SotM March: Gradius II

[Jeneki]

The shmup of the month for March is Gradius II.

Settings:
Normal difficulty
Extends 20k, every 150k



Arcade / ps1 / saturn / psp / mame

Name           - score     - stage - ship type - version
Ballzdeepx     - 236,500   - 5     - D         - Saturn
geise          - 128,900   - 3     - A         - arcade
Jeneki         - 116,800   - 4     - B         - mame
The Chosen One - 104,300   - ??    - B         - PSP
NERDtendo      -  72,200   - 1-2   - A         - Saturn

NES / Famicom

Name           - score     - stage - ship type - version
Kidpanda       - 7,042,880 - 9-2   - A         - Famicom
andsuchisdeath - 4,016,830 - 5-5   - A         - Famicom
Jeneki         - 1,241,990 - 2-1   - B         - Famicom
daskrabs       -   842,690 - 2-5   - A         - Famicom
gusmoney       -    33,500 - 2     - A         - Famicom
BerryTogart    -    32,380 - 2     - B         - Famicom

PC-Engine

daskrabs       - 141,700   - 4     - A         - PC Engine CD

 

[daskrabs]

Awesome choice. My fav FC shooter by far.

 

[Jibbajaba]

PC Engine version is not allowed?

 

[Jeneki]

This game has ports everywhere, so I'll make a scoreboard for whatever people want to play. Fami is up there already because people requested it in the voting topic.

 

[BerryTogart]

BerryTogart - 32,380 - 2 - Ship Type B - Famicom



Nothing impressive, but at least got through the first level by now. Switched to the laser config after the ASID suggestion, works out quite well - especially when stacking options and ship in a row it seems to me that the 1st level boss drops much faster (almost instantly with 1 option and laser).
Didn't use Autofire for this score as laser wouldn't benefit from it anyways.
(Image is taken from the 1st stage because it seems the Famicom gives you absolutely no score info after you loose your last life except for the HiScore entry)

 

[Jeneki]

Popped in the NES Everdrive and I'm able to play it that way. Holy crap, first stage schooled me pretty hard. Took several tries to get it right.

And yeah, this is a pretty rad version. I love the flame waves and enemies imported from Salamander. And four options on NES, finally! Sprite flicker and all, haha.

 

[daskrabs]

daskrabs - 108,590 - 5 - A - Famicom

 

[daskrabs]

daskrabs - 209,620 - 5 - A - Famicom

Let's see some scores, ya'll.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

andsuchisdeath - 4,016,830 - 5-5 (or stage 33) - A - Famicom


I no-missed the first 3 loops and lost almost 30 lives trying to recover on 4-2.

I ended my run on stage 5 on the fifth loop. I couldn't take anymore.

A few things...

The stage 4 boss can be milked infinitely as far as I can tell. This is somewhat moot since looping the game is where the scoring is...

The stage 6 boss appears to be the most valuable thing to destroy in the game. I'm not sure how much it's worth...but it's a lot and killing it will give you over 15 extends. IDK for sure, but it at least looks like the amount of points varies (it's always high though). The variation in value could be in my head.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

The Chosen One - 104300 - ?? - B - PSP

Playing on the Gradius collection for PSP, I believe it's the same as the Saturn port.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[daskrabs]

View attachment 43356

andsuchisdeath - 4,016,830 - 5-5 (or stage 33) - A - Famicom


I no-missed the first 3 loops and lost almost 30 lives trying to recover on 4-2.

I ended my run on stage 5 on the fifth loop. I couldn't take anymore.

A few things...

The stage 4 boss can be milked infinitely as far as I can tell. This is somewhat moot since looping the game is where the scoring is...

The stage 6 boss appears to be the most valuable thing to destroy in the game. I'm not sure how much it's worth...but it's a lot and killing it will give you over 15 extends. IDK for sure, but it at least looks like the amount of points varies (it's always high though). The variation in value could be in my head.

Goddamn, son. /thread

 

[andsuchisdeath]

/thread

You have the rest of march to win.

When you can clear the first loop, the rest is just an endurance/ boredom threshold test.
There isn't a progression in difficulty with successive loops.

 

[Jeneki]

Updated scores.

I made it to the big wall on Fami. Well, the main block that forms the big wall. Caught me in a noob trap and rammed me from behind (lol).

 

[daskrabs]

Just wanted to add that I've been playing this game casually for a few years, but now that we're going for scores, I'm having even more fun with it. I think Gradius II is a testament to Konami in the 80's. Their FC team really made amazing games. Shame that many titles, like this one, never made it abroad. I'd go so far as to say they were the best 3rd party FC dev. Anyway, this game is kicking my ass. I'm up to level 6 at this point, but my score isn't that much higher than the last one I posted. I'll post up again when I get further.

 

[daskrabs]

Posting for PCE as well. Just getting used to it. Still like the FC version better.



daskrabs - 141,700 - 4 - A - PC Engine CD

 

[daskrabs]

Creepin' up that ass. Stage 6 boss time.



daskrabs - 256,830 - 6 - A - Famicom

 

[Jeneki]

My Famicom clear:

Jeneki - 1,241,990 - 2-1 - B - Famicom

Here's a few things I've learned about this game's collision detection. The hitbox when dealing with diamond bullets is larger than the sprite appears, causing many near misses to count as a hit even if the diamond doesn't visibly connect. Also see the line-shaped lasers on the big wall, these have a gigantic hitbox and being anywhere near them counts as a hit (maybe a full rectangle around the entire line). And the top forehead of Moai heads, the hitbox extends about a half ship length in front of the forehead.

Gotta keep a big distance from stuff in this version.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

Jeneki, putting PC-E scores with arcade scores isn't very fair.

 

[geise]

I thought that was odd as well. Especially since NES has it's own section. Lets not forget the autofire triggers. I also have no clue if the points are similar. I'll have to see what I can get doing a quick run tonight.

 

[Jeneki]

Ok fixed that. I got some bad info on PC-E being comparable.

Also played a few in mame.

Jeneki - 116,800 - 4 - B - mame

Took out the crystal core with the pea shooter. Or timed it out, who knows.

 

[geise]

Nice! I played some last night. Will play more tonight and snap some pics. I am playing the Arcade version.

 

[gusmoney]

gusmoney - 33,500 - 2 - A - Famicom


A pretty crappy score for as much as I have been playing this title to participate in this SoTM but its what I got so far.

 

[geise]

From a few runs this past weekend. End of level 3 then I fail. Arcade. Ship Type A

 

[Kid Panda]

So I put some time in this last night. First couple of loops went ok. The loop three got real ugly. I died during the crystal area and it took me 10 men to move on. Loop four and five showed some faster enemy bullets and the boss rush felt that the bosses were moving a little faster. After that loop though no death clears until the last stage of loop 8. I beat the last boss and played some of loop 9 and then just stopped. I think I'm done with this game now.

Kidpanda - 7,042,889 - 9-2 - A - Famicom

 

[geise]

Time to move to arcade then.
I have no fami to even try and if I did it would take me way to long to reach that score. Nice run. You have patience lol!