Gradius

I love Gradius.

Well, I love many different side-scrolling space shmups, but Gradius easily tops the list. The third entry on the Super Nintendo was my introduction to both the series and the genre. This introduction goes back to 1995 or so, though in a rather unorthodox manner.

What do I mean?

The main thing I should point out is that I grew up without video games. My childhood spanned the 80s and 90s, and I was fully aware of the “console wars” of the era. I knew about Mario and Sonic – I really liked Luigi and Tails – along with a few other games, but that was it. I wasn’t a Nintendo or Sega kid because the options didn’t really exist for me. There was an Atari Video Computer System (aka Atari 2600) in the house, but my siblings and I weren’t allowed to play it.

Around 1995, my parents bought a Super Nintendo from JC Penney since my mom worked there. The console came with Super Mario World. My parents insisted on playing it first since they’d paid for it, but they couldn’t get past the Koopa Troopa who slid off the slope at the very beginning of the first level. My siblings and I kept insisting we could try it, we could get past that tiny orange menace, and my parents finally relented and angrily handed over the controller.

Who got it first?

My brother.

There are three of us siblings – my older brother, my younger sister, and me. There are nearly five years’ difference between my brother and sister. My brother, as the oldest by two years, was the “leader” and made all the decisions. My sister, youngest by nearly three years, was the spoilt “baby”. And then you have me, smack dab in the middle.

When my parents decided to hand over the SNES controller to us, naturally, the leader got it first. My brother smoked his way through several levels, then passed the controller to my sister to take the game for a spin. I think I got to play a level after a time, but I primarily watched. My parents later bought some more games for the console, including F-Zero, Pilotwings and Gradius III. My siblings spent a good deal of time playing each game – I recall the fright I received watching one of them playing F-Zero, falling off the track and hearing the massive explosion as the car was blown to pieces – and as usual, I sat to the side and watched.

Each game was fascinating, but Gradius III stood out to me. You pilot the spaceship Vic Viper (called M.A.X. in the North American release) through several levels of space and planets, using a variety of lasers and missiles to shoot colourful enemies that came at you in seemingly non-stop waves. The only other space shooters I’d seen prior to this were Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 and the arcade version of Galaga, and Gradius III was a massive leap from those primitive, but fun, games.

I was surprised I hadn’t heard of Gradius before then – who wouldn’t be captivated by the lasers that looked like drinking straws or fuzzy white balls that took out giant scorpions, moai heads or a massive plant that sucked the ship towards it? – but it was a total blast to watch my sister playing through each level. I’d tried my hand at it once but kept dying on the first wave of enemy ships. As such, I’d satisfied my curiosity by watching my sister shooting her way through the ships, rocks, fireballs, dragons and more in each level. I don’t recall how we found out about it, but my sister learnt of a cheat code to input at the beginning of the game that gave full power-ups, save for the lasers. Many, many years later, I’d learnt it was a variant of the Konami code, as inputting the actual code destroys the ship. My sister got through the levels even faster once she used the code, and after every boss fight, she made the ship do a silly little dance around the screen. Even when Bacterian was destroyed at the end of the game and the screen began to fade, she had the Vic Viper dancing around until the scene changed to the ending cinema. I always thought it was ridiculous, but she insisted it was like a good-luck charm and did it every single time.

My siblings and I each received a Super Nintendo game that holiday season – mine was Street Fighter II – but ultimately, we lost the “privilege” to keep playing. The console quickly gathered dust in the entertainment centre and was largely forgotten in favour of comic books, Matchbox cars, music, cartoons and other interests. Anytime the SNES was mentioned, my parents claimed some cord on it was broken and needed replacing; whoever paid the supposedly high cost of replacing the cord would own the console. I wasn’t old enough to work at the time and I received a rather meagre allowance, so I never bothered to look into the cost.

I don’t recall exactly when it happened, but towards the end of the 90s, the console ended up in my brother’s room, along with the Atari 2600. He’d rented and purchased many games for the SNES – mostly sports titles – and my sister and I would watch him play. Sometimes we’d get to play with him, but I know most of the time, I was relegated to watching.

Fast forward many years later, to 2009. As a working adult, I could buy whatever games and systems I wanted, and I did so when I had the money. I had a Nintendo 64 in my room, as well as a few handhelds. My family and I were checking out various yard sales that summer when we happened across one where the guy was selling off his collection of video games and consoles. It was the first and only time I’d ever seen a ColecoVision in person, and it was the first and only time I’d seen someone selling so many games and consoles at a yard sale. I was completely blown away by the selection and cursed my lack of money to get more than a few things.

However, I made sure to buy my very first Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis consoles. The guy threw in a couple games for each one, which is how I’d ended up with “Ditty Kong Adventures” on SNES, though that’s a different story. I was elated to finally, finally have my own consoles from the 90s, even though it’d been about a decade since then and I was in my mid-twenties.

One of the first games I purchased specifically for the SNES: Gradius III. I even bought it several years before I obtained a copy of Super Mario World.

Sometime later, I happened across a YouTube video of a game called Gradius Gaiden. I’d never heard of it, but the graphics, music and levels totally blew me away. I’d honestly never thought there were any other Gradius games besides the one on Super Nintendo – I hadn’t even heard of the first entry on the NES – so finding this one was an amazing discovery. Eventually, I found gameplay videos of other Gradius games and began learning about consoles we never got to see in the US, including the Sharp X68000, which arguably has the best arcade-like port of Gradius prior to Gradius Collection on PSP.

Afterwards, I learnt about other similar space shmups, such as R-Type, Darius, Thunder Force, Parodius, Axelay and many more. I saw Konami’s response to R-Type with Xexex and their response to Darius with the MSX-exclusive Space Manbow. I’m still completely mesmerised with the PSP release of DariusBurst – that soundtrack is simply amazing – and the surprising depth of Thunder Force V is great to watch on occasion, too.

Unfortunately, I don’t own most of those games, as I became a serious collector just as demand, and prices, began climbing. However, watching gameplay videos is just about the same as watching my siblings play, and ultimately has helped me whenever I play the ones I own, such as Gradius III. I’d surprised myself about four years ago when I played the game for the first time in years and nearly got to the final level without dying. Of course, I’d used the Konami code and was playing on Easy mode, but it was shocking to see not only did I finally get through the first wave of enemy ships, but I made my way through level after level after level without dying.

To this day, side-scrolling space shmups are some of my favourite games to watch and play, and it’s all thanks to one of the launch titles for the SNES called Gradius III.

my personal copy, bought around 2009