Konami, like many other developers with its roots in the arcades, is no stranger to shmups. It jumped on the Space Invaders wagon in 1978 with Space King and continued to dabble in the genre for years to come. Gradius (or Nemesis as it’s also known in various parts of the world) is by far its most successful shooting series and has given us such catchphrases as, “Shoot the core!” as well as several spin-off franchises (which we’ll also be including here). We can’t discuss Gradius however without briefly mentioning Konami’s rather excellent 1981 shooter Scramble. Originally seen as a standalone game, the release of Gradius Advance and Gradius V retrofitted the game to be the first title in the Gradius series. This makes sense as Konami’s developers once revealed that Gradius had the working title of Scramble 2 during development. Sadly, the connection now remains rather tenuous.
Five years later, Konami released an official book, Gradius Portable Official Guide, which shunted Scramble out of the limelight and included it as part of Konami’s Shooting History series instead. Then, in 2019, Anniversary Collection: Arcade Classics suggested it could be considered the start of the series in its accompanying e-book. It’s all very confusing. Confusion aside, Gradius remains one of Konami’s most enduring franchises, even if the last physical standalone console game was all the way back in 2004. Here’s hoping the series hasn’t been forgotten for good.
GRADIUS 1985
ARCADE, VARIOUS
◼ While its influence isn’t as far-reaching as many think (few games outside Konami’s own adopted its novel power-up feature) certainly made a huge impact on its later games and spin-offs. Downed enemies drop icons that will either destroy all enemies on the screen or light-up a power bar. Once the desired weapon
