Any Gradius-like vertical games?

[kevinmaccioly]

Looking for games with a Gradius feel, but vertical. Specifically on Steam.
It's been a while since I've last imersed myself in the hobby, so I'm not up to date.

Cheers!

[Rastan78]

Not on Steam, but V-V comes to mind. Might want to think about emulation since that will open up a lot of options as far as that classic Gradius style of game that won't be on Steam.

Strania is on Steam and has a bit of that feel. Not extremely similar to Gradius, but has level terrain that you move through, different weapon types, and isn't a bullet hell style vert.

[Sengoku Strider]

I don't game on PC so I'm not sure exactly what's available on Steam or other similar avenues.

But the immediate answer that comes to mind is of course Salamander/Life Force, the Gradius followup which alternates between horizontal & vertical levels.

Slap Fight was Toaplan's first spaceship shooter, and one which clearly took some inspiration from Gradius which had released the year before. It's a vertical shooter that uses the Gradius type power up menu.

Crimzon Clover World Explosion also has the Gradius-style powerup menu system, but is a Cave tribute that's not otherwise particularly Konami-inspired.

Image Fight is kind of in the same ballpark, with a power-up heavy focus and very deliberate structure.

There are others from the era I can think of, but I don't think they're available on PC. By & large vertical shooters stayed away from the environment-heavy stage design that characterizes the Gradius line.

[To Far Away Times]

Blast Wind is a vertical shmup with environmental hazards. From Technosoft too, so you know you're in for a good time. On Saturn though.

[pieslice]

to me V-V is more like batsugun with gradius type power bar. The Grindstormer variant also ditches the power bar in favor of traditional power-up drops.

If Dosbox is your thing you might want to give old dos title Overkill a spin. It has some jank but is obviously very much inspired by gradius. (Just keep the ship at Fighter max since because of a design flaw the Battlecruiser runs out of fuel in subsequent loops)

[John4300]

Super Hydorah doesn't have a power up system similar to Gradius, but feels a tad like it. It's also on Steam.

Steam also has some Darius and R-Type games, but those are somewhat different from Gradius obviously. Many vertical games on steam seem to be more like Darius honestly.

If you want Konami SHMUPs in specific, there is Anniversary Collection Arcade Classics on Steam too. It has Gradius 1 and 2.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

(Just keep the ship at Fighter max since because of a design flaw the Battlecruiser runs out of fuel in subsequent loops)

Overkill's a neat game, definitely fits what they're looking for. I wasn't aware of this bug; I've never liked the fuel system where you're reliant on grabbing specific fuel items to survive (it's kind of why, despite it being thematically very cool, I've struggled to really get into Sqoon).

[ATTRACTS]

When I think of Gradius, I think of slow movement and the power up system.
This is hard to find vertically on Steam...that combo usually doesn't translate to vertical very well (mainly the speed aspect).

If you can tolerate faster action and a ton of shit on the screen at once, Crimzon Clover World Explosion's Arrange Mode specifically has a similar power up vibe.

Ginga Force isn't the same style by any means but it DOES have a really interesting weapons system that lets you mix match, create your own combinations of powers etc. between levels.

[Shatterhand]

Gameplay wise and not just "Power up Bar".... I'll second two games other people already said. The first game that came to mind was Image Fight. And then Salamander because though it has both horizontal/vertical levels. But none of them are on Steam.

[John4300]

Gameplay wise and not just "Power up Bar".... I'll second two games other people already said. The first game that came to mind was Image Fight. And then Salamander because though it has both horizontal/vertical levels. But none of them are on Steam.

Salamander 1 is actually on the Konami's Anniversary Collection Arcade Classics on Steam, but the port is a tad... Odd. Most notably that you can't for some crazy reason swap between versions (Like in all the other Konami collections...), english version gets the western ports and japanese version get the original japanese ports.

So uh. Hopefully you like those version differences in the western ports. Some of them are good and some bad.

[Rastan78]

When I think of Gradius, I think of slow movement and the power up system.

You can always grab more speed ups. Most good players use a pretty high movement speed in Gradius games. The only time you should really be slow is when you start a new credit or die and get forced to restart.

[BrianC]

Salamander 1 is actually on the Konami's Anniversary Collection Arcade Classics on Steam, but the port is a tad... Odd. Most notably that you can't for some crazy reason swap between versions (Like in all the other Konami collections...), english version gets the western ports and japanese version get the original japanese ports.

The JP versions are under "bonus JP versions" in the US version of the collection (the JP Switch version has the US versions under "Bonus US versions", JP Steam version is probably the same), which was added in a patch. Only JP Salamander and no JP Life Force, though.

