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Gradius II: Gofer No Yabou
グラディウスＩＩ: ＧＯＦＥＲの野望
Gradius II: The Ambitions of Gofer (Arcade/PSP version)
©1988 Konami

Gradius II (known as Vulcan Venture in Europe) is, in my eyes, one of the most balanced games among the Gradius series when playing under normal conditions. It's not a pushover game like its predecessor, but it isn't impossibly long like Gradius V, badly programmed like Gradius III, or extremely difficult like Gradius IV. Even when playing the arcade version on its hardest difficulty, you'll find the game to be well-suited for casual shoot 'em players. There's plenty of new ideas this game brings that remain staples for most of the series following it, such as the boss rush and various obstacles in the final stage.

This game basically takes everything that was good from Gradius and Salamander and combined them together, and even provided some brand new ideas. Not to mention, this is the first game where you get to pick a weapon configuration to use for the whole game. Of the four different types, I like Type D. The 2-Way is the main reason why I love this type; nothing beats being able to have aerial and downward defense with one weapon. The Ripple Laser's rapid-fire is much better for me than the regular Laser's slower reload times, despite being weaker. I also choose the Force Field over the Shield.

Another thing this game introduces--albeit a very annoying one--is the dreaded Option Hunter. After you activate your fourth Option, this son of a bitch will appear after a set period of time. It lingers behind you for a bit until advancing forward on the screen, and if it touches one of your Options, it will steal that Option as well as every Option following it (so, for instance, if it touches the third-to-last Option, it will steal that one and the fourth one). Most of the time I have little issues with it, but with the vertical scrolling in stage 5 it can really mess you up, so I intentionally lose an Option in stage 4 to prevent it from spawning for a little while. Its spawn rate is much more random in Loop 2, so that's why I stayed at 3 Options for the little time I was there.

There's some interesting techniques in this game for farming points, the most noteworthy examples being the dragons in stage 1 (each one killed is 3,000 points), the rings from the Red Moai, Jumping Moai, and Big Moai in stage 5 (you'll notice that I anger the bottom and middle Big Moais to get an influx of little Moais and rings), and Gau's eyes in stage 7. There's also a number of interesting boss safespots, some of which are actually intended to be used by the developers. The only one I show off in this run is against Demos, the gun wall in stage 8.

The hardest difficulty of this game is barely any different than Normal difficulty. Just a slightly higher rank to start with. You won't even notice too many differences between the two settings. Loop 2 was sketchy at times, but amazingly, I made it through. Would've liked to have made it further into Loop 3, but I'll take this run for sure.

Fantastic game, and definitely one of the most well-regarded in the series. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites, but it never fails to provide me entertainment when I throw in a credit. Would recommend this one to any die-hard shoot 'em up fan.

Played on my PSP using Gradius Collection.

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