July 2018 Shmup - Gradius

[MetalFRO]

I thought I'd pen a few final thoughts on Gradius for the thread, now that we're several days out from the end of the month. I hope everyone enjoyed tackling this classic; I certainly have! It's been good to reconnect with this game, after not having put any serious time into it since 2014, with the RF Generation December shmup competition, and to really dig into several iterations of the game. It's interesting to compare and contrast with R-Type, since these 2 games provided much of the template for horizontal scrolling shoot-em-ups, and are still hugely influential on the genre today. In recent years, the game Hydorah was released on PC, which has since been re-released with new features on PC and consoles as Super Hydorah, and that game takes HUGE inspiration from Gradius, with a ship that looks very much like the Vic Viper, as well as graphics and enemies that are heavily inspired by the series as well. The impact Gradius has had has been immeasurable, and to top it all off - the game is still fun! Sure, the later games in the series eclipsed it, in terms of the weapon load-out customization, the improved shield mechanics, and those things, but the original game is still a lot of fun to play, and there are still plenty of things to learn from the original game. Anyone else have any final thoughts about Gradius?