History YMMV / Gradius

** A number of players will stick to the classic Missile-Double-Laser weapon configuration even in games where other weapon options are available, partly out of tradition and partly due to being a BoringButPractical setup [[JackOfAllStats that can handle almost any situation adequately]].

*** Stage 5 is just straight up torture, featuring enemy formations that form in a circle around you and abruptly close in on you, more of the [[EpilepticFlashingLights seizure lights]] enemies from Stage 2, and a section near the end where fast-moving lines of enemies race across the screen and vomit bullets all over the screen no matter how quickly you destroy them. Whereas Stage 3 is just memorization, stage 5 was clearly designed to take players' money.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
** In the SNES adaptation of ''Gradius III'' and in ''Gradius Galaxies'', entering the original KonamiCode (the newer one uses L's and R's in place of Lefts and Rights) doesn't give you a fully powered ship as expected; it just ''[[SelfDestructSequence kills you]]''. Or rather, it ''does'' give you full power at first; in ''III'', the self-destruct version of the code causes the extra powerups to appear, as if daring you to un-pause the game at which point your ship blows up immediately, while in ''Galaxies'' you get three seconds upon un-pausing to enjoy your maxed-out Vic Viper before blowing up, as if the game's saying "Here's your full power ship...''not!''"
** Losing your last life in ''V'' after surviving for 7 stages in a row prompts the announcer to say "What the [[PrecisionFStrike hell]]?!"
** In ''[=ReBirth=]'', after completing the second loop, the fourth wall decides to take a lunch break:
---> '''Dr. Venom''': Hmm...it appears Gaudi's been infected by Bacterians. \\
'''James Burton:''' Yeah, it looks that way. \\
'''Dr. Venom:''' Don't worry, I knew something like this might happen. That's why I invented the Bacterian Buster Program. James, grab that controller over there. \\
'''James Burton:''' ''(holding a [[ConsoleCameo Wii Remote]])'' Like this? \\
'''Dr. Venom:''' It's a masterpiece of programming. It lets you use a game controller to eliminate Bacterians. Just as if you were playing ''Gradius''. \\
'''James Burton:''' Thanks, Dr. Venom. [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight That's exactly what we needed.]]
** In Stage 7 of ''Gaiden'', a black hole is pulling the entire stage into it. While the scenery, enemies, and ''bullets'' get taken into the big black mass of suck behind you, your ship is ''completely unaffected'', other than a strictly-cosmetic shaking animation.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3WjEGqOEqw This video]] showcases two Gradius ROM Hacks: one of ''II'' and one of ''III''. Both of them are laden with all kinds of BulletHell. You have to see it to believe it. Highlights include:
*** [[RunningGag There are times]] when Vic Viper dies [[KaizoTrap RIGHT AFTER defeating a boss]].
*** '''''Gradius II''''' '''(Arcade version) ROM Hack:'''
*** 0:28: The Big Core appears from the left side of the screen and rear-ends Vic Viper.
*** 0:33: "[[AttackItsWeakPoint DESTROY THE CORE. DESTROY THE CORE.]] DESTROY THE CORE. DESTROY THE CORE. [[OverlyLongGag DESTROY THE CORE. DESTROY THE CORE.]]" This goes on until Vic Viper is defeated.
*** 1:32: The Tetran proceeds to [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning spin]] its four [[CombatTentacles arms]] at a lightning-fast speed. Vic Viper can barely even penetrate through its core barriers, let alone the core itself.
*** At the 5:01 mark, a lightning-fast missile appears ''out of nowhere'' and snipes Vic Viper. It's a "blink and you'll miss it" kind of moment.
*** 5:14: The Shadow Dancer decides to quit [[MightyGlacier dancing]] and become a [[LightningBruiser living train]]. "CHOO-CHOOOOOO!"
*** '''''Gradius III''''' '''ROM Hack (both Arcade and SNES versions):'''
*** 7:21: Apparently, the Bubble Eye [[NoSenseOfPersonalSpace does not understand the concept of the term "personal space"]].
*** 7:37: Beacon (exclusive to SNES version) [[BulletHell fills the entire screen]] with blue orbs. Needless to say, that's quite an accurate portrayal of [[HatingOnMonday Mondays]].
*** 7:50: Death MK II [[TeleportSpam teleports erratically all over the place]].
---> [[Music/MCHammer Can't touch this!]]
*** 8:32: Despite this, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Vic Viper actually manages to defeat Death MK II]]. After this, the Crystal Core approaches from the left side of the screen, moving to the right with its CombatTentacles stretched to its sides, [[YouAreAlreadyDead effectively locking Vic Viper in]], as if it was saying, "[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings YOU SHALL]] [[YouShallNotPass NOT PASS!]]"
*** 9:23: It looks like Big Core MK II [[NoSenseOfPersonalSpace does not understand "personal space"]] either.
*** 10:53: Tetran makes another appearance, and it proceeds to spin its arms lightning-fast ''once again''.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LbHEE-oQLQ This other video]], a sequel to the ROM Hack video shown above, showcases a ROM Hack for ''Gaiden''. In the video, all ''sorts'' of shenanigans go down. Gradius, now with more BulletHell! Highlights:
*** The first clip shows the place where Sol is fought... and then Sol SUDDENLY rushes through the screen like a race car! [[{{InUniverse}} In-Universe]], it would have been a [[JumpScare Jump Scare]] for Vic Viper.
*** 0:48: Laser Tetran starts spinning around rapidly while continuously firing homing bombs.
*** 1:41: At the Double Death/Parasite Core fight, the introductory cutscene plays out normally, then all of a sudden, a '''GIANT MESS''' of Death Cores shows up and ''immediately'' bombards Vic Viper with missiles!
*** 3:07: The Triple Core [[ShockAndAwe Electric Boogaloo]]!
*** 3:43-6:11: The [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic chaotic, fast-paced track in the background]] actually fits with the [[BulletHell chaos]] taking place at the moment.
*** 4:26: The Juggler Core decides to be a {{Troll}} and pull one of its body parts right through Vic Viper.
*** 4:56-6:08: None of the bosses or BulletHell seen in this video even compare to the sheer might of the powerful custom-made Neo Core X, the God of All Big Cores. Now how in the name of Ovum are you supposed to defeat '''[[HarderThanHard THAT]]'''?! The utter chaos of this scene, combined with the music, makes it both awe-inspiring and HILARIOUS.
*** 6:16: And if the player were to actually ''defeat'' Neo Core X, two [[ThatOneBoss Heaven’s Gates]] appear from both sides of the screen, and... [[GameOver GAME OVER]] FOR NO REASON?!
*** The very last clip shows Vic Viper reaching the room in which the final boss is fought. At that moment, [[BrickJoke Sol rushes through the screen ONCE AGAIN]]. The following voice clips are heard:
---> Try again.
---> [[MotorMouth 10957457329837573497648466424976491716429799762491767563692358697865975748489293388793874754759434372754757417487582475847584727837438913784837462875829019283987654321]] [[GameOver game over]].

