(CC) Gradius: The Interstellar Assault - 3-ALL Clear (572,200 to 4-2)

(Subtitles/CC available for gameplay tips and additional notes)
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
©1992 Konami

As someone who doesn't usually invest much stock in Game Boy games (mainly from the lack of being able to play them myself, outside of emulation), the GB Gradius titles mostly remained under my radar for many years. I knew of them and was aware of them but had never played them outside of briefly trying them out years ago, back when I still used Vizzed.

While Nemesis GB is close to your usual Gradius game, this game... well, it put me off quite a bit when I first played through it. The gameplay is the same as always, but the style is very different. Most Gradius games have you trekking through different kinds of terrain, all featuring stage elements that revolve around the theme of said terrain, be it fire, volcano, plant, Moai, or cell. There's no logical reason to visit the areas you do, and there doesn't need to be. It creates tons of variety and diversity in stage design, making each game feel unique while at the same time all sharing a distinct common ground in structure and design.

Interstellar Assault... doesn't really do this. Each stage does have its own theme behind it, but unlike other Gradius games, they all follow some sort of throughline that revolves around a plot that isn't made totally clear from just the game alone. It sorta strays from the usual Gradius formula in that regard, where all the stages feel connected in a way. On top of that, the variety in terrain that I mentioned earlier isn't really present here. In fact, I'm not even sure what half the stages are supposed to be. Stage 1, for example, starts out with this big chase sequence, then goes through some sort of ruins, and then a section full of some weird organic creatures. Maybe I'm just missing something, but I don't think I get it.

I can't deny that this game does have some creative ideas, though. Namely stage 2, where your ship gets captured, stripped of all its powerups, and imprisoned inside a giant warship, and the goal of the stage is to break out. The final boss is also unique, though again it feels much different than how Gradius final boss sequences usually go (and no, I'm not just talking about how they usually don't attack). And I'm not saying the idea of having all the stages be connected is bad, per se, but when putting this game against all the other Gradius games, it makes it seem a bit out of place.

As far as the game itself goes, it plays alright. The difficulty isn't too ridiculous aside from a couple of bosses that are slightly stupid and some questionable hitboxes. This game does have different weapon configurations you can choose from, even allowing you to mix-and-match Edit Mode style, and you can even switch configurations between each loop. Like with Nemesis GB, the fact that it's on such a system with limited space to work with does require some compensation to be made, but it doesn't hinder the experience all that much. Music is okay--there's some songs that sound really nice, but then there's a few I'm not a super big fan of.

A lot of people proclaim this as one of the better games in the series, and while I understand where they're coming from, and I do appreciate the efforts made to make this game unique, I don't think I can agree with that assessment. It's a weird situation, because it plays like Gradius, but thematically, it doesn't feel like Gradius, at least to me. I'm completely open to the possibility that I'm just wrong, though. Maybe if I play this game a bit more, my feelings toward it will shift. I used to not like the NES games all that much, but when I actually play them nowadays I find myself enjoying them, though I am more familiar with those games than this.

I probably could get a better run than this, but I was pretty tired of playing by Loop 4. I wasn't really trying to recover against the stage 2 boss, I only kept playing out of force. Considering this is only the third day I've had this ROM, though, I'll take a 3-ALL. I did get a couple of encoding overloads near the end of this run, so I apologize for any dropped frames that occur.

Played using the BGB emulator.