noname2200 on 03 July 2009
Fossil's mini-reviews:
Gradius: Rebirth
Oh lordy.... This games was made in the "simple but insane" vein of classic Gradius titles, so it's one hell of a doozy if it's your first SHMUP, or even your first Gradius! It also mimics Ghosts N' Ghosts in that you need to complete it multiple times to see the ending (three in this case), with the difficulty escalating with each loop, and mutating into a true bullet hell by thefinal trip into the last level.
Thankfully, there are several levels of easy difficulty settings( such as enemies shooting less frequently and even bulltes being blastable) so newcomers to the grenre can practice in safety before tackling Normal, and on top of that there are many diffrent weapon bars selectable from the start menue, such as the traditional set up and the "Salamander/Life-force" set. Since the game is presented as a prequel to the MSX computer game Gradius 2, there's more story than normal to be found, which should help hook in the uncertain player. The music is top notch and nearly all the tunes are ear-worms, esspecially "historic soldier".
It may sound rough, but if you stick with it Gradius: rebirth doesn't disappoint for it's 10$ price, and feels great for those "Pick up and play" urges.
Mega Man 9:
Similarly to Gradius: rebirth, this game will kick your butt if you are not prepared for it, but that doesn't mean it's "cheap" in it's difficulty. The real appeal comes in it's 8-bit cut-scenes, which offer much more exposition and story than it's 16 and 32-bit bretheren. It also re-invents the wheel with several of the Robot-master weapons, such as the Jewel-sheild behaving exactly like it did when it was used against you-no more "one hit and it's gone" crap!
The levels themselves are vairied and interesting, such as the literal concrete jungle and the lava facility that house Concrete-man and Magma-man respectivly. Speaking of Bosses, Splash-woman is the most interesting of the bunch, and it's surprising Capcom didn't pull it's usual "women=fanservice" rutine with her. It's probably best to compare 9 to 2, since Keji Inafune actually adimts he based this one on 2 since it's the most revered by fans. While it may share some of the tight spots, the small touches of 3 and the purchaseable items such as E-tanks and 1-ups make it much more forgiving and conqerable for beginers, though Wily's castle is as brutal as ever.
