Gradius ReBirth. Blast your way through levels filled with alien spaceships and otherworldly creatures in this retro side-scrolling shooter. Pick your weapons. Read what all the top critics had to say about Gradius ReBirth for Wii. Gradius ReBirth–as the title states–intends to update the franchise for modern. Oct 14, 2009 The changes listed below are available in Japan, but I can’t confirm yet if update can be downloaded in other countries yet. * Added BGM * Score.

New games developed in a retro style are all the rage these days (see Mega Man 9, or Retro Game Challenge). Is a new entry in the long-running shooter series, made to look like a relic from the 16-bit era.

It doesn't bring anything new to the 'shoot everything you see' genre, but retro gamers may find it to their liking. ReBirth features very similar level design to the classic games on arcade, NES, and SNES, and you'll find many of the same enemies like the Easter Island heads. There are also similarities to Lifeforce, which was the sequel to the original Gradius. The bosses are new, and there are some pretty interesting ones waiting for you at the end of each level.

As always, you can customize your ship, the Vic Viper, by choosing your power-ups. Certain enemies will drop capsules that can be spent to buy missiles, lasers, and the famous 'option,' which flies alongside your ship and doubles your firepower. The better weapons require more capsules, so there is always give and take between powering up early and saving up for the big guns. At the beginning of your game you can choose from three ship types that will determine what sorts of power-ups you have at your disposal: multipurpose, wide area attack, or high attack power (but limited range). The bosses are one of the highlights of Gradius ReBirth.

One thing that is missing is multiplayer, though. Gradius let two players alternate turns, and Lifeforce had glorious co-op. ReBirth offers neither. The only communal aspect of the game is the online leaderboard for the score attack mode. Gradius is one of the slower shooters out there, having more in common with R-type than Raiden or Ikaruga.

When you start a new game the Vic Viper will feel incredibly sluggish. Once you grab a few power-ups you can increase your speed, but even then the levels scroll by slowly and most enemy fire lazes across the screen. That's not to say the game is easy. On the contrary, I find the slower pace to be more difficult and unforgiving. Those looking for a challenge will find one here. ReBirth might be too hard for its own good.

This game will frustrate you. When you lose a life you are sent back to a checkpoint, which means a lot of replaying the same sequences. It is possible to power-up the Viper so that it is near indestructible.

If you are shot down, though, you lose everything you've gained and the ship is basically useless. It's particularly bad when you've reached a boss but rather than starting you right from the encounter the game sends you way back to the middle of the level. Asme Ptc 19.3 Software more. The good news is once you've reached a checkpoint you can always begin a new game from that point, and there are five levels of difficulty you can choose from that all use the same save data. That means if a particular level is giving you trouble on normal you can bump the difficulty down to easy, beat the boss, then continue on normal with your manhood (mostly) intact. There is quite a bit of slowdown apparent when things get chaotic onscreen. If you're a grumpy old man named Craig Harris, that might be a problem for you.