Gradius V Import Preview

Alien swarms and galactic scourges everywhere live in fear of the Vic Viper, and for good reason. This noble, lone starfighter has a long and illustrious history of thwarting evil from one end of the universe to the other, and now, after long years of waiting, the ol' Viper has finally arrived on the PlayStation 2 in Gradius V, which hit the streets in Japan just days ago. It's been quite some time since we've seen a brand-new entry in the Gradius series, and our time with the final Japanese version has us thoroughly convinced that Konami well remembers what made the previous Gradius games so great.

If you've been playing shooters since the days of the NES, Gradius V will need no introduction, because it's basically the same game you remember with some small gameplay additions and a lovely new coat of paint. According to the lavish but vague intro cinematic, the storyline proceeds thusly: You must climb inside the Vic Viper and obliterate every mechanical and alien entity that crosses your path. No shooter has ever needed a greater impetus for action than this, so it's nice that Konami hasn't messed with a formula that clearly isn't broken.

In the classic Gradius style, you have a fair degree of control over the power-ups that you get in each stage. You pick up small orange items left behind by certain defeated enemies, and these let you select from power-ups on a menu that sits at the bottom of the screen. Pick up one item, and the first power-up is highlighted; pick up a second one, and the second power-up will become available. You get the drift. There are four types of Vic Viper that you can choose from when you start a new game, all of which are essentially variations on the theme of the original. Type 1 is in fact that original. It gives you the classic configuration of side-firing missiles, a laser beam, options (which are little glowing satellites that hang around your ship and fire extra shots), and so on.

Types 2 through 4 are where things start to diverge a bit from the norm. Each of the four ships has a different missile firing pattern, for instance, while two of them use a tailgun shot rather than the classic double shot, which fires diagonally as well as straight ahead. However, the biggest variation between the four ship types is in the way you control your options. In previous Gradius games, the options were attached to your ship in one unbroken line proceeding vertically upward, and they would simply follow the Vic Viper in whatever direction it was moving. That's still true of the Type 1 ship, but the others make use of new option patterns and abilities. Type 2 allows you to hold the R1 button to control the direction the options are firing (your ship is stationary while you're holding the button). Type 3 has two options above you and two below you, and holding the R1 button will make them expand or constrict for a wider or tighter firing spread. Finally, Type 4's options will encircle your ship while firing, providing a bit of extra defensive power.

You can go up against the faceless attacking aliens by yourself, but Gradius V really shines when you go at it with a second player. Not all of the Gradius games have even featured two-player gameplay--the series offshoot Life Force was the first to do so--but Gradius V is even more fun with a second, red Vic Viper joining the fray with the classic blue one. The game is essentially the same with two players, although it does get harder because both players share the same pool of continues. Also, just like in the single-player game, you can have only four options at once--and that goes for both of you in two-player.

As you're playing Gradius V, you might note just how similar it is to the previous game, all the way down to the identical appearance of the Vic Viper and the little orange power-ups you collect. In fact, there are a lot of little nostalgic touches in the game that longtime fans will pick up on and appreciate. For instance, many of the bosses are very similar, if not identical, to those in previous games--they often feature the classic configuration of a weak point hidden behind a multilayered barrier that you have to blast through. The music that plays during a boss fight is also a newly arranged version of the old Gradius boss music. Even the sound effect you get when you pause the game is the same as in the old games. So far, Gradius V is an excellent shooter in its own right, but these touches just make it that much more enjoyable for the series devotee. And yes, the Konami code is in there, although we'll leave it to you to find out exactly where.

From our experience so far, we can't say Gradius V is the hardest shooter we've ever played. It's certainly challenging, though, so perhaps a better way to put it is that Gradius V is fair in its difficulty. Many shooters require you to die repeatedly so you can learn enemy attack patterns and more deftly avoid them the next time around. There's some degree of this in Gradius V (since this is inherent to the design of the genre), but in most cases the waves of enemies and bosses are configured such that you have a fighting chance to dodge their rapid attacks, if you've got the skill to do so. Furthermore, you'll also gain more credits the more you play the game, so even if you can't get very far to begin with, keep trying and you'll soon have a lot more continues to work with. The game has a fairly gentle learning curve that helps to prevent tedium when you have to start over more than once.

We must say we're a little ambivalent about Gradius V's graphical presentation so far. The levels are certainly quite colorful, the explosions massive, and the enemies many. The frame rate is solid, too. However, the initial levels are mostly set in simple space and slightly bland industrial environments. They certainly get the job done, but they aren't as aesthetically interesting as some other recent shooters. However, as we've dug deeper into the game we've started to encounter a greater variety of enemies and locales--one later level even puts you inside some sort of pulsing organic construct à la Life Force. So there's certainly hope yet for the game to live up to the standards set by previous games, although we sadly haven't seen any Moai heads anywhere just yet.

Thus far, our opinion of Gradius V is easy to summarize: It's awesome. But then, we're huge fans of the original games, so perhaps we're easy to please. The game has more-more-more of everything you loved about the previous games, so if you did in fact love them, you should be quite happy with the new sequel. Shooter fans who haven't played a Gradius game before (if such people exist) should also find the game a suitable introduction to the series. Gradius V is slated to hit the States in September, although the import is mostly English, if you can't wait that long. Either way, head on over to the media page for a new video preview and even more new movies.