Together Retro: Gradius III / Parodius

[CFFJR]

Well, after turning the game to easy I've made quite a bit of progress, only to get wiped out in one stage.

I get to this stage (I lost count of the number, its right after this giant plant boss) that's all blue metalwork, and suddenly the scrolling speed goes way the hell up. I can keep up with speed powerups easily enough, but these yellow pillars open and shut constantly, and they inevitably smash me. I can't get the timing down with the screen flying by so fast, so I'm freaking stuck.

[Xeogred]

It seems to me that Gradius III and Astro Warrior have something in common: Once you die and lose all your power-ups; it is virtually impossible to continue on.

This is a basic rule in numerous shmups.

Hence why I'm more keen to games like Thunder Force and other vertical shmups. When you die you respawn instantly, and in TF's case you only lose the weapon you had selected when you got hit... it's just faster paced and I tend to prefer this over trial and error R-Type / Gradius kind of gameplay.

Tempted to play Gradius V again though. In that one when you get hit your respawn instantly and can pickup some options that may have dropped if you get them in time... but you can still pretty much end up being screwed after losing stuff, lol, like with those levels I posted earlier.

[CFFJR]

Hence why I'm more keen to games like Thunder Force and other vertical shmups. When you die you respawn instantly, and in TF's case you only lose the weapon you had selected when you got hit... it's just faster paced and I tend to prefer this over trial and error R-Type / Gradius kind of gameplay.

After playing a good bit of Gradius 3 and Lightening Force, I completely agree.

Lightening Force is a better game I think, and a hell of a lot more fun.

[Xeogred]

Hehe, as I'm sure I've said over and over again, Thunder Force IV is without a doubt my favorite horizontal shmup by a long shot.

Check out Hyper Duel for the Saturn sometime too... may as well be Thunder Force 4.5, haha. Still haven't really got into V and haven't played VI yet, but I should really give them a shot.

[noiseredux]

I respect Gradius III. And all of the Gradius games really. But there's a reason why I love vert shmups way more.

AT any rate, I totally prefer the Parodius series to the Gradius series anyway.

[Breetai]

I respect Gradius III. And all of the Gradius games really. But there's a reason why I love vert shmups way more.

AT any rate, I totally prefer the Parodius series to the Gradius series anyway.

As do I prefer the Parodius series. They are just plain fun.

[Hatta]

I die halfway thorugh Gradius III first stage so I guess I'm the noob here. Arcade version but it isn't really that hard I guess.

I'm bad at shupms so yeah.

Me too. Play the SNES version, it's much more reasonable.

[alienjesus]

I'm enjoying these games, but I agree that Parodius just seems more fun. That might be because of the versions I'm playing though, where parodius had a lot more experience with the game boy platform to work with. I haven't managed to beat level 2 of either game yet though.

What character to people use in parodius? I know my version is different, but I like Octopus - the missiles that fall up are very handy, the expanding ripple laser is a favourite and the trailing options are MUCH better than the converging ones of characters like Pentarou. I think it's a bit different in other versions, so I'll explain -

If you move the vic viper or octopus characters with options, the options will follow their movement, but if you stop, they'll stop where you were just a second ago, so if you move up or down, you get a nice vertical line of shooting. Pentarou and twinbee however, when you stop, the options keep following until they're exactly where you are, meaning you don't get that nice spread unless you're constantly moving.

[Bradtemple87]

Awesome, I just fired up Gradius III on the snes two weeks ago.

[brunoafh]

I can't get into Parodius. It's not really my thing I guess. I think Star Parodier is okay though.

As for Gradius III, I'm playing the PSP version on normal and I'm still stuck on level 3. It's just so friggin hard, and I'm sure it only gets harder.