Collection essentials #303: Gradius Deluxe Pack (Saturn)

I covered the SNES version of Gradius III previously, but here we have a package that contains the first two Gradius games. These first two were already old by the time the Saturn came out. The first Gradius released in arcades in 1985, and the second game followed in 1988. They were pretty advanced for their time, and there were home console versions made but those machines weren’t quite able to faithfully recreate the experience. The Saturn and its contemporaries marked a new console generation that made practically-perfect arcade ports of these games a reality at last.

I’ve already talked so much about Konami in this series. With all their many hits, Gradius 1 is one of their biggest and most significant. This game was a real step forward for the shoot ‘em up genre back in 1985, setting new standards for level design and gameplay elements that would have wide-reaching influence. It boasts a sophisticated power-up system that gives the player some freedom, as picking up a power-up item does not instantly give you an upgrade but gives you the choice of getting one or waiting to collect more items for a different and possibly better power-up. One influential power-up Gradius introduced were “options”, which are these little oval-shaped things that trail behind your ship following whatever input the player has made, and each one you get shoots in the same way as the main ship. This means you get more firepower and more reach, and it’s really fun to have a full set of them covering a wide range of the screen, making you more about to take a defensive position while still shooting in the spots you want. The game also featured bosses whose weak points were big and visible, something that gamers appreciate. As this is a horizontal shoot ‘em up where the screen scrolls from left to right, Gradius often has enemies on the ceiling and the floor that you have to account for which makes for dynamic gameplay that you didn’t really see in the shoot ‘em ups that predated it. There is also a level with no floor or ceiling where you can fly up or down continuously, and the level loops around when you do so, which provides a nice freedom of movement.

It’s pretty remarkable how good the original Gradius is, as it doesn’t come off as a totally outdated prototype and is still quite fun to play. The game established themes and elements that Konami kept in the series and beyond. For example, one level features a series of Moai heads (as in, those mysterious Easter Island statues in real life) that shoot energy balls out of their mouths, and this has becoming a recurring thing in all of Gradius, so iconic that Konami even adopted Moai heads as a sort of mascot at times. 

Gradius II is more or less what you’d expect a video game sequel to be, i.e., a bigger and (arguably) better package that builds on the foundation of the original. It doesn’t mess with the basic gameplay, but it didn’t really need to. The biggest thing it added was a variety of different power-up sets to pick from upon starting a new game, adding some welcome variety. Other than that, it has more levels and a wider variety of bosses. It’s a tough game and can feel unfair at times, but overall it’s a winner in my opinion. It does lack an exclusive level that was made for the “PC Engine CD” home console release, so it could be argued that this is not the best version of the game, but it is faithful to the arcade original which for many gamers is most important.

This compilation is great and I’m glad it exists, but I’m a little puzzled as to why Gradius III isn’t on this disc. The game was several years old at the time and I’m positive that the disc would have plenty of space for it. To be honest, though, these two games are better than III, which is punishingly difficult to a fault, so I’m not overly sad that it’s not here.

I actually have more personal history with Parodius rather than Gradius. I think I had heard of Gradius as a kid but never got a chance to play it, that I can recall. But my love for Parodius obviously made me more interested in Gradius, so that gave me more motivation to seek it out. I played through each of these two games to completion, though I haven’t played them a whole lot outside of that. I have also played the PC Engine CD version of Gradius II which is a great time and I think I would take that as my version of choice over this one. But I’d still probably prefer this version of Gradius 1 if I had to go with one. 

As a big Konami fan and someone who appreciates a good old arcade shoot ‘em up, you know I had to have the iconic Gradius in my collection. This is my version of choice, as I’m not terribly keen on the NES port. Props to Konami for making these faithful ports long after these two games first came out.