CGC #11: Gradius

[A Black Falcon]

Classic shooter in a really great series... maybe I'll choose Gradius: The Interstellar Assualt for GB next. Always loved that game...

[N-Man]

Christ, super. I recall "beating" Gradius 3 by save-stating every three seconds. This game is hell in a box. Fun though. Vamos muchachos.

[A Black Falcon]

Gradius is beatable... as long as it gives you unlimited continues. Gradius 3 on SNES limits your continues so it is quite hard... nowhere near R-Type hard, but hard.

As for this one, I'm not sure if it limits continues or not but for highscore purposes that is irrelevant. :)

As for challenge Gradius games have always been tough, but not insane... unlike the aforementioned R-Type...

[N-Man]

Continues, shmontinues... once you bite it once, it's curtains, imho... surviving the "panic spots" where everything's kamikazeing on you is near impossible without shields and a full complement of ship drones...

[A Black Falcon]

How did your score get so high there... I got farther I think (the third level) but am 20,000 lower... :(

[Great Rumbler]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
How did your score get so high there...

Photoshop.

[OB1]

Oh yeah? Well try to beat this score!!

[N-Man]

rofl. Well, one thing I did find out that's pretty neat is you get 5000 points if you fly in the middle of those split-up volcano thingies. As for the other 15000... *shrugs*

[A Black Falcon]

*plays more*
*dies*

I don't remember everything moving this fast in other Gradius games...

[OB1]

Did you read the small text on the upper left part of that screen?

[A Black Falcon]

Didn't notice it before. And its not true! Gradius 1 just runs faster than the SNES and GB games... really... or maybe it just runs fast in the emulator for me, I don't know. It just seems to be too fast... on top speed the ship is REALLY fast... in Interstellar Assualt it wasn't nearly that fast. And those enemies that go up and down quickly are nearly impossible to hit... doesn't seem like it should be that way...

[OB1]

I'm talking about my screen shot.

[A Black Falcon]

Getting more used to this game's speed... I mean, I doubt the bullets and lazers are supposed to blur that much and the enemies go that fast...

[Weltall]

I did so, so damn well. I got as far as this on one life. Had two drones, lasers, shields, and missiles THEN I RUN INTO A FUCKING WALL AND GOOD NIGHT ALICE!

[A Black Falcon]

Yup, Gradius is a standard shooter -- once you power up to full charge (two drones, shield, lazers, missiles, and a few speed powerups), you can wipe everything out... until you, somehow, die. Then it'll be Game Over VERY fast unless a miracle occurs...

[A Black Falcon]

Got through almost all of the third level... then died here. :(

[A Black Falcon]

A bit higher. I didn't get as far this time, but got 4,000 more points...

[A Black Falcon]

I still haven't beaten this level... :(

[N-Man]

The first few seconds when I'm getting my three successive speed boosts always remind me of Winston Churchill... "We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air..."

*cough* does this make me weird?

Anyhow, next high score will have to wait, as I keep running into walls and floors and ceilings. Dammit.

[A Black Falcon]

I get one speed boost, then lazers, then bombs, then a second speed boost, then a shield, two options... and sometimes I stick in a third speedbost somewhere. After 3 or 4 speedboosts its too fast... I don't know if its this way for everyone but it sure is for me. The GB Gradius limited you to 6 speedboosts and I always maxed it out... but this one seems to be at least that fast with 3 or so... unless it just runs fast.

I also reset the game if I die in the first level.

[N-Man]

I just beat the first level boss, and my ship went into overdrive or something! It zoomed across weird light-show Moai and I ended up in level 3 with like 100000 points... still came short, but it was pretty cool...

[A Black Falcon]

Wow! Some kind of secret warp or something? Never seen that...

[N-Man]

Garg. Had beaten level 3. Then the panic spot made me redo it all over again. With no shields.

[A Black Falcon]

Wait... if you'd beaten level 3 wouldn't you have a higher score than that and not be in level 3? What exactly happened?

