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[[File:gradius_ii.png|frame]]
{{quote|''Destroy the Core!''}}
[[Konami]]'s ''Gradius'' (also called ''Nemesis'' in some incarnations) is one of the seminal side-scrolling [[Shoot'Em Up]] series. The player controls the Vic Viper, a small starfighter, and faces off against the forces of the Bacterions, and generally destroys everything. Its most recent installment is ''Gradius V'' for the Playstation 2
The [[Power-Up]] scheme in ''Gradius'' is unusually involved, and was particularly so for its time
The first ''Gradius'' was released in 1985, but in a real-life [[Retcon]], the 1981 game ''[[Scramble]]'' was declared part of the series in ''Gradius Galaxies''.
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* ''Gradius the Slot'' (Arcade, 2011) not a traditional shoot 'em up, but a ''pachislot'' game where doing well in the slots affects how well you do in battle.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Adaptation Distillation]]
▲* [[Adaptation Distillation]] - Those who have played both the arcade and SNES versions of ''Gradius III'' agree that the latter is easier and more enjoyable.
* [[Asteroids Monster]]
▲* [[Anime of the Game]] - The ''Salamander'' OVAs.
▲* [[Asteroids Monster]] - Numerous enemies. In 2 of the stages in ''Gradius III'', they're predominant.
▲* [[Asteroid Thicket]] - ''Gradius V'' stage 5 is the epitome of this.
* [[Attack
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]
** In ''Salamander 2'', you could do rolls like in later entries in the ''[[Thunder Force]]'' series. And like in ''Thunder Force'', it does nothing but [[Rule of Cool|look stylish.]]▼
▲* [[Awesome but Impractical]] - The flame thrower weapon in the ''Nemesis'' series and ''Gradius V''. Sure it's powerful, but it has such short range that you have to put yourself in harm's way to get the most of it, and it's practically worthless against Core bosses.
▲** In ''Salamander 2'', you could do rolls like in later entries in the [[Thunder Force]] series. And like in ''Thunder Force'', it does nothing but [[Rule of Cool|look stylish.]]
* [[Best Level Ever]]: Stage 7 of ''Gradius Gaiden'', which stards off as a seemingly-innocent volcano stage... and then ''gets gradually sucked into a black hole.'' [[Game Breaking Bug|Too bad it slows down to a crawl on a PS2.]]
▲* [[Battleship Raid]] - Stage 4 of ''Salamander 2''
* [[Big Bad]]:
*
** Doom in ''Salamander 2''.
** The Lars Empire in ''Gradius NEO''/''Imperial''.
*** For those who don't know, the Lars Empire is an evil human empire that has obtained the ancient Gradian and Bacterian technology in a time which takes place many years after the ''Gradius''/''Nemesis'' series. The only Bacterians in ''Gradius NEO''/''Imperial'' live in the wild, with no Hive Mind to guide them, and the Gradian Empire doesn't even exist anymore.
* [[Boss Rush]]
* [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu]]
* [[Bullet Hell]]
* [[Catch Phrase]]
* [[Classic Cheat Code]]
* [[Collision Damage]]
* [[Continuing Is Painful]]
** You do start with a single power-up on the bar (though this is only if you died with one on the bar). That's enough for a Speed-Up, which may be just enough speed to survive long enough to start rebuilding. If you're good.
** Depending on where you died, you might have enough time to get over to your options, which drift offscreen rather than vanishing, and pick them up again.
** ''Gradius Gaiden'' lets you rearrange the power meter, so you can, for example, get Options for only one or two powerup capsules each. Also, if you're playing a 2-player game and you die, you'll explode into five capsules.
* [[Continuity Nod]] - ''Gradius ReBirth'' is chock full of references to ''Nemesis 2'' and ''3'' on the MSX, to the point of being a ''de facto'' prequel. (The game is set in Cosmic Year 6664, 3 years before ''Nemesis 2'').▼
** ''Gradius V'' actually leaves any multiples you have onscreen when you die, and you can fly into them to reclaim them.
* [[Convection, Schmonvection]] - In ''Life Force'' and ''Gradius II'' NES you fly between two solar surfaces and are totally OK unless you actually get struck by a flare.▼
▲* [[Continuity Nod]]
▲* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]
** Same thing with any lava-based stage.
* [[Cool Starship]]
* [[Cores and Turrets Boss]]
* [[Cosmic Horror]]
* [[Cue the Sun]]
* [[Degraded Boss]]: Venom went from [[That One Boss|a difficult final boss]] to an regular Gradius [[Anticlimax Boss]]. This also applies to Zelos and Big Core MK 1.
