Gradius 1 Review (NES/FC)

[Satoshi_Matrix]

After some delays, here's another one for you guys to read and hopefully love, Gradius 1 for the NES/Famicom.

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2011 ... eview-nes/

[flojocabron]

I remember this game, I used to play it alot at a friends house as a kid! I have a copy all mine as well. Have you tried the gradius collection for the PSP? its a good update of this game.

anyways good article! I SOLUTE you!

[Breetai]

Have you tried the gradius collection for the PSP? its a good update of this game.

It's not an update. Gradius was originally released as an arcade game before it was ported to the NES/Famicom. The version on the PSP collection is the original arcade games; not an update of the NES port.

[ProfessorK]

Great review! The Gradius series is probably my all-time favorite series. And the music you posted by the London Philharmonic is giving me chills haha. It's so good!

[Erik_Twice]

Cool, you approved of my useless comment!

Anyways, I like your blog! While I think your reviews are a bit too long in certain parts, it's far better than the way too shorts reviews we are used to because it's more informative.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

it's far better than the way too shorts reviews we are used to because it's more informative.

This. This is exactly what I set out to accomplish because I'm sick and tired of nobody getting into depth on classic gaming. Read just about any NES review out there and you'll get a 500 word (if that) description of the game. Likewise, watch 95% of youtube reviews for classic games and you'll get the following:

1. AVGN clones (lol old videogames have aged poorly lets swear and say they suck lolololololol)
2. people who simply talk about a game as casually as possible and don't actually discuss details and call it a review (knightwing on youtube is a good example of this)
3. Reviewers who do actually review the game, but leave out large chucks of information.

All of this I find extremely frustrating, so when I do reviews, I try to write them as I would want to read a review. I often times will go to great lengths to find out the going rates of certain games because the goal of my reviews is to spread the word and have new gamers go out and pick the game up for themselves.

Sure, I could review Call of Duty fill in the blank, but the vast majority of gamers who would be interested in that have already went out and bought or rented it. My review wouldn't really convince anyone of anything. However, how many people have played Fragile Dreams? What about Monster Attack and Global Defense Force?

These games are the ones I discovered by accident or found out about by a recommendation myself and are truly worth a look that most people haven't given. This is my journalistic goal if you will.

I know I can sometimes go into TOO much detail, but I always try to limit each review to less than 3000 words

[Erik_Twice]

This. This is exactly what I set out to accomplish because I'm sick and tired of nobody getting into depth on classic gaming.

I have to say that it's not exclusive to gaming either. Have you seen Roger Ebert reviews? Half of the time he doesn't mention why the movie is good or bad and he is supposed to be one of the best critics around!

In gaming you often have reviews that only have subjective praise comments like "The level design is the most amazing we have seen yet" that look good but doesn't explain anything.

What I seek is explaining the why of something. It's not enough to say "you can rocketjump", you need to say why it's good or bad and how it reflects the gameplay. That's my goal

I know I can sometimes go into TOO much detail, but I always try to limit each review to less than 3000 words

Haha, no problem. What I think is that if someone has the interest to read a review he will do it anyway. My reviews seem to be around 850 words long so I will limit myself to 1000 words or less.

[Gunstar Green]

The way I see it most people who read reviews of retro-games are doing it because they want to learn more about the game and its history, seeing whether the game is good or not is a secondary concern.

So making really long reviews isn't a problem. It's not like these are new games we're talking about. Most people looking up a review for Gradius is going to know what it's about and they're interested in reading more about it.

So my opinion on length in retro-game reviews is go crazy! I really enjoyed this in-depth review, great job.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

To be clear, my goal isn't to to make exceptionally long reviews, it's to make sure I cover all relevant bases - the story, graphics, audio, gameplay, availability and cost, run down the major pros and cons and provide some background history because no matter what, every game has some history. To me, learning a game's history is often the most interesting portion and why I bother to include it in all my written and video reviews.

[Gnashvar]

Great review. Loved reading it while listening to the 'Gradius in classic' music you posted.

Just a slight correction if you don't mind me pointing it out

"An option fires the shame weapons the Vic Viper does..."