreal Tournament in there too).

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Dude Ranch

Dude Ranch

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I was looking at some substantial vids of this yesterday and came to a couple of conclusions.

1. I looks AMAZING. It's the style combined with the execution. You're mesmerised by the action and then you notice the backgrounds :D . Oh, and the 'options' just look brilliant.

2. I'm not gonna buy it. It just looks too tough :) . One boss in particular (called organic boss on the vids) would've caned me time and time and time again. I don't think I could cope. Unlimited credits might help though :) .

One question, can you aim the 'options'? One vid had them firing backwards at a boss.

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Cyhwuhx

Cyhwuhx

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Only complaint - we've found a few areas (only a few, mind) where unless you've got the complete compliment of weapons, you're forced to die - a barrier might not blow up in time or whatnot, meaning the scrolling pushes you into it and you snuff it. Which then makes the next bit impossible, as you've got no weapons.

Obviously, most people will say 'Well, that's Gradius' but even so, it got to me. Still, looks and plays lovely.

.::: That's indeed a part of the game. Parodius had the same 'problem'. I remember. It was especially annoying at the third level or so where you had to shoot your way through walls of destructible rubbish.

Then again that has always been a problem, losing EVERYTHING when you die...

BTW, anyone tried The Code already?

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Lovelyman

Lovelyman

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I have mine on order from Play-Asia - the Korean one with the super-play DVD and art book. Should ship this monday.

Bastard thing is, I'll be in France until next sunday :D

Watched some of the videos last night - it looks amazing.

Atmosphere, tactics, and some seriously hard mother fekking bosses.

;)

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Guest Cecil McBee

Guest Cecil McBee

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The Gradius games only really got tough in the final couple of levels (Gradius 3 excluded), where R-Type style technicality came to the fore.

I fear the UK edition will be delayed or crapped up due to the Net Ranking mode..

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Stroker Ace

Stroker Ace

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Huh? Are you sure R-Type belongs in that sentence? I'm having trouble connecting it in even a passing way to the other two, except that you shoot things in all of them (so heck, let's have Unreal Tournament in there too).

You're right - R-Type doesn't belong there. It's a remnant of what the sentence USED to say, before I retyped it and I forgot to re-edit that bit. Fixed now.

Though, having said that, your claim is utter nonsense. How is there 'no connection' between a horizontally scrolling shooter and a vertically scrolling shooter? There are numerous obvious similarities between vertical scrollers and horizontal scrollers that I shan't even begin to go into since they're so obvious to anyone with eyes, but almost ZERO similarities between them and an FPS. You are talking bollocks.

Certainly, R-Type didn't belong in THAT sentence, but it certainly belongs in the same 'bracket' as all the shooters mentioned in my post - the horizontal and vertical shmup are two very closely related genres and comparison is inevitable and fair. The only difference between the two is the change in the scolling axis.

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Stroker Ace

Stroker Ace

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Only complaint - we've found a few areas (only a few, mind) where unless you've got the complete compliment of weapons, you're forced to die - a barrier might not blow up in time or whatnot, meaning the scrolling pushes you into it and you snuff it. Which then makes the next bit impossible, as you've got no weapons.

I'd agree with that, though Gradius V at least attempts to make it fairer by having your options remain on screen when you die, so you can scoop them up again (even if they do tend to drift off screen whilst your now downgraded slow ship tries to reach them all).

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RobJam

RobJam

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Though, having said that, your claim is utter nonsense. How is there 'no connection' between a horizontally scrolling shooter and a vertically scrolling shooter? There are numerous obvious similarities between vertical scrollers and horizontal scrollers that I shan't even begin to go into since they're so obvious to anyone with eyes, but almost ZERO similarities between them and an FPS. You are talking bollocks.

Steady on there. Horizontal/vertical has nothing to do with it, it's just that R-Type isn't anything like Ikaruga or Psyvariar as a shooter. The pacing's different, the structure's different, there are no "bullet hell" bits in R-Type, there are no significantly different kinds of weapons in Ikaruga and Psyvariar, etc etc.

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Laine

Laine

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I've never played a shmup in my life, and I want one.

What should I start with, bearing in mind if I die a lot i'll get very angry?

I want ESPgaluda or whatever it's called, the box art is lovely.

Reccomend me something please.

I guess this should be a new topic, but i'm having a lazy day.

Thanks!

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biglime

biglime

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I've never played a shmup in my life, and I want one.

What should I start with, bearing in mind if I die a lot i'll get very angry?

I want ESPgaluda or whatever it's called, the box art is lovely.

Reccomend me something please.

I guess this should be a new topic, but i'm having a lazy day.

Thanks!

Laine.

Parodius.

A Sega Saturn and Sexy Parodius. It's made for people like you.

You'll love it!

R.

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Stroker Ace

Stroker Ace

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Steady on there. Horizontal/vertical has nothing to do with it, it's just that R-Type isn't anything like Ikaruga or Psyvariar as a shooter. The pacing's different, the structure's different, there are no "bullet hell" bits in R-Type, there are no significantly different kinds of weapons in Ikaruga and Psyvariar, etc etc.

Which, as I said, was a mistake - a remnant of a previous sentence, now edited and fixed.

What YOU said is that R-Type had as much in common with Ikaruga as something like Unreal Tournament. This is obviously bollocks of the most nonsensical order.

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Laine

Laine

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Laine, I believe you have a DC, a monitor, Psyvariar2, Ikaruga, and Zero Gunner sat at home. This may be a good place to start.

;)

Good holiday, btw?

I want to play a GOOD one though. :P

Whats the best one out of all that then?

Oh, but it's far too much bother setting all that up.

I had a great holiday thanks. :(

Alias watching on Thursday okay for you?

Biglime- I have the Saturn, but no Parodius. At least I don't think I have it...

I'll see what I can do.

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Laine

Laine

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Trust me. I think you're the kind of person who'll appreciate a shmup with character.

R.

Is it expensive? I guess I can just grab it on Ebay?

I want the one with the cat-girl thing as the final boss.

I have no idea about the rest of it. Was it in Gamestm this month?

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