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A perfect choice for shooter fans.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game has everything that makes Gradius games good, and a little bit more:

Visuals: 4/5
First off, the graphics are top notch, with great looking backgrounds, and some nice looking enemies. Everything has a good amount of detail to it, and the game even looks good when blown up on a big screen, when using the GC adapter. The only complaint about the graphics is that the game is really dark, but if you are using the Advance SP, or if you have a good lighting addition to your GBA (and there are hundreds out now, so you should), it's not a problem at all.

Sound: 3/5

Nothing spectacular here. Better sound effects than III or IV, but not by much. Instead of going "BOP" when a baddy gets shot, it makes a small crush sound. The lazer shots don't quite sound as annoying either, but the music score is a little annoying sometimes.

Gameplay: 4/5

Everything you'd expect from a Gradius game, except for one thing: In previous Gradius games, if you pumped the difficulty up as high as it would go, and you died in the middle of a stage and lost all your power-ups, it was extremely difficult to come back. That does not hold true for this game. You can continue from just about any part of the game and make a comeback fairly well, as the designers usually place a significant amount of powerups at each respawn portion of the game. The only time that the game is next to impossible without powerups is when you've beaten the game several times through, and are playing on a high loop setting.

Extra: 4/5

It's great that you can continue from any respawn point that you have reached on any difficulty setting! This allows for gamers to pick up, play for a few minuettes, and when they die, put it away so that they can play later at almost the spot they died. I also like the hint section, even though it doesn't do any good if you are playing on anything higher than normal difficulty.

The reason I gave 4/5 for extra, is because in previous Gradius games, the player could customize the ship more. In this one they have a bunch of presets that are fairly well balanced out.

Overall 4/5

It's a great game for gamers that are new to shooters and shooter fans alike. The lower difficulty settings, good respawn points, and hint modes, make the game pretty eassy for beginners. The ability to continue from spots after looping through the game allows for advanced shooter gamers to play at extremely difficult settings. I'd call this game a must have for GBA owners, unless you're really not interested in intense gameplay.

Fun, short, & dark

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: December 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Fun game. Very old-school.

However, it is soooo D-A-R-K and hard to see! That is the biggest drawback to this game.

It does seem a little short, but it was still fun. Wait till it hits under $... and you can't miss.

yawn,yawn,snore

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: June 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

nothing to talk about.games great for a short time.by the organic level i thought i would vomit from the background.weapons and bosses okay.graphics sad.somethings missing.buy ADVANCE WARS instead.

THE OK AND GOOD GAME

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: September 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

My brother got this game and at first hated it. Then he finally started to like it a little more each day until he really liked it. The gameplay is very basic,a space invaders kind of game with boses. The graphics are good. My brother would give this 5 stars, but I think this game is kind of boring.

An insult to Gradius

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: October 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The older Gradius games were great back in the day, but this GBA version bothered me so much I had to return it. The graphics are below average for GBA standards, but what really frustrated me was the gameplay.

Gradius gives lots of cool and customizable options, but your ship's starting speed is so slow you can't even avoid being hit by enemies with 2-3 seconds to react! Once you can get a speed power up things balance out, but seriously the game is complete frustration trying to dodge slow moving enemies with a sluggish ship and still not being able to do so.

Avoid this game unless you are a Gradius freak and need to re-live the old days.

Two old memories come back for a visit.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: October 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

One is the Gradius game and the other is arm cramps. That's right children, this game hurts. There's no such thing as Turbo or Rapid fire here. One press of the button makes one shot. You wanna shoot another, press the button again. This leads to some very inventive cradling of the GBA system. I found it best to keep it on my lap, lift my right hand completely off the GBA, and start whacking away at the fire button. With all the enemies that show on the screen, in the later levels, you'll have to pause he game just to catch your breath....literally.
But is it fun you say? Well, Yes and No. If you have fond memories of this game, from your youth, then you'll enjoy shooting a ton of enemies one more time. But once you find out that there's 6 stages, or more, for the 13 or so levels in the game, you really don't feel like playing anymore. It's a good game, but it's not That good.
Do yourself a favor, play this with the Game Shark enhancer. It'll save you from Carple tunnel.

Great game--screen is a little dark

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have been a fan of Gradius since Super Nintendo days so I had to order the Game Boy version. The game translates nicely to Game Boy. My only problem is the darkness of the screen. Probably a work light will take care of that.

a good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

this is a pretty good game. the graphics are so-sobut gameplay is good and swift. you can switch which type of ship you want, each with different powerups. you can only take one hit before you are destroyed, which [stinks] but then you can get one of two types of shield, forward(10 hits) or surround shields(3 hits). both protect you from anything but crashing. graphics are super, and the controls are simple and changable,surprise surprise. all in all, a great game.

It's a GRADIUS GAME, PERIOD

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I just finished Gradius Galaxies today with countless continues.. There's something about this long-lived franchise and I'm glad it is the way it is. When the gaming industry is flooded with 3D games with powerful systems, it's really difficult to find a real good 2D-old schooler games like Gradius series, especially Gradius Galaxies.

The moment I turned on the game, there was this nice intro, which shows the history of Gradius series including its early prototype and import-only games as well; and the opening music, which perfectly brings out the Gradius-atmosphere- I was pleasantly surprised with the options they managed to fit in such as continue mode, which let you come back anytime and start from where you left off, and hint mode, which let you see how to beat certain level with pre-recorded game play.

However, what it really set this game aside from the rest of the shooter games outside is that this game is based on over-decade time testsed formula, which let you power up your spaceship according to your need. Choosing your ships and powering up certain part becomes very crucial throughout the game and that really adds alot to the not only the game but also replay value. Graphic was what anyone would've expected from Konami (just like castlevania) and some BGM were familiar since they were rearranged from previous Gradius games. Control wasn't as smooth as previous Gradius games (especially Saturn version with import games) because of the GameBoy Advance D-Pad itself, which is sorta difficult to move your ship in diagonal direction with ease. However, that little problem will be overshadowed by high qualities of Gradius.

I really hope that Konami would keep certain games like Castlevania and Gradius series the way they are right now, 2D with crisp graphic, gorgeous BGM, and old but the best game play you can find. This game will definitely satisfy Gradius fans and it is the best shooting game you can find from GameBoy Advance. [...]

An updated release of a classic arcade game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: January 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have always loved the Gradius series, its always been a simple side view spaceship shooting game, with a fire button and a power button. You are a small spaceship, which must fly through enemy platoons and fortresses destroying big bad monsters, turrets, ships, flame dragons and much more. Its simple, its "classic arcade" fun, but this Gradius has added a huge amount of detail, such as great backgrounds, enemies with more animations and more traps like volcanoes and moving gates. This however slowed down the game drastically! Playing this game is very difficult because everything moves so slowly and some of the time the directional pad does not respond! It gets very frustrating compared to the old Gradius games for SNES and NES, which had super smooth gameplay!

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