The gameplay itself couldn't be any more familiar to fans of the classic Gradius series. You can even record your scoring runs and replay them at a later time, a nice feature for those that like to show off a bit (you know who you are). You can attempt to outscore players locally or on a worldwide scale via the Wi-Fi function.
If you're looking for something a little more competitive, you can choose to take on the Score Attack mode that allows you to play through the levels in an effort to rack up the most points. So how does a game that attempts to mimic the 8-bit shooter stylings of its early counterparts fare in a world where shooters have long since lost their lustre, not to mention become so ridiculously intense that they've garnered such labels as "bullet hell" and "manic"?
With the release of Gradius Rebirth, Konami (with the assistance of emulation experts M2) decided to revive the franchise on Nintendo's WiiWare service, but instead of making use of the more modern shooter conveniences, they chose to take a trip back to the origins of the series to try to cash in on the popularity classic gaming is currently enjoying on the current generation consoles. The Gradius titles have been copied and cloned more times than can be counted and, much like other popular shooters over the years, the series has gradually evolved, taking on more modern touches. ĭespite the similarity in name, the "Falchion β" ship in Gradius Gaiden is not based on the "Falsion" ship featured in this game.The original Gradius arcade release was one of the first truly great side-scrolling shooters and, along with R-Type, spawned a legion of copycat video games back in the 80s and 90s. Another reviewer found the depth perception confusing and while they praised the game's music and said this was the best Famicom 3D System title, it remained "a pain to play". Atari HQ praised Falsion's fluidity and called its 3D mode a great experience, saying the game is a "must-get". The player can also destroy these enemies, which include other space ships, meteorites and robots. To survive, the player must avoid getting hit by enemies and obstacles or their attacks. Randomly appearing power-ups which float around the screen for a limited time can also be collected by the player, and they either increase the ship's movement speed or replenish its missile supply. Enemies can be attacked by shooting a rapid-firing beam weapon or homing missiles, although there is a limited supply of the latter. Enemies, projectiles and obstacles seem to fly towards the space ship. In a manner that has been compared to games like Space Harrier and Star Fox, the player's perspective is from the third person, behind the space ship, as it goes forward. The goal of the game is to survive to the end of the auto-scrolling levels and defeat the boss to move on to the next level, until the sixth and final boss is defeated. The game is a shoot 'em up in which the player controls the movements of a flying space ship, called the Falsion, while simultaneously shooting enemy ships and trying to avoid their attacks. The story of the game itself deals with the Falsion's attack on the alien forces, and its eventual victory over the alien mothership, called "Gigantos", which serves as the game's final boss. However, the new technology proves hard to control, and only one of the ships manages to survive the trip: the protagonist's ship, named Falsion. The human organization responsible for the space program, the "United Space Force", decides to use the yet-untested "Hyperzone Drive" in order to send ships that will directly attack the armies of the invading aliens. The invaders attack humanity's colony on Pluto and conquer it with little resistance, since human civilization doesn't have the technology to defend itself. However, a race of aliens who have already mastered that technology are currently invading planets at a quick pace, closing in on the Solar System. In the game's universe, humanity has colonized most planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and they now look towards expanding their reach by using an experimental travel technology called "Hyperzone Drive". The game's background story is only explained through the user manual.