Gradius 3

Gradius 3 is for the Super Nintendo and is made by Konami. This game is highly addictive and the music becomes ingrained into your brain once you play it. The thing that makes this game so special is that when you first play it you are probably going to be really bad at it, but it's okay because the game hooks you in after your first death. You just keep playing because you don't want to die and you want to get to the end of the game... sadly I have yet to do this but I am still working on it. Even if you play the game on Easy eventually you will get to the point where there are dozens on enemies on the screen and you carelessly fly your plane into one of them or into a rock. The way this game is set up is you control this little spaceship the flies on the left side of the screen while enemies fly at you from the right side of the screen. At the very beginning of the game you start off with no power-ups, not even a speed boost, so you begin by slowly crawling around the stage. When you defeat enemies sometimes they drop a red orb, these are used to get power ups (Hint! The red enemies and hordes drop these orbs!) but the way they are used in this game surprised me at first. At the bottom of the screen you have a bar with 7 squares and each one gives you a different power-up: Speed Up, Missile, Different Shooting Option, Lasers, Options, Shields and a Final. The trick to these orbs is that you have to get 1+ for each power up you want, like for example if I want a Option I need 5 orbs before I can get it.

From (http://www.gamefabrique.com/storage/screenshots/snes/gradius-3-02.png)

There are many different types of missiles including ones that are heat seeking to either the top or bottom of the screen, spread missiles that explode on contact, and normal missiles. Different shooting options mean like having a double shot that has a bullet that goes up and straight or even behind and straight, you can't have this with a laser. Lasers are some of the most important upgrades (besides the speed boost) in the game because lasers can travel through solid surface and are stronger than regular bullets; there are several different types of lasers too that include ripple, twin laser, a thin laser that cuts through the screen and even a laser that you can charge. Options in this game are like the little red spheres that follow you in R-Type; they can take as many hits as you want and they provide extra fire power so these things are amazing. There are different types of options too that include ones that follow you in a line, ones that form around you in a V formation and ones that spin around you. Shield is obvious but there are also different types of these too, there is a spinning shield, a force field and one that reduces your size. The Final is just kind of a last thing, you can get another Option, a force field, or the Mega-Crush which destroys everything on the screen.

(This is not me in this video, but here is an example of a perfect run through on the Hard difficulty! Video belongs to owner.)

I picked up this game at a local game shop near me called Game X-scape and for anyone that lives near Asheville or knows of it you can find the store on Patton Avenue! The prices are great and so is the selection! I know it's been a while since I posted but hopefully I will post more. Letsa'go!