[Sima Tuna]

I think it's really hard to have vertical scrolling shmups with as much density as hori. I love Salamander, but some of the vertical stuff is really harsh. Formations fly and shoot faster than I can react and it's really easy in the asteroid stage to get boxed in and have nowhere to go. I think the human eye has some difficulty when you combine vert orientation, aspect ratio and scrolling speed with hori obstacle density. If you look at Gradius games, like Gradius II, the scrolling speed is pretty slow. Or with R-Type, they scroll so slowly and the areas are so dense with obstacles and enemies that it takes on almost this puzzle dynamic. Verts tend to scroll a lot faster, so the same amount of obstacle and enemy density would likely be frustrating for many people. I mean, Detana Twinbee is hella dense with obstacles and enemies and it comes across as some mega unfair bullshit.

Spoiler

"but isn't bullet hell dense?" Bullet hell shmups have a lot of bullet density but usually barely any object density. Avoiding patterns thus feels totally different from a gradius game, and many of the shots in bullet hell are not aimed (compared to them always being aimed in gradius or r-type.)

TL; DR making a good hori version of a gradius or r-type style game is probably very difficult. Image Fight and Salamander are your best bets.

[dark]

If Dosbox is your thing you might want to give old dos title Overkill a spin. It has some jank but is obviously very much inspired by gradius. (Just keep the ship at Fighter max since because of a design flaw the Battlecruiser runs out of fuel in subsequent loops)

I have in fact been playing Overkill more seriously lately since I finally got it configured on my modded arcade1up cabinet and it works pretty well in that space. I beat the game on easy and was playing the second loop (and then ran out of fuel)... I didn't really notice whether the second loop had any differences - does it automatically level up the difficulty from easy, to normal, to hard in subsequent loops?

When manually choosing the different difficulties, the main difficulty difference just seemed to be that enemies had higher HP and soaked up more bullets to kill, rather than any interesting/new changes in enemy placement or new enemy graphics or activity.

If you beat the game on hard, does it still send you through a loop (infinite loops?) or is there a true ending

Also, RIP to the artist for this game, it seems he sadly passed away at a relatively young age in the early 2000s.

[hamfighterx]

Mix of horizontal and vertical stages, but Axelay is the one that first comes to mind for me as somewhat Gradius-like, particularly the weapon selection element. The horizontal stages feel more like a Gradius style than the vert stages though.

[pieslice]

I have in fact been playing Overkill more seriously lately since I finally got it configured on my modded arcade1up cabinet and it works pretty well in that space. I beat the game on easy and was playing the second loop (and then ran out of fuel)... I didn't really notice whether the second loop had any differences - does it automatically level up the difficulty from easy, to normal, to hard in subsequent loops?

When manually choosing the different difficulties, the main difficulty difference just seemed to be that enemies had higher HP and soaked up more bullets to kill, rather than any interesting/new changes in enemy placement or new enemy graphics or activity.

If you beat the game on hard, does it still send you through a loop (infinite loops?) or is there a true ending

Also, RIP to the artist for this game, it seems he sadly passed away at a relatively young age in the early 2000s.

It's been ages since I last played Overkill but if my memory servers right-

- The game loops infinitely
- IF you start on easier the next loop will be normal and then holy cow

Dfficulty levels
Easier ->
Each layer of shields will take 2 hp bars before going down.
Each enemy bullet deals one pip of damage.
Colliding an enemy will drain a hp bar (thus it'll take 2 enemy collisions to lose a shield layer)
Hugging a wall will drain your hp bar at a moderate rate.

Normal ->
One hp bar per layer of shields.
Each enemy bullet deals two pips of damage.
Colliding with a wall will instantly remove one layer of shields and hugging a wall will drain the hp bar at rapid pace.
+1 normal shot to kill each enemy (double will insta-kill a zako).
Increased fuel consumption?

Holy Cow ->
One hp bar per layer of shields.
Each enemy bullet deals three pips of damage.
Colliding a wall will be pretty much instant death.
+2 normal shots to kill each enemy (it'll take two hits from double to kill a zako).
Even more increased fuel consumption?

Game's horribly balanced as Fast Laser is totally OP; Scout with FL, firenose and one set of sidearms will be enough to beat the game.

[dark]

Game's horribly balanced as Fast Laser is totally OP; Scout with FL, firenose and one set of sidearms will be enough to beat the game.

When I upgraded to the ring laser, which literally grows to the width of the entire screen after it is shot, and destroys all enemies, and which has infinite ammo, I was like "ok this game was not created with any sort of balancing in mind."