Gradius Rebirth (WiiWare)

RuffNEC · Post by **RuffNEC** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:44 pm

this game is awesome!!!

Gradius is Back...!!!

damn I've spend nearly half an hour to defeat the 2nd boss... that shows again my shmups skill

ZacharyB · Post by **ZacharyB** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:50 pm

I'm getting into game development and I can definitely see why Konami took this retro route. I'd always wondered about the kind of quality and quantity of games a concern could put out if they wielded older styles of coding and graphics with modern technology. With modern game production costs going into the millions, it's a far cry from the old days, when developers had more freedom to experiment in commercial venues. This is a nice low-risk, low-cost title for Konami.

Also keep in mind that a lot of younger kids are on the Wii. If they get to discover Gradius and shmups for themselves, and have a good time doing it, the genre is being preserved.

kengou · Post by **kengou** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:50 pm

Gradius Rebirth is awesome! Easily worth $10. It's a bit on the easy side as far as Gradius games go, but that's not to say it's easy. I was able to get to the 1-3 boss without dying, but once I did die, I had no chance, just as with nearly all Gradius games besides 5. Graphics are smooth, it's maybe just a step below Gaiden. This game most closely resembles Gradius III Snes, I think, in terms of difficulty as well as design, except it has much less slowdown which makes it a little bit harder than III.

My one annoyance so far is the ship type selection, I didn't see any real customisation found in Gradius III onward. Type one is standard gradius weapons, EXCEPT it has the shield instead of the force field. Type two is the 'wide area attack' type, with ripple laser and force field. I can't stand shield so I had to go with the ship type that had force field, but I also don't much like ripple laser so this annoyed me that I couldn't choose.

Also I really didn't see that much rehashing, I thought. The organic stage had some very original parts, like the ending third of it. The Maoi stage is of course a staple of the Gradius series and that's bound to be rehashed but no one should complain about it. I haven't been farther than that yet though.

If you're looking for ball-busting Gradius III or IV difficulty, you'll probably dislike Rebirth. Anybody else who likes Gradius, though, should definitely buy it and support the shmup genre financially!

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:11 pm

Is this out on US WiiWare yet?

kengou · Post by **kengou** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:09 am

bcass wrote:Is this out on US WiiWare yet?

Yes, today.

Rozyrg · Post by **Rozyrg** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:53 am

I think I'd get this just for the music. That tune in the preview video was insane.

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:54 am

Guys, word of advice. If you're fully powered up, you better be careful and for the love of god, DO NOT DIE at 2-3.

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:21 am

Anybody know how the leaderboard regions are sorted out? I'd find it hard to believe SFKhoa and I are #1&2 in the entire west.

Kadou · Post by **Kadou** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:26 am

I don't have an idea on how the leaderboards work right now. Hell, I managed to place second on the Very Hard leaderboard while dying on the second stage. I think I'm below you, too. >_>

As for the game: it's Gradius, what could I say? I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of a reset button, however... going through all those menus grates me. Also, it seems resetting it through the Wii Menu disables WiFi connection until you quit and restart. At least, that's what I found. :/

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:37 pm

Does the US version have autofire? Rather retardedly, the JPN version does not, meaning it's a complete chore to play with a pad.

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:42 pm

bcass wrote:Does the US version have autofire? Rather retardedly, the JPN version does not, meaning it's a complete chore to play with a pad.

Yes, though it's not really that fast of an autofire. It kinda sucks how Vic Viper can't fire anymore than 2 shots on screen.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:51 pm

It's weird. If you hold the fire button down, it auto-fires missiles but not bullets...

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:16 pm

bcass wrote:It's weird. If you hold the fire button down, it auto-fires missiles but not bullets...

Hm, shot and missile is mapped differently though. You mean this would happen if shot and missile were mapped to the same button?

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:24 pm

Your move, SFKhoa :P

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:25 pm

SFKhoa wrote:
bcass wrote:It's weird. If you hold the fire button down, it auto-fires missiles but not bullets...
Hm, shot and missile is mapped differently though. You mean this would happen if shot and missile were mapped to the same button?

No, I meant the JPN version. It's the same button to fire shot and missile, but when you hold that button, it stops firing your shot completely and autofires missiles only.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:31 pm

Downloaded this about 15 minutes ago and love it so far! A bit weaksauce on my first run though since I only made it partway into stage 2. Graphics are nice if not a little pixely but look fine in 480p on my plasma, basically Gradius III quality with a bit more color. I've heard other reports that it looks blurry but the visuals look crisp to me.

Like kengou, I also take issue with the weapon selection. Sadly, there's no edit mode and I hate not being able to take force field unless I choose type 2/ripple.

