Gradius has been an influential horizontal side-scroll shooter from the beginning till now. From its difficult level designs to its catchy tunes, Gradius had set the history of shoot-em-ups in motion with a formula that is still commonly used today in horizontal side-scroll shooters.
Source: Youtube Channel Toad22484
One thing that really got me interested in Gradius when I was playing it as a little kid was all the power-ups the player can acquire. The player can add: speed, missiles, lasers, double shot, an option (extra tiny ship to fight beside you), and shield to help fight against the hordes of enemies the player faces through the game. One of the biggest challenges in side-scroll shooters such as Gradius is having to weave through enemies and their bullets with enemies popping around the end of the screen trying to destroy the player's ship. In yesterday's post on Space Invaders, fixed shooters (or I like to call them arcade shooters) only had enemies and their enemy fire to worry about. With Gradius, there's environmental hazards where touching the walls would destroy the ship. Like Space Invaders, Gradius has evolved, but the looks and concept are fairly similar.
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I really enjoyed Gradius V because it still felt like Gradius, but on a totally different level. Treasure, the developers well known for their danmaku (bullet hell) sub-genre of Shmups worked on Gradius V and gave the game a challenge like no other. I will be talking about Bullet Hell on Friday. Horizontal shooters seem to have lost its popularity now as more 3D shooters and vertical shooters are played more. The Gundemonium series will be out on Steam soon, so maybe I'll get my fix of horizontal shooters when that comes out.
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