RF Generation Message Board

We started the RF Generation Shmup Club in June of 2018, hoping to expand the site's appeal, and broaden the Community Playthrough section of the forum. We have seen new members join, a podcast develop, and a lot of enthusiasm as a result of this. We started with the classic R-Type, from Irem, because it's a well regarded, iconic shooter, that has stood the test of time, and is still loved today. We followed that up immediately in July of 2018 with a classic that partially served as an inspiration, the original Gradius, by Konami. Now, in the final month of the 1st full 12-month period of the Shmup Club, we bring it full circle.

For May, 2019, we'll be playing Gradius III. Not only will we be looking at the SNES and Super Famicom home conversions of the game, but we'll also be examining the arcade game. As of now, there are 2 solid, affordable ports of the arcade original. One is in the form of Gradius III & IV on the PlayStation 2, and the other is the solid inclusion of the game in the Gradius Collection for PSP. Regardless of which iteration you play, this shoot-em-up will challenge you, with its legendary difficulty. Do you think you're ready to jump in the Vic Viper, and take on the Bacterion Empire once again? Test your mettle with us, in May 2019, and join in for Gradius III!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
EZ Racer
Duke.Togo
zoydo
Normatron
Jam Master J
dtungsten
Crabmaster2000
VicViper_Mk2
Ser Flash (via Twitter)
Nefarious Wes (via Twitter)
Pondering Ghost (via Twitter)

High Scores:
Arcade (Normal):
1. 136,590 - zoydo
2. 99,040 - dtungsten

Super NES:
1. 641,500 - VicViper Mk2
2. 530,700 - Ser (Super Famicom version, 1CC)

Kingdom Hearts isn't a shmup.......unless we are just playing gummy ship stages!!!

Uno dos tres

LOL! No, there will be no Kingdom Hearts in the Shmup Club! Guess again :P

I'm in on SNES

I'll squeeze on some Gradius III for sure. I need all the slowdown I can get.

Not the biggest Gradius fan myself, but i'm in anyway. Will play on PS2 or maybe get me a cheap SFC-copy.

Welcome aboard, everyone! Let's give the Bacterians what for!

I will post here as well just in case I didnt do it right on Twitter. I will work on the SNES and the PSP versions if that's fine. I need to take a small break from rpg's and and games with the word "Towers" in it.😁

Happy to have you back in action, Normatron! Glad to see you'll be playing SNES and Arcade versions, and will look forward to reading your thoughts on the differences between them.

Count me in. I’ll be playing Gradius III both on the Super Nintendo and the PS2 arcade version.

Excellent! Welcome aboard, sir :D

I believe I have this on the PSP,  would like to participate.

Hey, finally got you on board! Happy to have you here, dude, and glad you came to participate :D

Starting off the month much stronger than I had anticipated!

[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/Yl31aNTl.jpg[/img]

This is the SNES version, on default difficulty.

Thought that after work I would get on the game to calm down before bed, but that did not work in my favor. I was debating on what difficulty I should play on and I know I have beat this game many times in the past but I remember that it was always on easy. so I am going to stay on normal for now and WOW! if you die in the game you can almost call it quits unless somehow you are able to get past everything with limited firepower.

I did get past the Dual Headed Fire Dragon but not much farther after that. Needless to say I left the game not calm at all but angry and could not sleep for 2 more hours.
This score is for the SNES version.

Wow! Sorry you lost sleep, Normatron, but amazing showing so early in the month! There will be stiff competition this time around :D

Played a few runs on PS2 yesterday. So here's my first score for Arcade mode:

[img width=500 height=375]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46972423804_e76ae8b7a0.jpg[/img]

@zoydo - how far did you get with that? Seems like that's at least Stage 2, if not 3.

@Normatron - I'm comin' for ya!
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/BuTgqrel.jpg[/img]

@MetalFRO: sorry, i forgot to mention that. It was just Stage 2 and i played with the #4 weapon select.

Another late night gradius 3 run. Played for quite awhile and found 3 of the bonus stages and tried to incorporate going through them in my playthrough of the game. Turns out the only thing good to come out of it is getting around 15 to 20 extra ships. My score didnt change to much from before. If you can grab all the point pickups through the stages you may be able to come out ahead but you got to be quick and careful while doing it.

