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Am I the only one who hates Gradius?


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100% my thoughts too.

Gradius 1 - never could warm up to it.  Something just unappealing about it to me.  Feels rough around the edges and basic -- traits I loathed about many of the 1986 - 1988 3rd party NES games. 

Games from Bandai, Broderbund, and others were basic affairs and featured limited levels, short/basic game design and repeating levels.  I quite disliked games such as Ninja Kid, Chubby Cherub, Top Gun, Raid on Bungeling Bay, and others...they seemed like early arcade games that were kind of dumbed down for the new NES format.  They were generally in the Kay Bee discount rack/wall, so there was a reason for that.


Life Force and Gradius III (SNES) - wonderful games.  Refined to a point where they are simply "FUN".  Could be the power-ups, play control, level designs and overall presentation.  Hard to say, but I like them a lot.

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Horrible?  Nope, you just have very poor taste in horizontal shooters.  Quite a few have used it as a template to work from on the NES/arcade front, it was a game design to look up to, learn from, copy some elements.  Just use the Konami code if you're that terrible at it.  It's not all that relatively hard either, at least not for the first few stages at least, while Gun-Nac while amazing and kind of unique is also super easy compared, so maybe you just want something more light and breezy than risky.

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I think Lifeforce is a "little" easier because after you die, you just respawn instead of getting sent back to a checkpoint.  That way you can grab the options back which helps till you regain your lost powerups.

 

And using the Konami Code for Gradius & Lifeforce makes things whole lot easy... ;)

 

(Honestly though, I prefer vertical shooters to horizontal ones because I have the same gameplay issues with the R-Type series.)

Edited by MrMaddog
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I agree that it's not very well-balanced. If you've made any decent progress and you lose one ship, you're pretty much screwed for the rest of the game, as the power-ups you need aren't fully replenished.

Regardless, I got hooked on the game about thirty years ago and managed to beat it on the C64. I'm not sure how, as it's one of the very few games I enjoyed back then that I haven't returned to. Maybe more power-ups appear post-death than in the arcade and NES versions, both of which are vastly overrated, in my opinion.

 

Taste is a personal thing, though, so maybe some people like the huge challenge, which I find more annoying and poorly executed in this case.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Horrible?  Nope, you just have very poor taste in horizontal shooters.  Quite a few have used it as a template to work from on the NES/arcade front, it was a game design to look up to, learn from, copy some elements.  Just use the Konami code if you're that terrible at it.  It's not all that relatively hard either, at least not for the first few stages at least, while Gun-Nac while amazing and kind of unique is also super easy compared, so maybe you just want something more light and breezy than risky.

I don't have any issue with Horizontal shooters as a whole but the OG gradius for NES is just badly designed. Levels are cramped and you have zero room for error. Life force is better. Hell Xevious is better

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2 hours ago, Frozone212 said:

Chris gave me a good answer. You did not. Please go somewhere else where you point can be better articulated to the lower class

Seems like someone forgot to take their meds today.

2 hours ago, Frozone212 said:

I don't have any issue with Horizontal shooters as a whole but the OG gradius for NES is just badly designed. Levels are cramped and you have zero room for error. Life force is better. Hell Xevious is better

You being terrible at the game doesn't make it "badly designed". Maybe put some actual effort into it, and perhaps it will finally "click".

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1 hour ago, Frozone212 said:

because your response contributed nothing to help.

I didn't get the impression you were asking for any sort of help, so perhaps others don't see that either.   You said you won't touch it, horrible level design, overrated, way too hard, and asked for thoughts.

 

What help are you looking for?

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11 hours ago, Chris+++ said:

I agree that it's not very well-balanced. If you've made any decent progress and you lose one ship, you're pretty much screwed for the rest of the game, as the power-ups you need aren't fully replenished.

That's standard design template in STGs and is included in many classic ones. Love it or hate it, it is definitely an intentional choice, a bit of roguelike in a way (because, let's face it, additional life is just a little "credit"). So it's all or nothing, and also when you sometimes defy the odds and actually recover after that life loss, the sense of accomplishment is even bigger (and you get even gudder trying too).

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9 hours ago, Frozone212 said:

Austin, the only reason I said that to you was because your response contributed nothing to help. Telling someone to "git gud" tells them nothing and is basically an insult.

If you want help, then ask for it. As it's been mentioned already, the majority of the topics you start are you complaining and it's gotten quite tiresome.

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16 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

For me Life force looked waaaaaay too short.  I'd never play it and never buy it.  Saving up for a game was a year long process so the length was almost insulting.

 

Most NES games were short, but compensated with high difficulty. Life Force is tough. Most people won't beat it that quickly unless they use the Konami code.

 

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4 hours ago, mbd39 said:

 

Most NES games were short, but compensated with high difficulty. Life Force is tough. Most people won't beat it that quickly unless they use the Konami code.

 

 

Must be as kids we were better gamers.  My friends beat it pretty quickly.  But, maybe it's all a perspective thing.  Perhaps they were just really good at shooters and made short work of it.

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3 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

 

Must be as kids we were better gamers.  My friends beat it pretty quickly.  But, maybe it's all a perspective thing.  Perhaps they were just really good at shooters and made short work of it.

Did they use the Konami code? It gives 30 lives.

 

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