** The ending of ''Neo Imperial'' is heartbreaking; [[spoiler: because [[TheHero Big Core MK-1 Custom]] (the escapee core warship) didn't survive the encounter with the [[BigBad Force Viper]], and afterward its wreckage flies aimlessly in the empty void beyond]]. The BGM playing there is not helping at all.

* TearJerker: The GameOver [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajSlrQvvSJc theme]] from ''Gaiden''. A DarkReprise of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hsi6Fdp_xQ "Sky 2"]], and easily one of the most heart-wrenching themes in the entire series.

** The other contender for "best game in the series" is ''Gradius V''. Among the many innovations it has are an absolutely beautiful [[VideoGame3DLeap leap to fully three-dimensional graphics]], an Option Control mechanic that improves the player's offensive options, up to four shots on the screen as opposed to the traditional two, a grandiose Creator/HitoshiSakimoto soundtrack, and a relatively high degree of content for the price with loops taking an hour and a half each. Unfortunately, this ended up establishing a very tough standard for subsequent ''Gradius'' games to follow. ''Gradius [=ReBirth=]'' was released four years later and got snubbed by many for being [[ItsShortSoItSucks too short]], not having cutting-edge 3D visuals, and not having the movie-like soundtrack despite being arranged by renowned shoot-em-up musician Creator/ManabuNamiki. ''Gradius Collection'' on PSP also got criticism for not including ''Gradius V'', despite the fact that the porting team would've had to make some serious sacrifices to make it work on the PSP's weaker hardware (which sits somehwere between the [=PS1=] and [=PS2=] in terms of overall power).

