Ace's Gaming Session - Gradius II for the Famicom Part 3

My no-death run of Gradius II for the Famicom
Gameplay footage recorded off an original Top-Loader NES.

View in high quality here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itww_CedjUo&fmt=18

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Gradius
• II
• NES
• Famicom
• Shoot-em-up
• Shoot
• em
• up
• SHMUP

[turbohusque]

Holy shit! Not only do you kick ass, but so does this game!! Why the hell was this never brought to the US!? This is the best Gradius game on the console...

[Ace9921]

@turbohusque - Simple: Nintendo of America was stupid. Konami used their custom VRC4 mapper chip in Gradius II, but due to Nintendo of America's policy, Konami couldn't use their VRC4 in the cartridge. This policy also caused some Konami games to be downgraded when released in North America, which include Contra(downgraded graphics, missing cutscenes, etc.), Life Force(only one ending and limited to two Options rather than 3 like in Salamander) and Castlevania III(poorer music).

[Ace9921]

Another thing, too: Gradius II was never officially released in North America until Gradius Collection was released for the PSP, which actually contains the PlayStation port of the arcade version of Gradius II found in Gradius Deluxe Pack, which was never released outside of Japan. I'd personally like to own an original Gradius II arcade board, but it's one of the most expensive Gradius arcade boards(don't even get me started on the original Gradius - that thing costs a fortune).

[turbohusque]

@Ace9921

Yes...I know. I've been gaming since the early 80s, and it seems us "Unwashed Heathens" are simply not good enough for great games and (later, after the Nintendo dominated gaming years) color manuals. Personally, I thought the music in Contra was pretty badass on the NES, and I felt the NES version of CV III was superior to that of the Famicom.

Look what Sega did with the Saturn, too. No 4meg RAM cart in the US....bastards.

[Ace9921]

@turbohusque - Many Saturn games never came out of Japan, either. So many Shoot-em-Ups didn't make it to North America including Gradius Deluxe Pack(Gradius and Gradius II), Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus(Salamander, Life Force Japanese version, Salamander 2), Thunder Force Gold Pack 1(Thunder Force II MD and Thunder Force III), Thunder Force Gold Pack 2(Thunder Force AC and Thunder IV), Thunder Force V(yet the inferior PlayStation version was released). That's lame as all hell.