Gradius Gaiden

About Gradius Gaiden

Gradius Gaiden (1997) is Konami's Japan-only PlayStation shoot 'em up, the fourth mainline Gradius, with four selectable ships, a rearrangeable power meter and the series' first two-player simultaneous play, seen as one of its best.

Gradius Gaiden in Depth

Players control one of four starships, the Vic Viper, Lord British, Jade Knight and Falchion β, to stop the Bacterian army destroying the planet Gradius. As before, they shoot down enemies while avoiding them, their projectiles and the terrain, and collect glowing Power Capsules dropped by some enemies to highlight weapons on the Power Meter, among them missiles, a double shot, lasers and the Options, glowing orbs that follow the ship and fight alongside it. Each ship has its own arsenal: the Vic Viper carries the standard Gradius weapons, the Lord British has Salamander's Ripple Laser and a pulsating "Disruptor" shot, the Jade Knight a "Circle Laser" that surrounds it with deadly rings, and the Falchion β a "Black Hole Bomb" that sucks in enemies.

At the start, players can rearrange the items on their Power Meter, for instance moving the Options to the front so they need only one capsule, an idea taken from the "meter edit" mode of Gradius III. Two new shields were added: the Guard, which makes the ship invulnerable to terrain, and the Limit, which gives three seconds of full invincibility. The levels were designed to stand apart from earlier games, from the snowy opening stage "Beyond the White Storm", the first snow level in the series, to a second stage among the remains of bosses, laser-reflecting crystals in the third and rotating Moai statues in the fourth.

Making Gradius Gaiden

Directed by Seki Teisaku, with designers Kobayashi Takayuki and Chigasaki Kei and sound designer Miura Norikazu, it was made in under a year by staff who had worked on Gradius Deluxe Pack. Because earlier Gradius games were built for arcades and made purposely difficult, designing for a home console let the team make it more balanced and fair. It began as a single-player game; when multiplayer was added, Salamander's Lord British joined as the second player's ship, followed by the Jade Knight and Falchion β, and some effects were built to exploit the PlayStation's rotation and transparency.

Konami released it in Japan on 28 August 1997, but a planned US release bundled with Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus was cancelled, and it first reached the West in 2006's PSP Gradius Collection, without multiplayer. It sold 34,383 copies. Critics praised its visuals, soundtrack and creativity, though Famitsu felt it relied too heavily on fan service; Super Juegos compared it to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and Kurt Kalata later called it "the perfect example of how to evolve the series".