** E.Laser, R. Option, Reduce Shield, and Full Barrier in ''SNES III''. E.Laser and R.Option combined give you a powerful rotating charged attack that can erase distructable bullets even while charging and can kill most everything in several hits. Reduce shield is the best shield in the series, although it can only negate two hits, it makes your ship, and thus your hit box, ''smaller'', allowing you to slip though most bullets with ease. Full Barrier allows you to refill a partial shield instead of deplete it to bring it back to full.

** Across the series, the Force Field is by far the most commonly-used shield whenever it's available, due to the original Shield being very tanky but also only guarding against frontal attacks and the shields being easy to deplete due to their big hitboxes. While ''Gaiden'' does have the Guard shield which protects against DeadlyWalls and the Limit shield which provides complete invincibility for three seconds, the Force Field is still commonly used even in that game due to its all-around performance. The exception is the SNES port of ''Gradius III'', where the Reduce shield is commonly used instead.

*** 0:33: "[[AttackItsWeakPoint DESTROY THE CORE. DESTROY THE CORE.]] [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound DESTROY THE CORE. DESTROY THE CORE.]] [[OverlyLongGag DESTROY THE CORE. DESTROY THE CORE.]]" This goes on until Vic Viper is defeated.

*** Type E has a variant of the 2-Way Missile in which the missiles actually slide along the ground instead of just vanishing when touching it, and also has the Force Field like Type B does. [[PowerUpLetdown As long as you never use Double or Laser]][[note]]The Double is V. Shot, which fires bullets only up and down, but not forwards. The Laser, the Vector Laser, can pierce all terrain, but it is weaker than the basic gun and it cannot destroy destructible terrain, which can create an UnwinnableByDesign situation in Stage 2 and in the bonus stages[[/note]], it's easily one of the most powerful ships in the game.

** Once you activate a Double or Laser, you cannot revert back to the standard shot without dying. Several ship loadouts throughout the series work better with the basic shot instead of its specialized weapons, meaning that you can be stuck in a difficult or outright UnwinnableByMistake scenario if you take either [[PowerupLetdown "upgrade"]]. The only recourse available that doesn't involve dying is in the arcade version of ''III'', which allows you to use the "Normal" "powerup" in the "!" slot to take back your upgrades ''one at a time''.

** Those who use Type E in ''Rebirth'' stick to normal shots, because the alternatives to it are both terrible: V. Shot fires up and down in a game where most enemies come from the front, and while Vector laser pierces through enemies it's weaker than the normal shot and cannot cut through the destructible walls in Stage 2 and the bonus stages, potentially wedging the player into an UnwinnableByMistake situation.

* GermansLoveDavidHassleholf: Salamander is quite popular in China, because of many Famiclone consoles including said game, there was a mobile remake of the game being developed by Konami Shanghai, but with the studio's closure, the game was ultimately canceled for unknown reasons

* BestLevelEver - Stage 7 of ''Gaiden'', which starts off as a seemingly-innocent volcano stage...and then ''gets gradually sucked into a black hole.'' Too bad it slows down to a crawl on certain PS2 models.

* OlderThanTheyThink: The arcade version of ''Gradius III'' is infamous for not only its [[NintendoHard cruel and unusual difficulty]], but also for not allowing the player to use continues. Many fans mention this as if it's the first or only ''Gradius'' game to disallow continues, but the Japanese versions of the first two arcade ''Gradius'' games, as well as the Japanese ''Life Force'' arcade revision of ''Salamander'', also do not allow continues or buying in extra lives.[[note]]However, the Euroopean versions of ''Gradius'' and ''Gradius II'' (''Nemesis'' and ''Vulcan Venture'', respectively) do allow continues, albeit a limited number for the first game, and other arcade versions of ''Salamander'' allow buying in extra lives while its consumer versions have continues.[[/note]]

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: [[https://youtu.be/9q21PI532m4 "Fire Scramble"]] from ''Gradius III'' sounds just like [[Music/{{Renaissance}} Renaissance's]] [[https://youtu.be/6dH5y0BUXZ4?t=78 "Song of Scheherazade"]].

