This looks awesome. I thought Life Force was Gradius 2. Anyway this looks a good game to pick up.

VC is really pushing the imports now

damn, i've been waiting for this one forever... i'm such a huge gradius fan (to me one of the best game series evaaaaaaaaaaaar) and to have this finally playable in my region would be amazing... i sooooooooo can't wait for this and as soon as vc was announced i was begging for it

looks so amazing... tons of gradius fun for all... i sooooooooooooo need this

DESTROY THE CORE!

Best Gradius ever! In my opinion.

This one looks great but where's my Life force?

This level looks tough but maybe I am just a light-weight. Looks cool too.

I really liked Life Force though I could hardly get anywhere in it. I know I would download that one pretty quickly after it became available if it ever does.

PC-engine or Famicom Gradius II? Since the Famicom version is very nice I´d be happy for either release. I suppose the CD version is more luxerous, so maybe it would be the best choice for VC.

And yes Scarecrow, the levels are ridicolously hard, much tougher than Life Force (I haven´t beaten the Lv2 boss on Life Force though...) Still a fun game.

As much as I love Life Force, I will definitely pony up the cash forthis one. AWESOME!!!

Only 4 stars? Blasphemy. This game is amazing.

This game is only for real shmup fans.
For everyone else it will be WAY to difficult.

Oh yes! I love Gradius games, and having had a butcher's at the video clip on this page, it looks like I won't be disappointed with this installment...

Gradius games doesn't usally intreast me since they sound far too different to the arcade versions. But this version sounds really good if its near arcade perfect.

I own Gradius II on the PSP "Gradius Collection" compilation. Is there any advantidge on the PCE-CD version over the Emulated Arcade version on the PSP?

Nevermind, I got tempted, downloaded it, and it's damn awesome. It's so much better playing it on a large screen! Shame there's no wide screen/large screen support like the PSP game did. but hey the Music is rocking!

So totally gonna get it if it comes to America. So this is the game I've seen on Youtube Videos. It is worth getting.

IMO the PSP version was awful, I really hated it. But after the positivity that this version was getting, I decided to get it. And it's SOOOOOOOO! Much better

I got the Gradius collection on the PSP and was disappointed too. I don't think these games translate too well on a small screen. The D-pad on the PSP made them even more difficult also. Glad to hear you have been won over by the Gradius goodness demon!!

I cant understand why Europe get this before the US. Oh, and the PSP Gradius was fine, plays great on the slim.

To Dazza: Yeah I had to play Gradius Collection with the Analogue Nub, which gets annoying after a while, Luckly I got it on the cheap when I was in the States. It makes me wish that I waited for the smaller PSP. But then again my PSP as it is collects dust and I rarely use it. If they have a good way to port Gradius onto the DS, that would be awesome!

Blimey, I haven't played a Gradius game for years and years. Then again I did only own Nemesis on the Gameboy and Gradius 3 on the SNES.

Just downloaded this and had a quick play, this is going to take some beating but first impressions are a fantastic game.

"Go for the eye!"

D/L this last night, I wasn't going to till I found it was the same version I played in the ye olde arcades.
Man, it's tough...till I found the option screen o_O

this game is really cool,i think better than gradius 3...but at the end its really hard...i think its 900 wii points worth^^

Does anyone else remember Gradius under the name of Nemesis?? I used to have Nemesis 2 on the MSX and that was brilliant...

gofer no yabo episode ii is was avalable only for msx. (gradius 2.5)
check it out. but it seems to suck.
try complete level 8 on this game on normal hehe a challange.
love this game.

I think Nemesis was Gradius on the Gameboy. Wow this is just as confusing as the Wonder boy and Adventure Island games

When is NA going to get this game? Doesn't Konami want the extra money? I've been waiting to play this game since I first played Gradius in 1988!

@Tony. I've played both and yes, Gradius and Nemesis are the exact same thing. The only difference is that one's got less color.

Boy, they really plow ya on the first stage, huh? And I thought the first Gradius was tough! I'm still anticipating the U.S. release (whenever it is), despite how hard it looks.

I hope you Americans get this soon. This is a really cool game although be warned this is really difficult just like R-Type. Still listening to the music makes it worthwhile.

Hurray!

The Gradius series has some of the best music.

what the HELL is a "shmup", i have never heard of that word before

and you guys throw it around like candy

im guessing it has something to do with spaceship shooter games.......am i right?

@juice It's a shortened slang type of word that is short for SHoot eM UP.

Check out shmups.com

awwwwwww.......now i get it

i never really got into those type of games growing up (besides space invaders of course)

i did however download a few onto my vc.......and, well, i regret it because i dont ever play them

i guess its just not my style of game

i would however be interested in a 2 player co-op shmup on the vc.......are there any? cause it just aint fun playing by yourself

cause the ones i downloaded did not

Juice the only Co-Op shmup i an recall on the VC would be Bio Hazard Battle. Just beware that it's not as fun in 1 player.

@ juice
Hold out hope for Life Force. And yes it uses the 30 lives Konami code

Awesome game !! 5 Stars !!!

I played this on the PSP Gradius Collection, and honestly this is my least favorite of the series. The difficulty is unforgiving, and the levels just aren't that interesting. Although, as far as Gradius ports go, this one seems to be the best. Still, I'd recommend Gradius III over this one, even with the slowdown.

Man there is a shit load of sprite flicker going on in that vid and quite a lot of slowdown it seems.

There is a fair amount of slowdown on a certion part of the 2nd stage. Dunno about about the other stages though since I can only manage to get up to level 4.

@Kirk: something about PC Engine makes it hard to capture video from. You can watch Youtubes of a ton of different games and they all look like that. They don't when you're playing them. slangman is right about level 2 though, and it chugs a little in level 1 if you get too many dragons on screen at once.

Me playing Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou - Stage 1 on the Virtual Console Wii:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bti-Dv1XCUU

I never realised this game was so enourous in block size till I was looking to remove some blocks today. Wow

Actually, this game has grown on me recently. It's actually a lot of fun, and much more forgiving than the original Gradius.

I wanna get this before I get Gradius Rebirth. Hopefully, that'll be soon as I really wanna get both!

Not to be a stickler, Kelvin, but Life Force in the arcades was a slightly tweaked version of Salamander that placed more of an emphasis on biological environments and enemies, whereas Life Force on the NES was kind of a mish-mash of ideas from both arcade games that also brought some of its own ideas to the table. This game was still called Salamander in Japan, for some reason, but Life Force everywhere else. I don't think the original Salamander was intended to be any easier than Gradius, either - the level four boss is completely unfair, and most players deal with him by basically manipulating him into not shooting anything, hehe.

The Famicom version of Gradius II never made it to the PAL territories or the US, sadly. It's quite dramatically different to both the arcade and PC Engine versions, and it'd be nice to see this one show up on the VC as well, at some point.