The 2D spaceship shoot 'em up genre (known on the street as "shmups") has had a somewhat rocky life in our videogame history. During the 16-bit heyday, shmups were overproduced and many of the titles were mediocre at best. Sorta like Mandy Moore songs. Before you knew it, scores of publishers were pulling the plug on shoot 'em ups and just like the games themselves, titles were fighting to stay alive during the darkest of perils. Thunder Force, R-type, and others managed to spit out a title or two over the next console generations but even they eventually came to an end. When all the dust cleared only one classic series would survive: Gradius.

Gradius' main reason for survival is that it's one of the few space shoot 'em up games that makes you feel like you're the Last Starfighter. That you really need to save the world from alien domination no matter how tough things get. Playing Gradius as a kid, I believed that the game was created by aliens who were looking for someone to lead their spaceship army in order to save the galaxy. That's how intense this game was for me. Let me put on my fighter pilot attire (a la dented motorcycle helmet, stained t-shirt, and boxer shorts) to give the game a proper test flight.

If it ain't broke
Gradius Collection for Sony's PSP includes five classic games from the series: Gradius I through IV and the previously Japan only Gradius Gaiden. The overall premise and game design doesn't change much between the different titles. In every game the evil Bacterion forces attack the peaceful planet Gradius, so the Gradiusians (?) send out their hyper-space fighter the Vic Viper to put an end to the evil menace. Konami is rather, um, consistent amongst the five titles as you'll run into similar enemies and levels as you play each game; the newer the game the better the graphics/sound. While you'd think that would make the games repetitious or boring, it's actually part of the charm and what keeps luring fans back, game after game. Those dang Bacterions just won't quit attacking Gradius, but boy do their graphics sure look better every time I have to fight them. Not to say that everything is exactly the same from game to game, just familiar.

Another item that differentiates the Gradius shooters from others is that it uses a unique power up system. You collect glowing power up balls as you fight your way through the evilness then you dole out what you collect to your power meter on the bottom of the screen. If you want to go faster you add a power up capsule to the "Speed Up" section, if you want laser beams then you add one to the "Laser" section. This boosts the intensity as not only do you have to pay attention to the baddies around you, you have to think about where to apply the power ups to. Like you didn't have enough going on, what withbattling the forces of evil and all.

Anti-Bacterion
While Konami gives us near-perfect arcade ports of these games, they're not without their problems. Most of these issues can be attributed to the PSP design itself. You'll wanna tape a quarter to that PSP directional pad to get a little more accuracy from it. Another issue is the PSP screen. You can choose to view the game in its original size or make it stretch to fill the whole PSP screen. If you pick the original size, enemy fire can be a bit hard to see. If the playing field it stretched out, tiny bullets are easier to see, but you then suffer from some blurring and ugliness issues. Konami also removed any multiplayer (from the games that had it.) Sheesh!

Can't get enough of those Moai
Gradius Collection for the PSP will make every shmup fanboy happy. I would have liked a more complete collection. Theres no Solar Assault, Gameboy, NES, or MSX titles. Gradius V, the latest and arguably best title in the series, is missing as well. The five titles offered are the best they can be on the PSP and you can feel the love put into this collection. They've even included the intro videos and selectable music tracks. If you're a fan of Gradius you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not buying this collection. So go get it!

- NakedBoB