Control is tight, I'm using my Wii remote which feels fine until I try my classic controller later. And as someone who has been playing quite a bit of the MSX Collection on Saturn lately, the music and presentation could not be more welcome. Dug the opening old school cinemas and geeked out that this is apparently a prequel (SPOILER for those who care) with Dr. Venom being the "good guy" and *gasp* designer of the Vic Viper

), I especially loved the appearance of (mini spoiler) Pentarou in the opening News Ticker!

In difficulty though it's nowhere near as tough as the MSX games which test your patience in the earliest levels, but maybe that's not such a bad thing either.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:07 am

I'm definitely going to pick this up, but the lack of real autofire kinda sucks. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't really like hammering away at buttons anymore...

But nevertheless, yay more Gradius!

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:52 am

DJ Incompetent wrote:Your move, SFKhoa

Damn you. I can't top your score. At least that Dual guy's out of the way at least.

DBHashman93 · Post by **DBHashman93** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:55 am

The rapid fire isn't bad, and mapping both rapid fire and missile to the same button worked fine for me. I vaguely remember the psp gradius collection also limiting your on-screen bullets when using rapid fire. As soon as you get the laser there is no problem at all; though it does make double a bit less useful...

steveovig · Post by **steveovig** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:19 pm

I went and took a bite on this after hearing all the praise and it's pretty fun. I've gotten to Level 4 once and I hope to make that a more common occurrence. I unlocked a few things which were nice surprises. If you love Gradius you'll love this.

Aquas · Post by **Aquas** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:33 pm

I'd love to play this iteration, but alas, no Wii. Maybe I can convince a friend to buy it... :S

corbie · Post by **corbie** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:16 pm

it's funny how I loved the first Gradius game when it came out in arcades, but once R-Type and other more playable shooters hit the scene, I totally lost interested in the Gradius series. They've felt "tired" ever since to me. In fact the only Gradius game I play anymore is Gradius V.

steveovig · Post by **steveovig** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:36 pm

I've managed to get to Level 5 six times now but with no luck. Does anyone know if this level has more than one boss? I haven't gotten past the only boss I've seen so far and it's frustrating me. I upped my high score by around 300K.

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:19 pm

If you count the pushover at the very end, then yeah I guess. But not really.

You need 3 speedups. Hang out closer to the middle of the playfield. Have the entryway you're going to move in planned out when the wall stops. Make sure 2 core pieces are blown off already before choosing a core hole. Move backwards only the second when the wall begins the charge. This will keep its bullets from making it to the very back of the playfield and killing you while you're trapped.

When the wall pulls out, follow it while still inside the core's hole until you see a volley of white bullets fired or the wall reaches the back. This will let your proximity field cancel out the nearest bullets that would normally fire so you have enough room to back out into some open area.

Repeat until a timeout or you're balls enough to fly in and murder the back core.

steveovig · Post by **steveovig** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:34 pm

So, I've gotta go after the back core? That sucks major ass. I seem to have no problems dodging the bullets and going after the first set of cores. The damn thing comes close and when he pulls away I usually get hit by a bullet that seems undodgeable. So, I'm supposed to just follow the cores as they move back for a bit?

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:35 pm

I just hide behind the wall-cores and use my options behind me to destroy them. However, that doesn't work on the 2nd loop.

Also, DJI. 850k.

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:43 pm

steveovig wrote:The damn thing comes close and when he pulls away I usually get hit by a bullet that seems undodgeable.

yes. That's exactly why you have to follow the wall when it retreats. It stops that problem.

SFKhoa wrote:Also, DJI. 850k.

Well done, sir. I'll try to make a move tonight.

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:19 pm

corbie wrote:it's funny how I loved the first Gradius game when it came out in arcades, but once R-Type and other more playable shooters hit the scene, I totally lost interested in the Gradius series. They've felt "tired" ever since to me. In fact the only Gradius game I play anymore is Gradius V.

Try Gradius Gaiden for the PS1 if you haven't.

This Wii one is pretty good but Gaiden is better as far as "Rebirth" goes. Don't regret buying this one though, it's a good entry point for new players.

corbie · Post by **corbie** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:22 pm

I'll give that one a try. Thanks.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:03 pm

^^^

Yeah, Gradius Gaiden is amazing. Long game with excellent level design, superbly placed enemies and great bosses (the crystal Core is my fave), nice visuals, plus four ships each with their own unique and fully customizable weapon sets = tight replay value. It's also quite affordable whether you get it on PSX (averages $35-60 on ebay) or the PSP Gradius collection (much cheaper and the emulation is pretty good, the only drawback is on PSP, Gaiden only has two screen modes: original and stretched widescreen. However, Gradius 1-4 all have multiple screen ratios available).