#GRADIUS 2 PC ENGINE SERIES#

The project was at first intended to be a followup to Konami's earlier game Scramble (1981), being titled Scramble 2 and reusing many of its material and game mechanics. The shoot'em up genre had seen a resurgence at the time with Namco's Xevious, with the goal of the project being to make a shooter that could surpass it. He asked the team what kind of game they'd like to work on, responding that they'd like to make another shooting game. Joining the company in the early 1980s originally as a programmer, Konami was trying to transition from being a producer of medal machines to a video game developer and assigned him to a small team to try and create a game that could put the company on the map. Gradius was the creation of Konami game designer Machiguchi Hiroyasu, being the first video game he publicly released. When the desired power-up is highlighted, the player can obtain it by pressing the power-up button, returning the menu to its initial state in which no power-up is highlighted. The effect of this power-up item is to advance the currently selected item in a power-up menu that appears at the bottom of the screen. While most arcade games utilize distinct power up-items that each correspond to a specific effect on the player character, Gradius has a single power-up item. This level of capability is generally insufficient for engaging enemies, but the Vic Viper can gain greater capabilities by collecting and using power-up items. When gameplay begins, the Vic Viper is relatively slow and has only a weak gun. Such bosses have weak spots in places such as a mouth, head or eye. Note that these cores are not present on the more organic bosses of Gradius. Upon the destruction of a core, a piece of the boss may be put out of commission, seeing that it is no longer powered by a core, or if all of the cores are destroyed, the entire boss is defeated and explodes satisfyingly. When the core has sustained enough hits, it usually changes color from blue to red, indicating that it is in critical condition and its destruction is imminent. In a way, these tiny walls represent the boss' shielding gauge until its core is finally vulnerable to attack. However, small but destructible walls are situated in this passage, impeding the bullet shots from damaging the core, and must be whittled away by repeated well-placed shots. The player must fire shots into this passage while avoiding attack patterns from weapon emplacements on the body of the boss.

These bosses would be designed in such a way that there would be a straight passage from the exterior of the giant craft which leads directly to one of these cores.

#GRADIUS 2 PC ENGINE SERIES#

The game became synonymous with the phrase, 'Destroy the core!', as the standard of boss battles in the Gradius series involved combat with a giant craft, in the center of which would be situated one to several blue colored spheres. The player controls the trans-dimensional spaceship Vic Viper and must battle waves of enemies through various environments. The player's power meter is towards the bottom of the screen. The player's ship, the Vic Viper, exchanging shots with enemy Moai in the game's third stage. Along with Namco's Xevious, it is cited as being one of the most important shooter games, having paved the way for many similar games to follow.

Gradius was critically acclaimed for its gameplay and unique power-up system.

It was a major success in 1986, becoming the year's highest-grossing arcade game in London and one of Japan's top five table arcade games, while the Famicom port sold over a million copies in Japan that year. Home versions were released for various platforms, such as the Famicom/NES, the MSX home computer, and the PC Engine. During development, it had the working title Scramble 2, as it was originally intended to be a follow-up to Konami's earlier shooter Scramble (1981). The arcade version of Gradius was initially released internationally outside Japan under the title of Nemesis, but subsequent home releases have since used the original title. The game uses a power-up system called the 'power meter', based upon collecting capsules to purchase additional weapons. The player maneuvers a spacecraft known as the Vic Viper that must defend itself from the various alien enemies. The first game in the Gradius series, it was originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1985. Gradius is a side-scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Konami.

Gradius 2 pc engine