Together Retro: Gradius III / Parodius

[Xeogred]

Either way Gradius III Arcade is an absolute beast. And I said it before but I thought the PSP d-pad/joystick felt terrible for the Gradius collection (but I do own it), maybe I'll buckle down and try it again.

Gradius III SNES is still great though, but certainly different.

[Breetai]

I'll go for it. I've beaten SNES Gradius III a few times, so I'm going the PS2 route. I've barely played it! From my understanding, it's basically the arcade game with selectable difficulty settings and continues. I'll be playing it on easy.

I'll play Gokujo Parodius on the Saturn with default difficulty. It will be a fantastic journey!

[sevin0seven]

i'll be playing my ps2 version. this should be fun.

[Retrozoa]

Sweet, I actually just dug out my copy of Gradius 3 for snes for the first time in years a week ago.

[brunoafh]

I played the game on the Gradius Collection for PSP a bit. It's a rough one. It's a very well designed game, the enemy placements are thought out and made to be as dangerous as possible. This game reminds me a lot of why I prefer vertical shooters to horizontal ones so much. The slow pace and level hazards that are usually present in horis doesn't resonate with me so much. I've been playing on these settings:

Game Level: 4/Normal
Extend: First 20,000 - Every 70,000
Stock: 3
Hit Size: Normal

[Hatta]

Boy, this one is going to be rough. Haven't played a shmup in months. I might try the arcade version, but there's not much chance of me making any progress there? How does the SNES version's difficulty compare to, say, Axelay? (Which I thought was totally fair)

[fvgazi]

I just recently picked up Gradius III for SNES a few months ago. I will start giving it a good try (because I was murdered very fast when testing it).

I also have Sexy Pariodus for Saturn, so I'll be giving that a try as well.

[Breetai]

Boy, this one is going to be rough. Haven't played a shmup in months. I might try the arcade version, but there's not much chance of me making any progress there? How does the SNES version's difficulty compare to, say, Axelay? (Which I thought was totally fair)

I consider SNES Gradius III to be easier than Axelay.

[cowgod]

I still have my original SNES Gradius III that I purchased as a kid. No box though. I tried to get my 7 year old son into the game, but I think I destroyed his desires to play shmups because it is so difficult. Whoopsie.

For those that are having trouble, I've found the best loadout is the following:

• Missle: Hawk Wind
• Double: Double (don't ever use this though)
• Laser: E. Laser
• Option: R. Option
• ?: Force Field
• !: Mega Crush

Unfortunately, the E. Laser really slows down the game, but it slices through everything. The reason for getting the R. Option is to make it easier to take out enemies at the top or bottom of the screen so you don't crash into the mountains/bubbles/whatever.

[o.pwuaioc]

I'll be getting my SNES copy in any time now. Just how different is it from the arcade? Should I bother to find a rom for MAME?