Its great that America gets random import weeks whereas we have to wait for Hanabi. I was expecting these two to come to America soon. Enjoy Gradius 2!

Gradius II is a nice addition.

I was wondering when Gradius 2 would be coming. Now if only Rebirth would make its way here as well.

Edit: Hmm, looks like someone gave me an avatar. My thanks goes out to whoever did it.

This is great news for me. I have been waiting for Gradius II for a while.

Very sad not to see Dracula X up there. T_T Oh well, maybe next month. Anyway I called that these games would come out in October, so props to me I guess. ^^'

Yawn. A crappy boxing game and another shooter. Wow.

These ain't my cups of tea. Oh well, less games for me mean more catch-up time.

No suprise. While Digital Boxing sounds meh Gradius II is one of the best shooters with great music.

Unless Konami and Hudson surprises us, it looks like there is no Halloween treat in the form of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood.

@ Bass X0
Yeah, but we generally get them first.

Sweet Gradius 2. I thought it would be out this month.
Also I am sure Castlevania 3 will be our Halloween release (of course I said that about Splatterhouse 2 )

Boo Digital Champ! Yay Gradius II!

About time. I've been wanting to try Gradius 2 for a while now. I wonder if Life force on NES could be coming eventually? I sure hope so. That was probably my favorite shooter back then.

@Link79
Yes! Lifeforce gives the smackdown to all NES shooters

Fewer and fewer games, as expected, at least Gradius II will finally be out of Japan.

I am definitely interested in Gradius II even though I have yet to beat the first one.

Gradius II is a pretty good schmup right? Wonder what other VC we'll get this year...

I wish they would release Salamander.

Have any of you guys ever played Hellfire for turbo grafx?
It's another shooter that I'd kinda like to try. I watched some videos and it looks awesome! It was never released in the states so do you think it might get imported to the U.S. Wii shop?

Gah, for some reason I had a faint hope of seeing that Super Darius on here. Oh well, most of these seem okay too, except I don't think that boxing game would be very high on my list, and I already have Gradius II, and it's my least favorite of the series.

If anything I'll might Gradius II but not Digital Champ. That game looks too odd for me. But have fun to anyone who does get the game. Also too bad for you EU gamers who don't get any VC games. But have fun with Mega Man 9!

The Gradius II screenshots look quite impressive. Myself, I'm not a huge shmup fan, the only game of the genre I'll get is Ikaruga if I find it on ebay at the right price.

More TurboGrafx goodness

i just want mario golf.....NOW

Not very exciting, all the games I want aren't even announced yet.

The more unwanted games that get released, the quicker we'll get to the games you want released.

@ Bass X0: That's a good point you have there. Hopefully, however, the games we want get released as soon as possible. But I don't want all of them released in about 1-4 months because then what other games can we look forward to once all the games we want get released?

@classicmike- I agree but at the same time, we've had VC for 2 years and only gotten about half of the most wanted games. Not all at once? Sure, but (with the exception of the last month) we could have had better. Some N64 love would be nice. How about Custom Robo 1 and 2 (N64) for US and Europe?

Ok This really pisses me off. Here we wait for months on end for some real games Like "castlevania rondo of blood" to show up and they keep screwin us over with these wack a** games that no one even cares about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just because you don't care about them doesn't mean other, less annoyingly whining people, don't.

Digital Champ reminds me of Wii Sport's boxing game. I loved that one, maybe this'll be good too.

Yeah, S@GE. I want Rondo of Blood at least as much as you do (and I'm one of the biggest Castlevania fans you will ever meet), but Gradius II is something I've been wanting since it showed up elsewhere.

Also, you got a "real game" last week. It was called Mega Man 9, and it's one of the best games I've played in years. Fewer games nowadays I would be willing to call a "real game" half as much as that.

When I was a kid, I mostly rented and borrowed games and I was lucky to actually own a new one every year.

You can't honestly be whining about having no games to play in months. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain you are the kind of person who is downright impossible to please. If you want RoB so dang much, go emulate it or buy a PSP.

We've been getting some very good games lately. Once we get Rondo of Blood, you'll just find something else to complain about, especially if Super Mario RPG, Ys Book I & II, Mega Man 9, Gradius ReBirth, and Gradius 2 aren't good enough for you.

I'll be honest though, I may have means to play whatever Genesis games I want on the Wii, but I still want to see Herzog Zwei show up. Unfortunately, that's far less likely than any Konami game on any Virtual Console supported system, so I should be the one crying.

Whats with the US/NA catch up stuff? How about the europe catch up for ninja gaiden 2 and 3 and a few others. Puppet master, I'll own up, I've been winging the last few days, but sadly for me, I'm not as avid a retro gamer as many others, so I'm after specific titles from my childhood etc. But realistically, there should be a games slowdown at the moment (even though there have been solid weeks for the past month) because you would think nintendo would release great games prior to christmas to encourage children to beg wii points cards off either santa claus or their parents.

Do children under 10 read this??

Finally Gradius II. Arguably the best Gradius prior to Gaiden. I would've bought Cho Aniki, but I've been saving points and fridge space for this.
edit: Whoa, why is Conker my Av? I hate Conker.

Just to note, I decided to play the collection again, and yeah Gradius II is definitely my least favorite in the series. It's not bad, it's just not as good as the rest of the series. Even IV, which is generally considered the worst in the series( and is my second-least favorite), was more enjoyable. That's actually kind of funny to say, since the first level of G4 was pretty much exactly the same as the first level in G2, the only difference being that G2's floating suns with the dragons coming out of them were giant liquid-metal globuals in G4, which protruded towards your ship as it drew close to them, theorectically making things more hazardous for you. In my opinion, Gradius 4's version of that level was far less cheap and frustrating than in Gradius II, especially the bosses.

