History VideoGame / Gradius

The last ''Gradius'' video game released was ''Gradius [=ReBirth=]'' (ironically enough) in 2009. After that, ''Gradius'' just quietly went off the radar, outside of the aforementioned ''Otomedius''. The series did get a pachislot spinoff in 2011, the series has cameoed in various other Konami games such as ''Pixel Puzzle Collection'' (a ''VideoGame/{{Picross}}''-like game with puzzles depicting elements from and music lifted from various Konami games) and the ''VideoGame/{{BEMANI}}'' series (mainly in the form of music remixes), and ports of the games get released from time to time (with the latest being ''Arcade Archives: Gradius III'' in 2020), but don't get your hopes up for a new ''Gradius'' game anytime soon.[[note]]Even ignoring Konami's extremely controversial business practices starting in 2015, ''Gradius'' lost its commercial traction after the 1990s, along with the rest of the shmup genre as three-dimensional games became the new norm. However, there may still be a sliver hope that aside on how Konami has calmed down a little on the controversies and at the 2020's have been releasing compilations of their old games that gained ground in the 8-bit era, which was basically their proven golden age (as shown with either ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' or their ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' games), a ''Gradius'' compilation may be possible and your best bet for modern exposure, but even then, it wasn't Konami's top tier defining franchise even in that age, so the chance is still low.[[/note]]

The last ''Gradius'' video game released was ''Gradius [=ReBirth=]'' (ironically enough) in 2009. After that, ''Gradius'' just quietly went off the radar, outside of the aforementioned ''Otomedius''. The series did get a pachislot spinoff in 2011, the series has cameoed in various other Konami games such as ''Pixel Puzzle Collection'' (a ''VideoGame/{{Picross}}''-like game with puzzles depicting elements from and music lifted from various Konami games) and the ''VideoGame/{{BEMANI}}'' series (mainly in the form of music remixes), and ports of the games get released from time to time (with the latest being ''Arcade Archives: Gradius III'' in 2020), but don't get your hopes up for a new ''Gradius'' game anytime soon.[[note]]Even ignoring Konami's extremely controversial business practices starting in 2015, ''Gradius'' lost its commercial traction after the 1990s, along with the rest of the shmup genre as three-dimensional games became the new norm.[[/note]]

The last ''Gradius'' video game released was ''Gradius [=ReBirth=]'' (ironically enough) in 2009. After that, ''Gradius'' just quietly went off the radar, outside of the aforementioned ''Otomedius''. The series did get a pachislot spinoff in 2011, the series has cameoed in various other Konami games such as ''Pixel Puzzle Collection'' (a ''VideoGame/{{Picross}}''-like game with puzzles depicting elements from and music lifted from various Konami games) and the ''VideoGame/{{BEMANI}}'' series (mainly in the form of music remixes), and ports of the games get released from time to time (with the latest being ''Arcade Archives: Gradius III'' in 2020), but don't get your hopes up for a new ''Gradius'' game anytime soon.[[note]]Even ignoring Konami's extremely controversial business practices starting in 2015, ''Gradius'' more or less lost its commercial traction and popularity after the 1990s, along with the rest of the shmup genre as three-dimensional games became the new norm.[[/note]]

The last ''Gradius'' video game released was ''Gradius [=ReBirth=]'' (ironically enough) in 2009. After that, ''Gradius'' just quietly went off the radar, outside of the aforementioned ''Otomedius''. The series did get a pachislot spinoff in 2011, the series has cameoed in various other Konami games such as ''Pixel Puzzle Collection'' (a ''VideoGame/{{Picross}}''-like game with puzzles depicting elements from and music lifted from various Konami games) and the ''VideoGame/{{BEMANI}}'' series (mainly in the form of music remixes), and ports of the games get released from time to time (with the latest being ''Arcade Archives: Gradius III'' in 2020), but don't get your hopes up for a new ''Gradius'' game anytime soon.

