Gradius V

[dataDave]

Woah! 270000!? I'm wet.

I need to work on the spinner, get up in it's face or whatever, concentrating my ships laser fire.

I can only seem to take out 1 row of four on each of those ships Saur, I never dare to go up or under for another row, waste of time, if I miss one of them blowing up I start the level again, not forgetting to swear in the progress.

Type 2 here still.

[dataDave]

Type 2 here as well - love using the lasers as a whip...

I can take down the level 2 boss 50% of the time now - just can't seem to find the consistency :/

I can lose lives on the part where the tazers blast out orbs that fire vertically, If I don't have a force field on full before starting. I can't keep calm during that section. The parts before that are piss however.

[Geoff D]

I can lose lives on the part where the tazers blast out orbs that fire vertically

Yep, that's where I spunk lives away usually too

[Saurian]

Get right up in the boss' face during that section (the vertical lane furthest to the right) - you're pretty much safe there.

[dataDave]

Yep, that's where I spunk lives away usually too

Just make sure you time your power-ups to coincide with force field, it's pretty easy due to that massive wave of blocks that swarm before the boss initially appears, then after that you have another 2 waves of 4. I'm a slag for hoarding as many as I can though coz they score pretty well.

Without a force field I'm f**ked.

[Geoff D]

I'll go to work on the homes with a pair of pliers & a blowtorch tonight - haven't even started on level 3 yet - not until I can pwn the boss on 2...

[dataDave]

Heh. My mum's playing this as we speak, she's been playing since 11am so she's probably beat my hi-score as I haven't received a call on how to do bits. I have to call her at 4 so I'll find out then.

Gotta hold back the info I've learned here today though.

[killing_floor]

re:

Your mum plays video games?! you lucky chap.

I got the Perfect DVD of this for a look (Gradius was all new to me, somehow, until about the start of this year when I got back into gaming), it is showing completion + patterns, and it includes a boss rush so you can also see the bosses being killed really fast (ie - no chance to see their patterns).

Doesn't show the level 8 boss! is there one, or is that level 2 time-travel bit the last boss?!

What I want to know most of all is this -

what the hell is Gradius Neo and Gradius Imperial Neo ?! are they other games? They are advertised / written about, with some screenshots, in one of the menu sections on the DVD. I haven't looked it up, but no-one has mentioned it on any forums or articles, so when I saw it I was all wondering what it is...


also - anyone who has Options DVD want to compare what is on both DVDs? i heard Options has - 2 interviews, artwork, and a guide to stage 5 only - is that correct?

Perfect has - all eight levels, boss rush, enemy data, those neo adverts and a trailer for a game i forget the name of right now, soundtrack info., stage select and note select (like scene select on a DVD movie). it's all good but i want more.........i wanted displays for each weapon and array - so i'm hoping that is on Options? it also comes with a booklet on the options (Perfect does) and a secrets&tips bit. Which for me means the following - downloading a Japanese keyboard input, and making many visits to an online translator.

[Kubrick]

Gradius Neo

Just mobile phone games by the looks of it.

[rjpageuk]

How on earth are you people breaking 200k from the first level?

I am getting about 150k... maybe I am not shooting enough of those red planet things?

It there a particular path to these?

Maybe someone can upload a nice stage1 vid .

[KempStar]

rjpageuk there are a few things you can do to increase your score in the first level:

1) Kill as many red planets as possible, they are worth ~3000 points each. What I do is focus all my options on one planet to kill it as quick as possible, then I fly upwards, until I see a red glow. Dont just fly left to right, as you wont kill as many as you can.

2) If you can, try and be in an area where you can shoot the planets, and ships too (there are those things that spit out ships). But dont focus on the ships as they are not worth as much.

2) The first core you get to- kill it as fast as you can. The quicker you kill it, the more enemies you get afterwards.

3) Those huge things with gun turrets on just after the core? Kill the turrets individually first, before you destroy the huge thing. Saw that on a replay last night

4) On the boss, destroy all 6 parts that shoot the rings before you destroy it.

[VR46]

Mr Noob here wanting to pick some brains please (only managed to play for 20 mins last night);

Are you guys powering up "option" firstly, then laser etc etc ?
Is there any reason I shouldn't use rapid fire permanently instead of normal fire ?
I haven't so far noticed much difference with "speed up" prehaps I just need to upgrade it to a higher level ?
Lastly, are you using the default button set-up ?

Oh, and KempStar where did you find that Stage 1 replay ? would love to see it as I'm sure many others would

Thanks guys.

PS. Is the Aprreciation DVD worth getting or do you think there will there be better replays on the web in a week or two ?

Thanks again

[KempStar]

That stage is sick - I was on that all evening trying to get it down but it's still my undoing! I can maul the boss, but the sections that re-grow are still killing me and I havent worked out a consistant routine for the section with those worms that come out of the floor/ceiling.

What's the timing for entering those bits that re-grow? Do you shoot out a bit to leave a space or just go straight in? I'm using Type 2 and even if I shoot behind me it catches up.

Hello

What I do on this bit is-

1)Worms: Dont kill ANY of them. Keep shooting it, so its tail is red and its just about to die. Then kill it at the last minute. That way you will have an easy path when the two worms come from the left of the screen, as it wont regenerate quickly enough.

2)Re-grow part. Dont shoot anything, so there are no gaps at all, otherwise you cant predict which bits may regrow. Focus your options if you can.... blast a line through and follow it to the right of the screen as quickly as you can. And stay there! If you have type 4 options, rotate your options as you can get a lot of points for destroying the stuff.

[KempStar]

Mr Noob here wanting to pick some brains please (only managed to play for 20 mins last night);

Are you guys powering up "option" firstly, then laser etc etc ?
Is there any reason I shouldn't use rapid fire permanently instead of normal fire ?
I haven't so far noticed much difference with "speed up" prehaps I just need to upgrade it to a higher level ?
Lastly, are you using the default button set-up ?

Oh, and KempStar where did you find that Stage 1 replay ? would love to see it as I'm sure many others would

Thanks guys.

PS. Is the Aprreciation DVD worth getting or do you think there will there be better replays on the web in a week or two ?

Thanks again

1) I power up in this order:

Speed up
Speed up
Laser
Option
Option
Missile
Speed up
Option
Force
Option

2) The only times when you should not autofire is when you are trying to target something. For example those things that spew out ships. If you are going for score you want to let it eject all the ships before you destroy it.

3) I upgrade to three speed ups. Anymore than that and I find it too sensitive. Maybe you mean you dont find that much difference if you upgrade it only once? It definitely makes a lot of difference once you have a couple.

4) I use default buttons

5) The replay was on the attract sequence, just leave the game running. Its not a full replay, I just saw the bit where you can kill the turrets individually

[marcus]

I got to the end of level 3 to that spider boss, which quickly wasted me. Any tips on this? Its position makes it hard to hit the core as Im below it most of the time, dodging the blocks.