Full Review

Konami's seemingly never-ending line of Gradius games still remain some of the best games in the shooter genre to ever be released. The side-scrolling series got it's start in 1985 on the original 8-bit Nintendo system with the first 3 classic Gradius games that singlehandedly defined the genre and added a level of strategy with the still unique power-up system that has yet to be matched. Gradius games have also made appearances on the 16-bit Super Nintendo system, the original Gameboy, the PS1 and PS2 and even a Japanese arcade game as well. While literally nothing has changed about these games through the years, Konami has apparently taken the attitude "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" with the games. But that isn't a bad thing in the case of Gradius games.

Gradius Galaxies marks the series' debut on Nintendo's handheld powerhouse of a system, the 32-bit Gameboy Advance.

Fans of the series will eat this game up, while others looking for some sort of new gameplay element or innovation will be sorely disappointed, as this game doesn't deviate from the established Gradius formula one tiny bit.

What has always given the Gradius games a significant edge over almost all other shooters is the unique power-up system. Most shooters has the player getting a new powerup and when you get another weapon, you automatically switch to that one when you grab it. But Gradius takes a much different approach. At the bottom of the screen is a bar that is broken up into different sqaures. At the start of the game you get a choice of 4 different power-up configurations (consisting of different weapons), 2 different shield options and the choice of having the game sometimes automatically choose your power-up or having it be completely manual and up to the player.

I'll elaborate a bit more by detailing the first power-up system and what it entails. At the bar at the bottom of the screen, this is how it's broken up:
SPEED---MISSLES---DOUBLE---LASER---OPTIONS---?

When you grab a power-up icon you can choose the speed power-up to speed up your ship (of course). If you hold off and grab another power-up icon, it will move over to the 2nd block or the "missles" option. Grab a 3rd one and it moves to the Double option. You just hit the "A" button to select when you want to power-up your ship. Basically, this adds a level of strategy and depth to the game since it allows a certain level of customization of how you power-up your ship. The Options choice gives you little spheres that follow your ship and fire whatever weapons you have accumalated. The "?" icon gives your ship a shield to help protect it against enemy fire. As I mentioned before, you have 4 different power-up systems to choose from at the start which really helps out in the replay department.

The graphics looks great and the majority of the levels follow the classic Gradius formula. Each level starts out flying against stars while you kill small enemies that leave behind power-ups. After a little bit, the background changes and the actual level begins. Like most previous Gradius games, there are levels that feature giant suns (complete with deadly solar flares) and the classic Easter Island level in which the majority of the enemies look like the stone heads found on Easter Island. All of the bosses are animated extremely smoothly, and there was only a couple of instances where I noticed some slight slow-down when things got extremely hectic. At no point did I have trouble seeing any enemy bullets on the tiny Gameboy Advance screen.

There are 8 levels to trudge through and each of them is a pretty good length. The game gets increasingly tougher as you go along. Fortunately, there is a continue option in which you can start at almost any place on any level that you have completed up to that point. While it's cool, you do start without any power-ups at all which can make jumping into one of the higher levels quite a chore to play through.

The music is a little on the thin side and doesn't resonate as much as the musical scores on previous Gradius games have. While a lot of the series' classic themes are repeated here, the poor sound quality made me just turn down the volume after awhile.

The control is dead on, as is to be expected of a Gradius game. About the main criticism that could be made of this game is that if you've played the previous Gradius games, there is absolutely nothing here that is new or innovative. But, the previous Gradius games on the archaic original Gameboy were terrible, so the fact that I can actually play a Gradius game on a handheld system that matches it's console counterparts is most cool indeed.

Basically, if you love Gradius, buying Gradius Galaxies is a no brainer if you own a Gameboy Advance. If you got burnt out on these games (or shooters in general) during the over-saturation period of shooters during the 16-bit heyday, staying away from this game might be a good idea. But if you want to play a fantastic shooter that is a terrific representation of how this genre should be done, Graidus Galaxies is a superb choice. While it doesn't offer anything new, this game does the Gradius franchise complete justice and hopefully will be the first in a long line of handheld Gradius games.