DCharlie
And even i am moderately surprised
Salvaged from a dead thread...
Gradius Portable (PSP) - VERY short play time.
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Oh christ, hotter than a priest with a church full of 12 year olds and a pair of x-ray specs... on the sun... Load time varies from game, i must admit when i saw the WARM UP COUNT DOWN 99 ... 98... 97 for Gradius 1, i thought "you've got to be kidding me" - but the "press start button" came up.
The biggest problem i was expecting was the fact that gradius games were going to be sprites on black backgrounds, but - whilst there is some bleeding - most noticable so far on Gradius 4 - it's fine. Bullets are more than visible, everything looks lush. One thing that is awesome IMO is the clarity and quality of the sound - it sounds fantastic in gradius 1, the sound track is nice and crisp.
For each game you can chose a few screen types - it varies from game to game, with gradius 1 offering original size, large, and full screen. Others offer "Arcade" and "Wide" with Arcade seems to make the screen go beyond the PSP resolution, wide fits things to the screen.
The hit size is also configurable! which helps some of us who SUCK! Difficulty of course can be ramped up or down.
Slowdown has only shown up a few times, and seems limited to Gaiden where the initial snow fall happens, but it was minor and didn't detract from the game, and the level 3 boss (quite a bit , but again, i can live with it - if anything , slowdown helps)
Been itching for a good solid shooter, and here we have 5 classics on one disk, and for those who missed out on Gaiden, oh boy... are you in for a treat....
There is a music and movie gallery also included, which is a nice bonus, with the movies played in full screen. the music gallery also contains the sound track from the X68000 versions of Gradius 1 and 2
Seems like the continue / credit system is different per game too. Whilst Gradius 1 has no continues (at least it seems that way!) Gradius Gaiden gives you 9. Will have to see how that pads out- to be honest, i always liked the Mars Matrix/Ikaruga idea of getting more credits as you achieved things , but that's just me.
if i had to think of gripes ? well, two player mode in Graidus gaiden over wireless would have rocked, and the continue thing might be a mild annoyance, there are a couple of issue with some dark points (mainly in gaiden) where some enemies are difficult to see - especially in level 2. Again, i've not got through all the games/levels, but so far - so awesome. Couldn't be happier to get my shooting on!
(oh, i tried putting in the Konami code (well, a close approximation) but nothing seemed to happen ... i refuse to believe its not in there)
Gradius Portable (PSP) - VERY short play time.
------------------------------------------------------
Oh christ, hotter than a priest with a church full of 12 year olds and a pair of x-ray specs... on the sun... Load time varies from game, i must admit when i saw the WARM UP COUNT DOWN 99 ... 98... 97 for Gradius 1, i thought "you've got to be kidding me" - but the "press start button" came up.
The biggest problem i was expecting was the fact that gradius games were going to be sprites on black backgrounds, but - whilst there is some bleeding - most noticable so far on Gradius 4 - it's fine. Bullets are more than visible, everything looks lush. One thing that is awesome IMO is the clarity and quality of the sound - it sounds fantastic in gradius 1, the sound track is nice and crisp.
For each game you can chose a few screen types - it varies from game to game, with gradius 1 offering original size, large, and full screen. Others offer "Arcade" and "Wide" with Arcade seems to make the screen go beyond the PSP resolution, wide fits things to the screen.
The hit size is also configurable! which helps some of us who SUCK! Difficulty of course can be ramped up or down.
Slowdown has only shown up a few times, and seems limited to Gaiden where the initial snow fall happens, but it was minor and didn't detract from the game, and the level 3 boss (quite a bit , but again, i can live with it - if anything , slowdown helps)
Been itching for a good solid shooter, and here we have 5 classics on one disk, and for those who missed out on Gaiden, oh boy... are you in for a treat....
There is a music and movie gallery also included, which is a nice bonus, with the movies played in full screen. the music gallery also contains the sound track from the X68000 versions of Gradius 1 and 2
Seems like the continue / credit system is different per game too. Whilst Gradius 1 has no continues (at least it seems that way!) Gradius Gaiden gives you 9. Will have to see how that pads out- to be honest, i always liked the Mars Matrix/Ikaruga idea of getting more credits as you achieved things , but that's just me.
if i had to think of gripes ? well, two player mode in Graidus gaiden over wireless would have rocked, and the continue thing might be a mild annoyance, there are a couple of issue with some dark points (mainly in gaiden) where some enemies are difficult to see - especially in level 2. Again, i've not got through all the games/levels, but so far - so awesome. Couldn't be happier to get my shooting on!
(oh, i tried putting in the Konami code (well, a close approximation) but nothing seemed to happen ... i refuse to believe its not in there)