Score from yesterday evening's Gradius III play. I spent all evening finding a groove, and finally got to, and defeated the plant boss, but didn't survive much past that.
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/nBOFiAul.jpg[/img]

I played some Gradius III on PSP over lunch, and managed to get nearly to the end of Stage 2:
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/bzx4tU8l.jpg[/img]

Continuing to inch forward in the game. I managed to reach Stage 7, the dreaded speed trap! I'll need to watch some runs of that stage, to get a better idea of how to properly route it. But I did bump up my score slightly:
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/hN0AOuBl.jpg[/img]

Just a heads up, and a bit of a topic for discussion, but there's someone working on a ROM optimization for the SNES version of Gradius III, to remove the slow-down. It's known as SA-1, and it's pretty impressive so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmJyQiL9wYg

Here's my score for PSP-version (Stage 2, weapon select D).

[img width=500 height=294]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47018998904_2e9ee86479.jpg[/img]

It seems like the default settings of the PSP-version are slightly easier than on PS2, but i need to double check that.

Edit:
checked that out: PSP default difficulty is on 3, PS2 on 4.

Had been busy enough that I hadn't really put time into this since the first few days of the month. Even then, I hadn't passed level 2 on Normal (I did get to the Plant Boss on Easy).

Plugged in today, and tried Normal again, with fairly low expectations. But then got on a monster run, and made it to the Speed trap.

I do like how the game doesn't have a lot of cheap moments, at least so far (other the option hunter)

Nice score, EZ Racer! That's pretty awesome progress, I'd say!

I forgot to take a photo of it with my camera, so here's a screen capture from my stream last night, showing my best so far:
[img width=640 height=360]https://i.imgur.com/V9Vp6Rjl.png[/img]

And here's the stream, in case anyone's interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkRvHJ16M0A

I managed to get through the speed trap stage and through most of the boss rush, only dying on the last boss of Stage 8, because he rushes you, and I had no shield/reduce left to protect me.

Well, I think I took a step back as I for some reason can't beat my own high score. Well played MetalFRO. I'm moving on to the arcade version now but i will come back strong at the end of the month to try and reclaim the hight score (speaking in my best evil monologing voice)

Did some progress on the PSP-version yesterday:

Stage 3 - Weapon Select A

[img width=499 height=291]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/32909257717_91880d98ca.jpg[/img]

@Normatron - yeah, don't get discouraged, I do the same thing. I make progress, then start to play horribly, then find a groove again, and move forward. Seems like it's a constant yo-yo effect with shmups for me.

@zoydo - nicely done! That's going to be a tough score to beat, considering how difficult the arcade original is.

SNES Version (On Normal):

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/AKquu8t.jpg[/img]

I've only been able to make it to the Stage 3 boss in the Arcade version so far. It's very hard.

This is from my 3rd attempt:

[img width=640 height=480]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/32917739537_d4cea569df_z.jpg[/img] (https://flic.kr/p/S9Q28p)

Gradius has never been my favorite style of shmup. It's so crazy hard to recover after a death and get your ship beefed up again. Especially at certain points in the game if you die it's just so brutal. I'm pretty sure I can one life this game with a couple more tries though since as long as you get beefed up it's pretty hard to die when you know a few of the traps to watch out for. It's also got some mean design like near the final area when the roof and the floor close in on you.

I've been using the custom ship build and going with Hawk Wind, Tail Gunner, C Laser, Reduce and Mega Crush. Tried the shields on a run, but the reduce is more my style. Love that smaller hit box.

The C laser can destroy bosses very quick. I agree there are a couple of parts where memorization is needed especially in the last stage with the shadow walker.  The speed trap isn't bad as long as you have at least three speed powerups. The slowdown makes this game a lot easier than it should be.

I managed to get to Stage 9, to the dual walker dudes, but couldn't quite crack that. I did, however, get a nice new high score:
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/ppsyJ90l.jpg[/img]

However, Ser Flash, of Studio Mudprints / Bullet Heaven is the one to beat right now! He managed to 1CC the game, and got a pretty good score in the process, per this tweet:
https://twitter.com/Serraxor/status/1128821468215877632
[img width=700 height=393]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6phIrmXkAIwdbu.jpg[/img]

I haven't been able to beat my PB yet, but wondered if anyone else changes the button alignment for gameplay? I switch to Y as the firing button and B as the powerup button, and it feels a little more natural.

This'll be my last go at the game. I really dislike several thing about Gradius/Lifeforce/Salamander but the thing I hate the most and I would probably put it quite high if I were to ever make a list of worst game mechanics of all time is the areas with wall you shoot and then they reassemble behind you. Infuriates me. I did had a great run up to the very final area and then those walls started popping up and just sapped away any fun I was having. I was probably less than 30 seconds from the end too. Does anybody like that part of Gradius?

