PC Engine Longplay #29: Gradius II: Gofer no Yabō

Channel:

HIDEFACES

Subscribers:

23,500

Published on January 23, 2018 11:14:47 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahtUxdcARrs

Game:

Gradius II (1988)

Duration: 30:59

535 views

17

Gradius II never saw availability in North America until the release of Gradius Collection for the PlayStation Portable, instead, the Life Force conversion of Salamander was marketed as the sequel to Gradius. The Turbo Grafx-16 port was released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on October 20, 2008 at a cost of 900 Wii Points.

The player returns as the role of the pilot of the Vic Viper spaceship to battle the second onslaughts of the Bacterion Empire, under the new leadership of Gofer, the giant head.

Gradius II has kept the gameplay from the original game, but infused it with enhancements brought from the spin-off, Salamander, and the Japanese arcade release of Life Force. This is primarily evident in two of the weapons configurations that are selectable.

Another first in the series was the inclusion of special stages, namely:

The "boss rush" (also known as "boss parade" or "boss alley"), levels designed entirely with only boss confrontations.

And the "Speed Stage", a stage (likely inspired by the escape sequence at the end of Salamander) where the game scrolls faster than normal as the Vic Viper tries to maneuver its way through narrow corridors.

This is the first game to feature a new enemy that comes up behind the Vic Viper called the Option Hunter.

While the game was ported to home consoles at the time, none of them were released in the United States.

The game was first ported to the Nintendo Family Computer in 1988. The game comes with Konami's VRC4 mapper chip which enhances the Famicom's video and audio capabilities. This port changed the stage orders, added and removed bosses, swapped or wrote new tracks (some still exclusive to this game) for some stages.

The game was then ported in 1992 to the PC Engine Super CD system. The graphics remained unaltered and one additional stage was added that is similar to the temple stage in the NES version of Life Force and the first stage of Gradius III. Additionally, a sound test was added. It is worth mentioning that it was announced as an upcoming TurboDuo release by Turbo Technologies Inc. in 1992 but was cancelled with no given reason. Had it been released, North American Gradius fans would not have had to wait for Gradius Collection for the PSP or the Virtual Console release of this version.