Gradius Nintendo

A side scrolling arcade shoot 'em up and the first in Konami's famous series. The game became famous for its extreme difficulty and varied power-ups.

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Konami

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arcade, horizontal, powerup, shootemup, shooter, sideways

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Gradius (known in the arcade release outside of Japan, as well as some home releases, as Nemesis) is a sci-fi side-scrolling shoot-'em-up developed and released by Konami for arcades in 1985. A spiritual successor to the studio's earlier 1981 game Scramble (and originally planned as a sequel to it), Gradius puts players in control of the starfighter Vic Viper as they navigate through fantastical, yet hostile, areas in the star cluster Bacterian while defeating alien ships and upgrading their ship using power-ups. The name refers to the planet Gradius, which is being under attack by Bacterian forces commanded by the super space fortress Xaerous. The game is known for its unique Power Meter, which allows players to choose which upgrades they want for their ship based on how many Power Capsules they collect. Along with numerous sequels and spin-offs, the game received multiple home ports, as well as inclusions in multiple compilations. The Japanese version of the game utilized the company's proprietary "Bubble System" hardware, which allowed arcade operators to change games using special bubble memory cartridges. International versions were released in standalone PCB format and includes some difficulty tweaks (increasing its overall difficulty while allowing for quicker power-up recovery on new lives). It also received a North American exclusive alternate arcade release for Nintendo's NES-based VS. System hardware (as VS. Gradius).