Garudius (Gradius) '95 - Boss Run - Recovery Run - Part 1

To Subscribers - The next portion of the Asterix LP has corrupted... so I'm going to upload this
in the mean time.

In what is clearly an effort to inflict the most pain possible on myself, I've gone and done the insane thing of attempting... recovery runs against Gradius bosses.


What... the heck is Garudius 95?:
It's a fan game, and a damn professional one at that, to the point when I first played it I was convinced it was an actual Konami product. It was created for the Japan only NEC PC98.
It can be found at: http://www.gradiushomeworld.co.uk/dow...

What's a Recovery Run?:
Here's the basic idea: Get to the boss, and then die. Then beat the boss (and.. what parts of the stage it forces me to do.) with the few power-ups you get from the pre-boss checkpoint.

The hardest part about the Gradius series is, when you die, especially to one of the bosses, it's extremely difficult to continue. This is what makes the Gradius series amongst the hardest shoot em up's around.

I'm giving this great game hopefully a bit more video coverage. Enjoy!

As a general rule - the checkpoints in this game are fairly kind, which shows this guy showed some restraint where Konami didn't. XD

Boss Notes:
Hydro-Core:
The first boss to the has quite a few attacks at his disposal but isn't that hard to defeat. During the second phase of the boss he gains tentacles and starts firing even more lasers.
If he survives past this point he'll attempt to rush you and spray the screen full of destructible globs.. of.. water? I guess? He didn't live that long in this video.

Serial-Core:
I like this boss. :)
First phase is almost an exact duplicate of Crystal Core from Vulcan Venture ARC, to the point, much like that version of Crystal Core - you can sit in front of him and he won't move.
Second phase isn't much harder - the laser pattern is easy to weave between and the giant crystal lumps aren't a threat at all.
The third phase, now it gets interesting! You have to weave between his newly acquired shield, to deal damage to him, a nice attack. His laser isn't much of a threat as it has extremely bad aim.

Drastic Tortoise:
His bullet patterns can be tough to weave through, and the hardest part is just hitting the damn thing! You get hardly any power ups to use, and I preferred to take speed over the slow moving missile.
The second phase is much easier - in fact he can't really hit you whilst you're hitting him.

Grand-Core:
Oh dear. :P
Poor fellow - theres a safe spot directly in front of him! Stay there.. and.. well... see the results. XD
Being directly in the middle allows you to avoid most of his attacks, just back off when he eventually tries to ram you. (He should be dead by this point.)

Kougel Burn:
The level this things attached to is absolute hell, at least the boss isn't that hard!
Need to memorize the order of this guy's attacks, most are easy to dodge but his large fireballs certainly aren't - I needed an additional speed up just to avoid them. The secret is to keep moving - these things home onto you for a brief second.
He doesn't have much health - I haven't seen if he has any additional attacks as he never lives past this point.

Mistic (sic) Cicada:
Someone else remembers Lifeforce. :D
Ok, this thing is much harder than it looks. I found a couple of safespots by accident, and.. they definitely help. That eye-blast is nasty.
The second form is when it starts to get difficult. Staying above or below the beetle will let you avoid its spread fire, but you have to guide it as it crosses the screen. The most dangerous attack is the energy shield - it can be hard to avoid if your timing is a bit crap. The beetle also has alot of health - this doesn't help matters.