#GRADIUS REBIRTH 3 LOOPS HOW TO#

The tried-and-true Gradius level structures of opening power-up collection section, main level section, “panic” section, then boss fight, have all been perfectly retained. With that, Gradius Rebirth‘s intentions are made clear: to give you the old Gradius world, but to have you explore it in a new way.įor the most part, the game makes good on its intentions. You can just avoid them completely, which will keep the stage the way it is you can destroy the red one, which will cause the stage to be covered in snow or you can shoot the white one, which will cause all the mountains in the stage to turn into erupting volcanoes. At the start of the stage there are two machines, one red and one white, that look just like regular enemy generators, except the only thing they expel is red and white dust (respectively). The first stage of Gradius Rebirth is a near-exact visual replica of the first area of Gradius, except with new enemies, new level design, and a new gimmick.

#GRADIUS REBIRTH 3 LOOPS HOW TO#

I’m talking about Robotech-looking stuff like “interstellar news casts,” a hero who is never seen out of his space helmet, a suspicious alien scientist who advises our hero on how to fight other aliens, the slow but deliberate departure of “your ship” from its mothership as inspiring music swells in the background these are all part of the aesthetic of the late-80s shmups, and they are all present and accounted for here in Gradius Rebirth.

You see, there were certain shmup story cliches back in 1989 that I almost forgot existed. I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The game’s opening cinema is so packed with “Genesis does what Ninten-don’t” flair that I actually had to watch it twice before I jumped into the game. The game doesn’t just look like a TG-16/Genesis shmup from the late 1980s it feels like one as well. For some, that will be a very good thing.

From a style perspective, it is completely indistinguishable from the better TG-16/Genesis shooters on the Virtual Console. If you are one of the people who bought a Wii in part to play all the old TurboGrafx-16/Genesis shmups, then you need to skip this review and just buy Gradius Rebirth right now. Sure, I wanted the game to have good level design and enemy patterns, but more than anything, I was hoping that it would deliver the kind of graphics, music, and gameplay that could effectively take me back to 1989, a time when I didn’t think games could ever get any better than R-Type and Blazing Lasers.ĭoes the game succeed at taking me back twenty years in the past? On top of that, is the game actually any fun? Hit the jump to find out.

It’s with that throbbing, retro-hungry pixel lust that I dove into Gradius Rebirth. No, my love of shmups is definitely more tied to rose-tinted memories of “the good old days,” hence my complete adoration of Bionic Commando Rearmed, Mega Man 9, and Contra 4. Honestly, I’ve never played a shmup that I didn’t like, but my favorites are definitely the games that predate the “bullet hell” paradigm that has pretty much dominated the genre for the past ten years. For those in the first category, games like Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun are often referred to as the pinnacle of gameplay excellence, while those in the later camp will often cite R-Type Final or Gradius V as their favorite shmups of all time. Just like with 2D fighting games, there are basically two types of shmup fans: those who love them primarily for the fun of developing the skills required to play them with any modicum of success, and those that are still attached to the genre for reasons of nostalgia.

Gradius rebirth 3 loops