Gradius V (Page 4)

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

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Even with plenty of activity onscreen and backgrounds that are more active than ever before, the action seems to maintain a steady frame rate even with two fully powered-up Vic Viper ships onscreen at the same time and enemies exploding all around.

Audio-wise, Gradius V's soundtrack didn't fair as well as the graphics and is pretty much a mixed bag. I have to admit that when Treasure was first announced as the developers of Gradius V part of me cheered on the news, while another part of me worried about the fate of the game's soundtrack, especially since game music isn't something I ever felt Treasure did particularly well.

While it may be considered blasphemy by hardcore Treasure fanatics, I honestly didn't find the music in Radiant Silvergun to be anything special. To increase the size of the lynch mob that may soon form outside Kikizo's window, I actually found Radiant Silvergun's soundtrack to be quite boring, and it had nothing to do with sound quality or genre and everything to do with the composition itself.

There just weren't any compelling tracks, no real catchy melodies to hum in the shower, nothing worthy of plunking down even half of the amount the OST costs. Why mention the Radiant Silvergun soundtrack then? Because the music of Gradius V was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, the same guy behind the music of Radiant Silvergun and Final Fantasy Tactics, among others. And while Sakimoto's Gradius V soundtrack may work well for other shooters, it just doesn't follow the synth-heavy, melody driven nature of the Gradius series.

The majority of the music in Gradius V alternates between mediocre techno and above average orchestrated themes. Nothing remotely close to the musical greatness of Gradius Gaiden, Gradius IV, and what I consider to contain the best music of the entire series, Gradius III for the SNES.

But giving Sakimoto credit where credit is due, the sounds of Gradius V are definitely better than those found in Radiant Silvergun - with the highlights being remixes of classic Gradius and Salamander themes, along with sharp explosion sounds and high quality voice samples.

When all is said and done, Gradius V does a wonderful job of bringing the Salamander/Life Force and Gradius worlds together to form the ultimate next-generation shooter. Gradius has certainly come a long way and fans looking for the same mechanical feel of the earlier games are in for a surprise as the all-familiar Gradius formula has been altered a bit and provides enough challenge to quench the thirst of even the most die-hard shoot 'em up fans.

As far as extra features are concerned there aren't that many in the game other than a Ranking mode, Score Attack, and a Stage Select mode that allows players to practice on sections of levels they've already cleared. However, those lucky enough to have scored the Japanese limited edition of the game also get two special DVDs in addition to the game.

The first disc titled, Gradius V Official DVD: The PERFECT contains a variety of cool stuff including gameplay footage of one of Japan's top shmup masters named, "Clover-TAC", who astounds viewers with his incredible skill and ability to blast through the entire game unscathed. Also available on the disc was Konami's lengthy Neo Contra trailer and more importantly some brief info about Gradius Neo, which unfortunately was completely in Japanese. Given the turnout of Neo Contra I'm a little fearful of what may happen with Gradius Neo. I swear if they turn it into a 3D isometric shooter, someone's going to die!

The second disc titled, Gradius V Options contains interviews with two of the game's developers who discuss the process involved in the making of the game. And last but not least is there's a Stage 5 Superplay video showcasing the top flight skills of a shooter master as he barrels his way through all of Stage 5 without losing a life.

We just though you should know that. ;-)

Gradius V blasts onto North American shelves on September 14 with a UK release to follow towards the end of the year.

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