* BestLevelEver - Stage 7 of ''Gaiden'', which starts off as a seemingly-innocent volcano stage...and then ''gets gradually sucked into a black hole.'' [[GameBreakingBug Too bad it slows down to a crawl on a PS2.]]

* OlderThanTheyThink: The arcade version of ''Gradius III'' is infamous for not only its [[NintendoHard cruel and unusual difficulty]], but also for not allowing the player to use continues. Many fans mention this as if it's the first or only ''Gradius'' game to disallow continues, but the Japanese versions of the first two arcade ''Gradius'' games, as well as the Japanese ''Life Force'' arcade revision of ''Salamander'', also do not allow continues or buying in extra lives.

** ''Gradius Collection'', despite being released on a system with controls that don't lend well to shmups[[note]]The D-pad on the original-model PSP is notorious for being very stiff and not being good with diagonals. Later models remedy this somewhat.[[/note]], does manage to recreate the five games on the collection very accurately, as well as introducing useful tweaks like adjusting hitbox sizes, widening the playfield for ''Gradius I'' and ''II'', and introducing checkpoint saves. All of this ''years'' before Creator/{{M2}} started producing ports with similar collections of features.

*** The ''Arcade Archives'' version, another port of the arcade game, expands stage select to have all stages unlocked from the get-go and introduces save states.

** The other contender for "best game in the series" is ''Gradius V''. Among the many innovations it has are an absolutely beautiful [[VideoGame3DLeap leap to fully three-dimensional graphics]], an Option Control mechanic that improves the player's offensive options, up to four shots on the screen as opposed to the traditional two, a grandiose Creator/HitoshiSakimoto soundtrack, and a relatively high degree of content for the price with loops taking an hour and a half each. Unfortunately, this ended up establishing a very tough standard for subsequent ''Gradius'' games to follow. ''Gradius [=ReBirth=]'' was released four years later and got snubbed by many for being [[ItsShortSoItSucks too short]], not having cutting-edge 3D visuals, and not having the movie-like soundtrack despite being arranged by renowned shoot-em-up musician Creator/ManabuNamiki. ''Gradius Collection'' on PSP also got criticism for not including ''Gradius V'', despite the fact that the porting team would've had to make some serious sacrifices to make it work on the PSP's weaker hardware.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: If counting only mainline games, ''Gradius V'' is widely regarded as a serious improvement over ''Gradius IV'', thanks to various improvements in the gameplay mechanics like giving the player more default firepower, variants of the iconic Options to keep things fresh, a 2-player simultaneous mode, and allowing the player to recover their options when dying (like in the ''Salamander'' games).

* HarsherInHindsight: Most ''Gradius'' games allow the players to destroy Moai statues in some of the stages. In 2008, [[https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/easter-island-icon-vandalized/ a real-life Moai statue was vandalized by a tourist]].
** [[https://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/75550203/vandals-knock-over-lyall-bays-easter-island-statue Another Moai statue was knocked down during the end of 2015]].
** Also in 2020, [[https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/easter-island-moai-destroyed-intl-hnk/index.html a Moai statue was destroyed by a malfunctioning truck]].
* HilariousInHindsight: In ''II'', Gofer introduces himself to you by saying "I am the strongest!" [[Franchise/TouhouProject A certain ice fairy]] would like to challenge that title of "the strongest" in the ShootEmUp genre.

* HilariousInHindsight: In ''II'', Gofer introduces himself to you by saying "I am the strongest!" [[VideoGame/TouhouProject A certain ice fairy]] would like to challenge that title of "the strongest" in the ShootEmUp genre.

*** 8:32: Despite this, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Vic Viper actually manages to defeat Death MK II]]. After this, the Crystal Core approaches from the left side of the screen, moving to the right with its CombatTentacles stretched to its sides, [[YouAreAlreadyDead effectively locking Vic Viper in]], as if it was saying, "[[Literature/LordOfTheRings YOU SHALL]] [[YouShallNotPass NOT PASS!]]"

*** 8:32: Despite this, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Vic Viper actually manages to defeat Death MK II]]. After this, the Crystal Core approaches from the left side of the screen, moving to the right with its CombatTentacles stretched to its sides, [[YouAreAlreadyDead effectively locking Vic Viper in]], as if it was saying, "[[Franchise/LordOfTheRings YOU SHALL]] [[YouShallNotPass NOT PASS!]]"