[img width=700 height=525]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47081719344_0beb66bb5b_o.jpg[/img] (https://flic.kr/p/2eJs7RN)

This was on easiest difficulty, trial mode on PSP, so it doesn't count for anything competitive, but I made it to the boss of level 3.

Hello guys, I watched GameboyGuru's stream on Gradius 3 and learned of the Shmup club. Gradius 3 was the 1st game a friend of mine gave me, who's also a big shmup nut. Even now I fire it up every 2 days to keep that rhythm going and listen to those timeless soundtrack.

For those of you who finds that recovery after a death is too difficult, here's a little tip I shared with Guru. Choose the Convert life to option powerup (the one directly above full barrier) It converts your extra lives (up to 4) into options, instantly boosting your firepower considerably. To do the math with just 7 power chips you'll save the need to get 20 for that 4 options, and then you only need 2 speed, missile, double/laser for a total of 4 power chips to reach full power. Of course to use this effectively you'll need to build up your life stock, best way is to go into the 5 bonus stages and collect the points and 1-up chips littered around.

Anyway, this is done on Normal, I'd play it on arcade difficulty if only I didn't have to break my thumb mashing the A button 16 times a second just to unlock it. Cheers.

[img width=640 height=320]https://i.ibb.co/dLS0X3s/20190519-092750-HDR.jpg[/img] (https://ibb.co/fnbYZKV)

I haven't yet, but that might actually help me with my new strategy, so I might have to try that!


I don't know anyone who likes that part of Gradius. I know I certainly don't. I wouldn't let it discourage you, though. Great score, and great showing!

Great scores, dtungsten and VicViper_Mk2! I really appreciate you guys jumping in and participating! Vic, you're definitely the one to beat t this point, at least on the SNES version on Normal!

Difficulty 1 Easiest, Beginner mode, finished in one life. Wait level 2.

Congrats on the clear, dtungsten!

Haven't had much time with kids and such, but snuck in a quick run. Nothing too impressive, but I was experimenting with the C. Laser. The hit box on it is very weird, and you can definitely see that where you have to cut through the dirt and boulders. It doesn't even consistently drill a straight line.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/FHi32Yi.jpg[/img]

Score #3 was on normal difficulty level 4, beginner mode.

Difficulty level 3, easy. Completed beginner mode with no deaths. Score #2

Gradius 3 has continued to grow on me throughout the month. Died on the final boss of the stage 8 boss rush. I dabbled in this one as a kid but had never put serious time into it, and boy was I missing out. It's tough, but it feels like one of the most rewarding games in terms of progression. There's good variety of levels, and there's enough powerups to continually build upon. I'm trying to remember how many games before this had a customizable powerup system, it's a welcome feature.

I also love all the little extras in the game. The secret stages and ways to manipulate certain powerups. This has been one of the most enjoyable shmup club months for me.

And I have to add one last comment. This was a launch title, part of arguably the best launch in terms of how the games aged. Like it's other snes launches, great music, great graphics, and even though there's slow down, I really don't think it detracts from gameplay, in fact at times it helps.

(Sorry the pic doesn't show the score the best, tried three times to get a pic and this is the only one that came out)

Great scores, everyone! Definitely loving this participation, and all the good feedback on the game. I'm with you EZ Racer - I had kind of dismissed this as a hard game I'd never be any good at, but I've found myself not only enjoying the challenge, but with reasonably consistent progression, I've found that it's difficulty curve might be the most forgiving and organic of any Gradius title. I'm really enjoying the SNES game, and I could see myself going back to it more than I ever thought I would.

Also, Ser Flash of Studio Mudprints, who has been playing the game alongside us this month, gave RF Generation a huge shout-out in his review of Gradius III that just debuted today, so I thought I'd share it with everyone, in case you're not subscribed to his channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ta0s-h1Zks

Comment for the show:

For me, Gradius III made the Super NES such an exciting console to own when my older brother finally got it around 1995. Although I had played the first Gradius on the NES several years prior, Gradius III really grabbed me with it's familiar Konami start-up chime, the awesome Vic Viper launching sequence, and the upbeat music that plays on the title screen.

The game's difficulty was just right- challenging enough to keep me on my toes, but also fair enough to keep me coming back to play it and try to improve. I loved the colossal bosses and their laser patterns (especially the stage 3 boss) and the Moai stage that just seemed insane at the time.

But what I loved best about Gradius III was the music that the series is known for. It had that signature Konami sound you wouldn't find anywhere else, and I loved how the upbeat and dramatic music score has been a fixture of the series in each Gradius game.