Still, thats better than my top score...

[N-Man]

I beat the level (well okay, you know, the part with the easter island statues) and then an armada of odd ball-tossing ships attacked, effectively crushing me... the pre-boss battle, like the volcanoes of level 1 and the round kamikaze ships of level 2. So I got killed and restarted in the middle of the statues...

[A Black Falcon]

Ahh... that's it. You didn't beat the level. The level ends after you beat those guys (there are 4 of them) and then the same boss that ends the first two levels. :)

Oh, and you kill them with a precision shot...

[A Black Falcon]

THIS GAME IS HARD! I mean... I love the Gradius powerup system, but the fact that it takes a full level (not missing much of anything) to build up full power sure makes it REALLY hard to recover once you die.... it seems that lives in this game are irrelevant. With no continues, there's really only one way to beat the game -- beat it without dying. Because if you die once, and you aren't at the beginning of level 1, you will almost certainly lose all your lives in that level.

I know I have every time in level 3... I never get as far on the other lives (in this case, since I hit 200,000, I had 5 more lives after losing the first one on the second of the 4 annoying round guys at the end of the level)... I got to those guys once and died on the first one in those 5 tries... NOT fun.

Oh, and when enemies do more damage than your shield can hold so you die instantly instead of being able to activate the shield you've got waiting on the powerup button sure just GREAT!

*sigh*

Its still a great game... just too hard because of no continues.

Still, I like my chances of beating this game without using savestates someday are better than my chances of beating R-Type 1 or 2 with limited continues ever will be...

Uhh... I really do like this game a lot... its just SO FRUSTERATING!

[A Black Falcon]

ARGH! Hard....

This time, I died for the first time in the boss of level 4 (the volcanoes). I then died 4 more times in about 2 minuites. However... with just the bombs, I BEAT THE LEVEL!!! By finding a part where the rocks don't hit you.... :) :)

It was my last life though, and I died in level 5 before reaching the beginning of the platforms (in the opening enemy waves.). Oh well... its still a good score.

The game is great... but I must admit, playing those first 2 levels over and over and over is getting tedious... Most of the time I beat both of them without dying without much trouble. Its kind of dull having to do them over and over... level 3, though. That one is HARD. From beginning to end... level 4 is tough, but not in that same way...

[N-Man]

Jus' keeping you on your toes...

[A Black Falcon]

Which level is that? Six?

And if so, how do I have a higher score only at this point?

[A Black Falcon]

Give up? But you don't have to get much farther... or kill more guys. :)

Oh, and hmm... when should this end...

[Weltall]

I thought they go for a week. And fuck me if I'll ever get that good a score :love:

[N-Man]

I am of the firm opinion that I could have defeated the evil alien armada had it not sneakily used shiny walls to attract and eventually smash my extraordinary-space-fighter-with-a-badly-translated-name-and-lots-of-big-fucking-guns.

[A Black Falcon]

Gah! What level NOW?

Oh, and I could say "but yesterday was one week so i win anyway" but I won't... not yet anyway. :)

[N-Man]

Do that and forever live with the guilt of a cheap win. :evilcube:

Now fight, young jedi!

[A Black Falcon]

Well its true... it IS a week on saturday... :)

[N-Man]

I get: 3:24 AM on Monday, April 28th (TC time at which you posted the challenge) to 3:24 AM Monday, May 5th (still TC time), the latter of which occured barely a few minutes after I submitted my score. No?

[A Black Falcon]

???

The thread was posted 10:24pm, Sunday, April 24... so it ends 10:24pm, Sunday, May 4...

But yeah, if you go by 'down to the minuite a week later' it fits... bah!

:)

I guess you win then...

[N-Man]

Okay, well, something must be messed in my settings, but the reasoning still works. Anyway, let's not haggle, you'll get plenty of chances to get revenge in the next challenge :p

[A Black Falcon]

You posted that last score at 10:09 sunday... under 20 minuites before I would have won... :(

So, what game?