@PuppetMasterKuruku

Wow, that Herzog Zwei looks sweet! Why wouldn't it be released on the VC?

And will we ever see an installment in the Darius series? They look like pretty cool shooters, yet I haven't seen a rerelease in NA yet.

^ Oh, wow. I think that's the first time I've ever seen anybody actually bother to look up anything I've said. You're officially cool in my book, dude! XD

Yeah, I like all the Gradius games for the most part. Some people hate II, others III, and barely anybody has even played IV or Galaxies. I like the game though and I'm glad it's showing up, it's certainly better than a lot of things that they could add. (personally, I'd just like to see the collection on PS2. PSP is not too great for shmups, IMO.)

I don't know how likely Herzog Zwei is, because it's from Technosoft and I haven't seen any Thunderforce games or Lightening Force show up on VC yet. The game is VERY sweet, though, some of the best 2P gaming, especially for '89. It's definitely a piece of gaming history that everyone should try.

As for Darius, you might already know this but Darius Gaiden and G Darius are available in Taito Legends 2, and they're usually regarded as the best in the series. The collection is pretty cool (of course, they're not all gems), and it's not at all expensive. Certainly the cheapest way you'll ever get to buy those two games. Plus, it's somewhat heavy on shmups. Maybe not "Top 10" material, but it's still got a good number, and they're worth trying at least.

@PuppetMasterKuruku

Yeah I just found out about Taito Legends 2 right before reading your comment.

I'm surprised the Thunder Force games aren't on the service yet, they're still making new ones, so I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to get the license( or whatever it is they need). Chances are Herzog Zwei will get on the service eventually, we'll just have to wait a while.

I too enjoy all of the Gradius games( barring V and Galaxies, since I haven't played them yet), although I personally like the Salamander games more. I think I prefer the PSP collection, since it's portable, and has a tuneable difficulty, and the PSP's wide screen is especially helpful for horizontal shooters; the only complaint I have is that I rarely manage to get the Konami Code to work, so it tends to be incredibly difficult.

Gradius V is pretty good. I got it sealed for $30 a few years back. It's pretty standard Gradius fare, and you can unlock the ability to customize your weapon setups and use weapons you normally can't use.

Otherwise, you have only four choices that differ by Option setups. That is the key feature in the game, controlling your Options (renamed to Multiples. :/) in four different ways. Notably, the game is two-player, and it loses some of the original Gradius charm with the graphics and lack of Moai.

It's not bad, but it doesn't beat Gaiden. As for Galaxies, most people seem to hate it. It's pretty great for a handheld shooter if you ask me. You can find it pretty cheap, and if you want there's always emulation.

But yeah, Salamander is awesome. ^_

I don't like the PSP's controls (especially without D-Pad Mod), and the screen-quality is kind of poor. Plus, I just don't like playing shmups on portables all that much. Along with Powerstone Collection, Dracula X Chronicles, and the Mega Man games, I just wish it could've been ported to PS2. Still, that little handheld is a dream. I am a supporter of CFW, and I love turning the thing into a real PlayStation Portable and ripping my disks for it. Can't beat Azure Dreams Portable. (and no, those two portable sequels don't count)

@PuppetMasterKuruku

Well, considering I love what I've seen of the Graphics, and I hated the Moai, I'd say Gradius V will probably be my favorite. I'll try to pick it up when I can.

Most people complain about the PSP's D-pad, though I actually like it, or at least I don't have any problems with it. It's certainly better than the nub.

Most PSP - PS2 ports that I've seen haven't been too good, the best being Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, and even that one is considered inferior to the original. Might just be better off that it didn't get ported to the PS2, since the results might end up being less than spectacular.

I love Gradius 2, but I have it on MAME, so no thanks. And for the boxing game, just play Punch-Out!!

Actually, before I modded my d-pad, I would play Azure Dreams using the nub, because walking diagonally was so painfully awful that I wanted to throw the damn thing. I'd think a shmup fan of all people would complain. Well, that, and those poor fighting game fans.

As for PSP ports, you'd definitely lose a lot for Mega Man Powered Up, but for the most part I've liked them. I've only played the GTA games and Twisted Metal: Head On, but I think they were ported faithfully.

People seem to dislike GTA because they didn't like the PSP to begin with, and besides that it's become a fad to say that GTA sucks.

As for Head-On, it's got some glaringly bad glitches that should've been fixed (the cutscenes have horrible skipping issues, and my save has glitched multiple times), but the gameplay is great, and inferior graphics have never bothered me in the slightest. Plus, Twisted Metal: Lost is a great addition, as incomplete as it was the gameplay was there and even rivaled the main game.

All in all, people would likely complain, but I probably wouldn't be one of them.

As for Gradius V, maybe you will like it. You can choose to play the game normally without using the R1 button and it's still perfectly beatable, so the new gimmick definitely won't interfere with your enjoyment. Chances are that you'll like it, it's actually a very good system. Lasers with the Freeze control and Directional control are delightfully powerful!

Flamethrower shield (Flamethrower, an unlockable weapon, and Rotate control) is pretty fun, and you can even unlock the original Gradius shield (the heavy one that guards the front of your ship, by default you have the fully-protective 3 hit shield). There's a lot of good combinations.

Gradius V just keeps sounding better and better.

I actually liked a lot of the fighting games I've played on the PSP. I guess I'm just used to it or something. One question, do you have a SLIM or the original?

And I was talking about PS2 versions of PSP games by the way.

I wonder if the Turbografx version is different from the Arcade version in the Collection?