* [[Demoted to Extra]] - Big Core MK.I is a recurring boss in the first Gradius games. By Gradius V, it's a generic mook which appears multiple times throughout the stages with the other enemies. Yes, it's more powerful than an ordinary mook, but it's still a mook.▼
* [[Demoted to Extra]]:
** A similar fate occured to the Japanese Life Force boss Gau/Gaw, appearing in groups before the start of the Bio stages of Gradius Gaiden and Gradius V.▼
▲*
▲* [[Doppelganger Spin]] - the Options.
** Subverted when a modified Big Core MK.I with a ring of turrets attached to it AND equipped with planet-piercing lasers appears as the first stage boss in ''Gradius V''. Later loops add a second Big Core MK.I attached to the other end of the ring from the original.
* [[Dub Name Change]] - In ''Gradius III'' for the SNES. Several <s>bosses</s> mayors get renamed: Big Core mkII to Ice Ice, Crystal Core to Monarch, among others. The Vic Viper itself is called "Modulated Artillery Exalter" (or [[Fun with Acronyms|M.A.X.]]). The NES version called the Vic Viper "Warp Rattler".▼
▲** A similar fate occured to the Japanese ''Life Force'' boss Gau/Gaw, appearing in groups before the start of the Bio stages of ''Gradius Gaiden'' and ''Gradius V''.
* [[Eenie Meenie Miny Moai]] - Nearly every game has one stage full of these [[Incredibly Lame Pun|stoners]].▼
* [[Doppelganger Spin]]: The Options.
* [[Engrish]] - Gradius was originally going to be called "Gladius" (after the ancient Roman war sword). ▼
▲* [[Dub Name Change]]
▲* [[Eenie Meenie Miny Moai]]
▲* [[Engrish]]:
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]
* [[Evil Is Visceral]]
* [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]]
* [[Fly At the Camera Ending]]
* [[Gaiden Game]]
* [[Genius Loci]]
* [[Gravity Sucks]]
* [[Guide Dang It]]
* [[Have a Nice Death]]
* [[Hive Mind]]
* [[Hopeless Boss Fight]]
* [[Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress]]
* [[Invincible Minor Minion]]
* [[It Has Only Just Begun]]
* [[Landfill Beyond the Stars]]
* [[Large Ham]]
{{quote|''"POUND through the ENTRAILS and '''SHOOT ABADON!'''"''}}
* [[Large Ham Announcer]]
* [[Leitmotif]]
* [[Load-Bearing Boss]]
* [[Malevolent Architecture]]
* [[Mascot Mook]]
* [[Meet the New Boss]]
** Subverted for Venom at first. Even in ''Nemesis 2'', Venom was a Bacterion emperor, but unlike the others, he was [[That One Boss]]. But then Venom reappeared in ''Gradius V'', and in that game, now he's a brain that's no weaker than the other [[Big
** Doom is an exception too.
* [[Mook Maker]]
* [[My Death Is Just the Beginning]]
** In fact, it states that there is a whole lot of pieces of itself spread across the universe, with each one eventually becoming sentient and coming after the Gradians. Which leads to a horrifying thought: ''What if they '''ALL''' gain sentience '''AT THE SAME TIME'''?''
* [[My Name Is Not Shazam]]
* [[Nintendo Hard]]
* [[Non-Linear Sequel]]
* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]
* [[Now Do It Again Backwards]]:
* [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]
* [[One-Man Army]]
* [[Organic Technology]]
* [[Quietly Performing Sister Show]]
* [[Planet Eater]]
* [[Player
* [[Precision F-Strike]]
* [[Protagonist Without a Past]]
* [[Rail Shooter]]
* [[Recurring Boss]]
** [http://gradius.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Core_MK_I The good ol' Big Core MK 1].
** Some sort of Moai boss in every level in the series that features Moai enemies, from simply a super-sized Moai statue to a Moai Pharaoh statue (that one appears in ''Solar Assault'').
* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]] - The 2nd player ship in ''Salamander'' is piloted by the prince of Planet Latis, the planet you're defending.▼
** Some of the games feature a giant Big Core gun wall in the last stage that acts as a mid-boss.
* [[Sentry Gun]] - In so many places.▼
** The Shadow Dancer (or a variant of one that still fits the [[Spider Tank]] description), usually one of the last, if not THE last, obstacles before the player meets the [[Big Bad]] of the game.
* [[Sequential Boss]] - The first boss of stage 8 in Gradius Galaxies is this.▼
** Gofer: he is the main boss of two of the mainline ''Gradius'' games, ''Gradius II'' and ''Gradius IV''.
* [[Shout-Out]] - Several Gradius ships, enemies and even power-ups appear as actual cards in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game]]''. A [[Transforming Mecha]] in ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'' is also named and designed after the Vic Viper.▼
▲* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]
* [[Shout-Out]]:
▲*
** The 2nd player ship in ''Salamander 2'' is called "Super Cobra", a reference to the old arcade game of the same name.
** Vic Viper is one of the Konami characters appearing in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPbS-cDOUZA special Purikura] sequence of ''[[Mitsumete Knight|Mitsumete Knight R : Daibouken Hen]]'' ; it's also, in ''[[Tokimeki Memorial|Tokimeki Memorial 4]]'', Rui Nanakawa's third (and very effective) [[Limit Break]], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGAmeo0Y27E#t=5m42s invoking it] after playing the [[Konami]] Code's buttons on a ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' board.
** The Falchion Beta in ''Gradius Gaiden'' is an updated model of the titular ship from Konami's 1987 Famicom Disk game ''[[Spell My Name with an "S"|Falsion]]''.
** Many bosses in the ''Nemesis'' series are named after rock or heavy metal bands. Most of them have been renamed and given more generic names, with only Venom retaining his name.
** The boss ship Deltatry from ''Gradius Gaiden'' is heavily inspired by the ship from Konami's Trigon/Lightning Fighters, complete with its giant laser and fire dragon summoning attacks.
* [[Smart Bomb]]
* [[Space Base]]
* [[Space Is Noisy]]
* [[Spell My Name with an "S"]]
** Is it Lord British or Road British?
** Is it Metalion or Metarion?
* [[Theme Naming]]
* [[Time Travel]]:
**
** {{spoiler|Because the battleship only appears in Stage 2, thanks to your future self teleporting it and himself. You don't actually encounter the battleship until the end of Stage 7, but you know how to destroy it due to the events from Stage 2 and the analysis of the battleship by your ship's computer at the end of Stage 7. [[Fridge Brilliance|So, in a way, you have already completed the game at the end of Stage 2]]}}.
** One fun little detail regarding Stage 8 {{spoiler|is that your past self plays exactly like you did in Stage 2 during the parts when both ships are shown, or all four if there's 2 players. If you skip Stage 2 using stage select, however, then the ships will follow a predetermined path, like your future self does on Stage 2
* [[Video Game 3D Leap]]
** There's also the ''Solar Assault'' sub-series, which is fully-3D ''Gradius'', though it hardly got any attention.
* [[Video Game Lives]]
* [[Video Game Long Runners]]
* [[Villain Protagonist]]
* [[The Virus]]
** Subverted partly in the ''Salamander''
* [[Wasted Song]]
** ''Gradius ReBirth'' had a soundtrack released a year before the compilation album.
** For actual wasted songs, ''Salamander Portable'''s Gallery feature reveals a lot of unused tracks for the ''Salamander'' series.
* [[Wave Motion Tuning Fork]]
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]:
**
** Inverted in ''Gradius IV'', where if you make it up to the last stage and die, the announcer [[A Winner Is You|congratulates you for making it that far, saying "You are the Viper!"]].
* [[Womb Level]]
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[[Category:Science Fiction Video Games]]
[[Category:Arcade Game]]
[[Category:Amstrad CPC]]
[[Category:Commodore 64]]
[[Category:MSX]]
[[Category:Nintendo Entertainment System]]
[[Category:
[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:PlayStation Portable]]
[[Category:Sharp X68000]]
[[Category:Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]
[[Category:Wii]]
[[Category:ZX Spectrum]]
[[Category:The Eighties]]
[[Category:Konami]]
[[Category:Horizontal Scrolling Shooter]]
[[Category:Vertical Scrolling Shooter]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Gradius]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]
[[Category:Shoot'Em Up]]
[[Category:Video Games of the 1980s]]
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