Gradius II
I recently got a copy of Gradius 2 for Famicom. I had been waiting to get one at a good price, and finally won an eBay auction. I had played a bit of it through the years, on the PSP collection, and various other places. I was excited to play through the Famicom version.
Holy crap, this game is so much harder than the first one! I died so many times in the fire arcs on the first level. Slowly learned the right path, and beat the boss.
2nd level was tough, especially if I died. I couldn't get the Konami code to work, so it became very tough.
Made it to level 3, but died endlessly around the volcanoes.
Loving the game, but its leaps and bounds above Gradius as far as difficulty to me. Maybe it's the lack of slowdown. Or I'm just not as familiar with the game. Either way, I am learning new things every life, and look forward to clear the game someday.
Holy crap, this game is so much harder than the first one! I died so many times in the fire arcs on the first level. Slowly learned the right path, and beat the boss.
2nd level was tough, especially if I died. I couldn't get the Konami code to work, so it became very tough.
Made it to level 3, but died endlessly around the volcanoes.
Loving the game, but its leaps and bounds above Gradius as far as difficulty to me. Maybe it's the lack of slowdown. Or I'm just not as familiar with the game. Either way, I am learning new things every life, and look forward to clear the game someday.
Comments
Slowdown helps significantly!
I felt the same way when I played the arcade version of gradius III as opposed to the snes version. Man alive that arcade one is way more challenging.
And the crystal stage will make a man out of you. Damn!
Hey I played this game a bunch a few years back, recorded a no-death video if you want to check it out:
Like clockwork.
Can't wait to try her out, glad I got a heads up on the difficulty.
I remember playing it on emulator in college and it completely blew me away at the time what this game could do on the Famicom.
Gradius II uses a Japan-only mapper chip. For an American release they would have had to program it for a common mapper over here, or produce a new pcb design just for this game. I don't know how much that factors into the decision, but it's something to consider.
How large is the Japanese board?
Would have fit in a USA cartridge with an adapter (like Gyromite)?
Gradius II uses a Japan-only mapper chip. For an American release they would have had to program it for a common mapper over here, or produce a new pcb design just for this game. I don't know how much that factors into the decision, but it's something to consider.
How large is the Japanese board?
Would have fit in a USA cartridge with an adapter (like Gyromite)?
typical famicom size, so it does. that's how people who aren't bunnyboy make nes repros of it.
Gradius II uses a Japan-only mapper chip. For an American release they would have had to program it for a common mapper over here, or produce a new pcb design just for this game. I don't know how much that factors into the decision, but it's something to consider.
How large is the Japanese board?
Would have fit in a USA cartridge with an adapter (like Gyromite)?
typical famicom size, so it does. that's how people who aren't bunnyboy make nes repros of it.
So then it would have just required adapters (making the carts more expensive than typical) rather than a board/game redesign...
Gradius II uses a Japan-only mapper chip. For an American release they would have had to program it for a common mapper over here, or produce a new pcb design just for this game. I don't know how much that factors into the decision, but it's something to consider.
How large is the Japanese board?
Would have fit in a USA cartridge with an adapter (like Gyromite)?
typical famicom size, so it does. that's how people who aren't bunnyboy make nes repros of it.
So then it would have just required adapters (making the carts more expensive than typical) rather than a board/game redesign...
That could've been a solution but adapters were long out of production by that point. That would have incurred its own overhead in getting those going again, plus complexity in assembly.
So then it would have just required adapters (making the carts more expensive than typical) rather than a board/game redesign...
That could've been a solution but adapters were long out of production by that point. That would have incurred its own overhead in getting those going again, plus complexity in assembly.
I'd be willing to bet that resuscitating the adapter production line (for an existing design) would have been cheaper than reprogramming the game or developing a new circuit board for the US market.
That said, it'd come down to a question of scale of production.
At some volume the new mapper board for the US market would have ultimately been cheaper.
Either way, I'd be willing to bet the hardware solution would be cheaper (and more reliable) than adapting the game to US-market mappers.
I also play Gradius. Kind of a newbish question, but hot do I avoid the twin volvanoes on the first stage in Gradius I? There seems to be no ryme or reason to the pattern of fireballs and entirely too quick to dodge...