CiB Let's Try - Gradius V (PS2)
2Gradius V was released on September 14, 2004 as a PS2 exclusive (I am unsure if it was ever released on arcades). It was developed by Treasure (yes, THAT Treasure, of Gunstar Heroes fame) with help from a Japanese company called G.rev, who worked on a bunch of Japanese games I have never heard of. It was published by Konami.
Gradius V is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a Gradius game on the PS2 --- Gradius never really changed that much over the course of its life. It runs very smoothly, looks pretty good, and handles well. As always with these types of games, it is TOUGH - this one is more bullet-hell that anything I've experienced before on the series - so excuse us for playing on very easy.
The only major complaints I would have is that the enemies in the background are very difficult to discern from enemies in the foreground, and, bullets and object tend to blend in to colorful backgrounds. That's why I'll always prefer a simple black background for a shooter like this - why inflate the difficulty with something you can't see? Anyway, thank you very much for watching!