Nemesis (Game Boy) - No Death Run on Hard (3 Loops Clear)
51Full run of Nemesis (ネメシス) for the Nintendo Game Boy, playing on hard mode. I cleared 3 loops without dying and then stopped playing. This was played using the Super Game Boy 2 (with grey-scale palette) on a real SNES, using the real cart.
Stage Listing:
00:00 - Intro
00:14 - Stage 1
03:08 - Stage 2
06:55 - Stage 3
10:25 - Stage 4
13:35 - Stage 5
16:06 - Final Boss + Ending
17:33 - Loop 2 Start
34:39 - Loop 3 Start
Nemesis is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Ultra (aka Konami) exclusively for the Game Boy. I'm not sure why they decided to name it Nemesis because this is really a Gradius game, albeit with significant changes from the other versions. Nemesis is also one of the few games I owned back in the early 90s when the original Gameboy was in it's prime, so I've always enjoyed it.
As for the gameplay, the powerup system works exactly like in most other Gradius games. Some enemies will drop capsules, which when collected, lets you cycle through the gauge on the bottom of the screen, which has selectable power ups: Speedup, Missile, Double, Laser, Option, and Shield). I tend to play with Double most of the time instead of Laser, as the shot coverage is just better and the extra damage from laser isn't really useful.
When I first started playing Nemesis again I was surprised with the way the ship controlled, it seemed incredibly laggy to me, and very difficult to control compared to other versions of Gradius. At first I figured maybe there was added input lag with the Super Game Boy or something but after dusting off my old Gameboy I found it to play the same there to. The bottom line is that the controls will take some time getting adjusted to. While not game breaking it does drag the game down a bit.
Thankfully, other than the controls, everything else about the gamer is excellent for a portable shmup. The graphics are crisp and clean, the stages are nice and varied, and I was pleasantly surprised with the size and scope of the bosses. This is one aspect where Nemesis simply outshines the original Gradius by a substantial margin, no longer do you just fight the same ship over and over again every level.
Where the game really shines is the soundtrack, I was shocked with how good it is, even if most of the tunes are rehashes of existing music from the series. It's better than the NES version and even the arcade Gradius, it's that good.
As for the difficulty, there are 2 settings (1=normal, 2=hard), I decided to stick with hard. It is unfortunate that even after looping the game, the difficulty doesn't seem to get any harder, so if you can clear 1 loop on hard, you can probably play the game forever, assuming you don't die. If you do manage to die the old checkpoint system is back to haunt you again in this game too. Thankfully, it's not nearly as brutal is in other Gradius games, and there are lots of powerups to be found.
In closing I think that Nemesis is a game with tremendous production values for a portable title, and all fans of the Gradius series should give it a shot.
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