Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Region: Japan
Media: Cartridge
Controller: NES Gamepad
Genre: Shooter - Horizontal
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1988
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
_________________________

Gradius starts off by showing us what can be done with the genre. We're able to pick which weapons you'd like by selecting a weapon path. For instance, the level three weapon could either be a laser or a ripple depending on what path you chose. The laser is more condensed, doing more damage per target while the ripple hits a larger area for less damage. Same goes for bombs and the direction in which our gun shoots. There are bombs that drop straight down and other bombs that spread across the screen. Leveling up your weapons comes at the price of systematically collecting ruby balls encapsulated in a metal exterior.

Further down the road on the weapon path are small, red balls that we can choose called "Options." Options allow for us to have double the fire power and are very effective when we start stacking them on top of each other (I.E two or three of them at once.) Finally, the path ends on a mysterious note with a "?." The question mark denotes the force field will allow for us to take more damage from flying projectiles. Now that we know what each type of weapon does, we're able to progress into the game.

In the beginning level, walls of torrid lava explode from burning stars and begin jumping across the screen in an attempt to weed-out careless gamers. Crimson meteorites bombard us from the deepest reaches of space while we try to press further in the level. Suddenly the screen turns black and an enormous bird appears from the darkness. "A Boss' we say to ourselves as this screeching monstrosity flies onto the screen daunting all forth comers.

Only to our dismay will this 'boss' go down in a matter of seconds. This is Gradius' weak point: the bosses are horrible facile and anticlimactic when compared to the rest of the game. Konami knew this too, or they surely wouldn't have pressed us against a brutal gauntlet of simple bosses. These disappointments rear their ugly heads at the end of every level. Traversing deep within the belly of the beast for almost ten minutes leads us to nothing more than a brain who fires dozens of floating bubbles and that's it. Bosses are suppose to be the hallmark of the shooter genre. Konami clearly forgot to do their homework.

Reviewer:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/review/R79509.html