I prefer the SNES version over the arcade original which is super tough, even on the easiest setting. That being said, I surprised myself in my playthrough recently and made it well past the 3D turbo bonus stage! Never accomplished that prior to now. And I have you guys to thank for covering this game and thereby getting me to try it again and succeed! Love the show! Here are my scores below:

Arcade
[img width=480 height=640]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47937281776_8638af6e4f_z_d.jpg[/img]


Super Nintendo
[img width=480 height=640]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47940155787_b8f6c0b58a_z_d.jpg[/img]

I got me a cheap SFC-copy of the game and gave it a try yesterday.

It went quite good, i took a few tries on the Stage 3 Boss, but luckily the game gives you enough power ups to get back on track quick.
In Stage 5 that a-hole enemy stole all of my options, so i lost a live or two there also.
After all i made it to the Stage 6 Boss, but i didn't have enough lives left to learn his attack pattern.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47956037653_d5776067fd.jpg)

Great showing, you two! Impressive score in the arcade original, Jam Master J! That's quite an accomplishment, given how insanely hard the game is. Which difficulty did you play the arcade version on for that run? I managed to reach the 3D bonus stage a few times last night on "easiest" and couldn't manage to get through it, but even on "easy" it was super difficult to really get very far. There's just so much going on. It really is a game you have to memorize, and that means lots of trial and error to find the right path through a level.

Also, I'm not sure exactly who started it, but apparently today is #GradiusDay on Twitter, so anyone who hasn't put time into the game in a couple days, now's the perfect opportunity!

I forgot to post this a week and a half ago, but this was from my stream on the 18th. I believe it's my highest Gradius III SNES score so far:
[img width=640 height=366]https://i.imgur.com/dIHzsM1l.png[/img]

Still not the highest, but I thought I should at least document my best legit 1-credit score thus far.

So I finally got a chance to sit down and play the PSP version of the game. There is alot of difference between the 2 games. I enjoy far more but that is probably due to the PSP being to small for my hands. Both games from the ones I played both had slowdown but the SNES was the worst of the 2, but I didn't consider that to be a problem for me. And the boss definitely have somewhat different patterns.  There are different types of enemies you run into on the arcade and I must say that I missed my V option formation on the arcade version as well. I played on normal the entire time on the SNES version and the arcade I start on difficulty 3 and had to knock it back to 2 just to get anywhere. The arcade you can clearly tell that it was a quarter muncher (as most arcade games can be).

This is my score on difficulty 3 for the arcade version.

And this is mine on difficulty 2 on the arcade.

I may try a little more if I can but I had alot of fun with this one. I also had fun watching off and on GBG's streams on his YouTube channel.  Hope to get in to another challenge in the future.  And if you do gyruss you know I will be ready to throw down some high scores. :-)

I got to the Moai stage on the top 2 scores. I attached a screenshot of the settings, too.

Good job everyone!

I have some final thoughts:

As i already said i'm not the biggest Gradius-fan, but i have to say playing Gradius III was way more fun than i expectet!

I regret i didn't start earlier with the SNES version, it's more accessable and forgiving than the Arcade version. Even though it has some serious technical issues (sometimes icouldn't even see were sprite of the Vic Viper is located on the screen). I feel like i could have done some good progress, playing it a little longer.

The Arcade version might be the best example for Gradius-Syndrome i could imagine. When you lose one life you're done. It's nearly impossible to get back on track after you died one time. The best thing you can do wih the remainig ships, is to try to get as many points as possible before something kills you.

What really annoyed me about the SNES version, is the enemies that steal your options. Not because it makes the game more challenging, but because it seems that they only created them to get control of the lag somehow. xD

What i really loved about both versions is the music! Great Soundtrack, like always in Konami games.

The option hunters are in the arcade version, too. I've not seen them show up until the Moai stage.

Oh, ok. Didn't get past Stage 3 in the arcade version... xD

This makes the arcade version even more evil.

Thanks everyone for participating in the June play-through of Gradius III! I feel like it was a really successful month! We're recording tonight for the podcast episode, so here's the question I'd like to ask everyone:

With the advent of the SA-1 mod, which removes slowdown in the SNES version, what else would you change about the SNES version of Gradius III, other than the slowdown?

I loved what Lightening Force did with the powerups upon death. I could see Gradius III doing something similar, maybe instead of losing all powerups, you lose one level of each, in essence losing missile and laser, but keeping all but one option. Or possibly letting you choose where to have the power bar start upon respawning.