Gradius V

The Vic Viper blasts its way into Kikizo - find out what we thought as we put Treasure and Konami's latest through its paces in our full review, with media.

	Version PS2	Developer Treasure / Konami	Publisher Konami	Genre Shooting

Page: 1  2  3  4 

By Joseph Jackson

The past two years have brought about some interesting and great developments in the "collaborative" gaming world. Sega was handed the development duties of the arcade and GameCube versions of F-Zero GX, Namco was tasked with creating the next Star Fox game for Nintendo, and following the glorious Ikaruga, Treasure was given the honor of creating the next chapter of the Gradius series.

And given Treasure's almost flawless track record and the fact that members of its staff included ex-Konami folk - some of which had worked on the original Gradius - 'twas a no-brainer that Treasure should be the most qualified house to handle such a project outside of Konami's own Gradius team.

After firing up Gradius V players are presented with a cool intro sequence that unfortunately doesn't provide much of a visual story other than showing the Vic Viper's history of kicking Bacterion's ass! Unfortunately with the instruction manual in Japanese, what very little story there may be behind the Vic Viper's return will remain a mystery until the game's domestic release.

Regardless, shmup fans aren't known to play shooters for their 'engaging' storylines, we play them for the adrenaline rush felt after successfully dodging countless streams of enemy bullets, lasers, and powerful energy beams and managing to come away unscathed in the process. Such a feat provides an emotional high that just can't be replicated by any other gaming genres and it's those types of thrills that players can look forward to in Gradius V.

Gradius V's gameplay, like most other shooters, is simple in concept and concept alone.

Before you can begin your shooting journey into the cold dark abyss of space, you'll first need to arm your ship. Like in previous Gradius games, at the start of the game you're prompted to select a Weapon Array. There are 4 types to choose from and each will equip the Vic Viper with an armory of missiles, multi-directional vulcan cannons, lasers, force fields, speed up functions, and the all-important Option units for added fire power.

New in Gradius V are two new Option types that really add to the series. Freeze Options, as the name implies, allows Options to be frozen in different positions, a pretty useful feature to use against enemies in hard to reach areas. And then there's my personal favorite, Directional Options. These Option units are quite cool as they allow players to fire the Vic Viper's weapons in any direction by holding down the option button and tapping the corresponding directions on the D-pad.

These two new Option features certainly help make up for what I consider to be one of Gradius V's weaknesses compared to its predecessors; a somewhat lackluster choice of weapons. If you're used to the cool weapon arrays found in Gradius III, IV and Gaiden, you're in for a disappointment as the default weapons are pretty simplistic and aren't as cool as the ones found in Gradius III.

Unfortunately, the convenient Weapons Edit mode that was available at the start of the SNES version of Gradius III isn't available at the start of Gradius V. Fortunately a weapons edit mode can be unlocked after completing the game, letting you customize your weapon arrays and access a few of Gradius III's classic weapons such as the ripple laser, E. laser, along with additional types of missiles, Doubles, and even new weapons like the Fire launcher - a glorified short range flame thrower.

Page: 1  2  3  4 

NEXT PAGE >>