* DownerEnding: ''NEO Imperial'' ends with [[spoiler: the Big Core MK-1 Custom escaping the Lars Empire after destroying the Genocide Core, only to be destroyed by Force Viper unaware that it went rogue and was trying to escape. The last we see of the Big Core MK-1 Custom is its wreckage [[DeaderThanDead burning up in the atmosphere of a nearby star]].]] This is the only sad ending in the series.

The PowerUp scheme in ''Gradius'' is unusually involved, and was particularly so for its time -- destroying an entire enemy wave (or special PaletteSwap enemies) drops a glowing token. Collecting tokens advances a counter along a track. The player may elect to purchase the powerup currently pointed to by the counter, which resets the counter to the beginning. Essentially, powerups in ''Gradius'' are currency; this is in contrast to the system later used by ''VideoGame/RType'', where there were multiple types of powerup each with a specific application; other shooters would typically copy one of these two systems. The traditional sequence is Speed Up, Missile, Double (a bidirectional cannon), Laser, Option, and Shield. It is because of ''Gradius'' that "Option" is often used to describe a powerup that provides the player with an AttackDrone.

** ''Nemesis'' for UsefulNotes/GameBoy may or may not be a retelling of ''Gradius'' itself. Further confusing matters is that interquel ''Gradius ReBirth'' appears to be a retelling of it.

** Highly likely because the Gladius Sword in ''[[videogame/VandalHearts2]]'' is a reference to Vic Viper.

* OneManArmy: Except of a few games like ''Salamander'' and ''Gradius V'', even with multiplayer, each player storms the army of spaceships separately.

* NintendoHard: The games are notorious for their high difficulty, due to one particular mechanic: Dying takes away all of your power-ups, leaving you with only the Speed Up highlighted if you had a highlight on the power meter upon death. The game then expects you to pull yourself through a difficult section with no upgrades except maybe a single Speed Up, and it is quite likely that however many lives you have, you will lose them all. Several arcade games, most notoriously ''Gradius III'', exponentially increase the difficulty by refusing to let you continue.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: The Prince of Latis (actually named Lord British, like his fighter)spends much of the Salamander OVA's third episode trying to propose to Stephanie, one of the Vic Viper pilots. In the end however, seeing how she and Dan (the other Viper pilot) work, talk and argue with each other convinces him to step back, believing they make a far better couple. He's not too broken up about it either, as he tells his attendants that he'll fall for some other girl in due time.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The plot of the North American ''Life Force'' arcade, compared to other versions of Salamander / LifeForce. Here, a special bionic SuperSoldier has developed a brain tumor and the player is shrunken down to fly into his body and operate. However, the soldier's immune system is partially composed of machines with human pilots who have strict orders to kill all intruders. The game's story implies that even though you're on the same side, their orders are non-negotiable and you must kill them if need be.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The plot of the North American ''Life Force'' arcade, compared to other versions of Salamander/LifeForce. Here, a special bionic SuperSoldier has developed a brain tumor and the player is shrunken down to fly into his body and operate. However, the soldier's immune system is partially composed of machines with human pilots who have strict orders to kill all intruders. The game's story implies that even though you're on the same side, their orders are non-negotiable and you must kill them if need be.

* CripplingOverspecialization: The classic Shield has more hit points than other shields, being capable of soaking up 10 hits or more depending on the game. Unfortuantely, they ''only'' defend from the front, which means you still must watch out for enemy attacks from above, below, and behind.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: In ''Life Force'' and ''Gradius II'' NES you fly between two solar surfaces and are totally OK unless you actually get struck by a flare.

* AttackDrone: The Options are the UrExample of this trope in gaming, but unlike other future examples, the Options fire the exact same weapon load-out as your ship while they follow you like a snake's tail.

* EndlessGame: Nearly every game will loop back to the first stage upon completing the last with increased difficulty, and will do so until the player meets a GameOver (in practice, anyway; some games do have finite loops, just an absurd number of them such as ''V'' having 255 loops)