There was no way I could post Ikaruga last week and not follow up with my other favourite shmup. I bought an Xbox to play Ikaruga, but the console saw plenty of other uses. On the other hand, I bought a PS2 purely and solely to play Gradius V. It’s that good. And unlike Ikaruga, I’m not entirely awful at it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not good. I’m barely competent. But I can finish the game on normal, just about, abusing continues, and I can do a near-perfect run through the first level. Mostly though, I just love playing with the directional lasers which are some of the most beautiful and overpowered weapons in any game ever.
Gradius was developed by Treasure (Ikaruga again) and under the supervision of Konami.
And so you can see what I mean by a) good players, and b) super-happy-laser-fun, here’s a link to Ben Shinobi’s colossal superplay. And in case downloading a video is too stone-age for you, here’s some YouTube: