Gradius Origins Review: Shoot ‘Em Up Blast From The Past

Forbes

4 days ago

To help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Gradius, Konami partnered with developer M2 to bring us a massive collection in the form of Gradius Origins covering the core of the series from its arcade roots in the mid-80s all the way to a brand-new spin-off entry with Salamander 3. With over a dozen different game variations across regions and platforms, plus tons of quality of life additions and historical artwork, this is a fantastic collection for hardcore and new fans alike.
I can't think of many game franchises that have been around for 40-years like Gradius. That's extremely impressive and is a testament not only to Konami's longevity, but also to the innovation and quality of the franchise specifically. While Gradius is obviously not the first-ever horizontal shoot 'em up to ever grace arcades or home consoles, it's undoubtedly one of the best and it introduced several innovations.
Gradius Origins Review—A Timeless Classic Returns
For those not aware, the Gradius series is considered to be one of the most important and influential of all shoot 'em up games. Not only were they massively successful in their era across both arcades and home consoles, but they innovated many elements that became staples of the genre like having more control over your power-ups, mixing horizontal and vertical levels together, and just generally being extremely good games.
Having more control over your power-ups adds so much strategy and complexity to the game even though it's initially a simple concept. In most other shooters at the time, enemies would drop random capsules that might change your weapon, increase your speed, give you a shield, or something along those lines. But in Gradius, the menu at the bottom of the screen is static.
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The first capsule you pick up can be used to increase your speed, but if you save it up, you could instead upgrade your weapon or add another orb ship to follow you around and fight alongside you. There's strategy involved here because you can decide the order in which you acquire upgrades, helping add more replayability and variety.
Overall, when approaching the games in this collection, it's important to remember all of them were and are designed as arcade games specifically. Meaning, it feels like there are intentional and sudden difficulty spike sprinkled throughout just often enough that you'd have been forced to sink more quarters into the cabinet just to try and clear the game.
Or, in other words, the Gradius series is, and continues to be, one of the most brutally difficult game franchises of all-time and that hasn't changed here. Like, the kind of difficulty that will probably make you rage quit more than once.
For a collection like this, it isn't really a big deal since you've got infinite coins at the press of a button, but needing to constantly add continues is a bit tedious. That's where the new quality-of-life enhancements come into play.
For starters, every game supports rewinding. So if you find yourself backed into a corner and unable to escape without taking a hit and losing a life, you can rewind a few seconds and take a different path.
However, rewinding constantly can get really annoying if you catch yourself in an unavoidable loop of mistakes (trust me, it will happen), so the often more enticing option is to play on Easy Mode. Before you scoff at the idea, all that this mode really does is shrink hit boxes and just generally make the game a bit less unforgiving. For a mostly casual fan like myself, this was my preferred way of playing basically every game in the collection.
If that's still not enough and you just want to blast your way through the levels without worrying about taking damage, then you can turn on Invincibility. It's actually a great way to play through all the stages nonstop just to get a feel for patterns and spawn points. Definitely recommend giving it a whirl on some of the more hardcore games, like Gradius III.
Going a step further, if you don't want to give into the allure of Invincibility mode, rewinding your mistakes, and/or playing on Easy Mode, you don't have to. There is also an entire new training mode for each title designed to help you git gud.
I'd definitely recommend playing the individual games in the order in which they're presented at the main menu since it will help you appreciate the evolution of game systems. The different spin-offs and names are mostly irrelevant, since these games are all considered as part of the same continuity and even feature the same ships, enemies, and power-ups in many cases.
But if you're really curious about the differences, the Gradius titles are part of the core horizontal shooter series, whereas games like Salamander and Life Force feature a mixture of horizontal and vertical levels, as well as co-op and a different power-up structure. Generally, I consider the Gradius games to be more difficult.
Then there's the all-new Salamander III, a game that was conceived to be a 'what if' type of entry, in which the team at M2 developed the game as if it were actually released back in the 1990s as a sequel. That means the pixel art aesthetic, chiptune music, and strict game design constraints are all enforced so it feels, looks, and plays, just as it would have (presumably) back in the day. Also, it's really excellent and as a casual series fan, it's probably in my top 3 of the whole franchise now. It's genuinely that good.
Gradius Origins Review—Excellent, But Incomplete
There are seven individual games included in the Gradius Origins collection, but across those seven games there are 18 total versions included. As a result, you can play the original JP arcade version of Gradius, jump straight to the NA arcade version (aka Nemesis), or maybe even try out the NA prototype you may have never seen before.
Similarly, Gradius II features three different versions of its JP arcade release showing different stages of life during its iteration and development, and so on.
Each game has lots of archived developmental materials as well, including official artwork and even sketches of levels and enemy designs. Seeing the origins of one of gaming's most iconic franchises feels really special, particularly the hand-drawn levels. It's wild to think that, over 40 years ago, one of your favorite sections of a video game began with pencil drawings on graph paper but it probably did for many games.
Admittedly, there's a lot here, especially for hardcore fans of the series. The full list of individual game versions is as follows:
GRADIUS
GRADIUS II
GRADIUS III
SALAMANDER
LIFE FORCE
SALAMANDER 2
SALAMANDER III
As rich and full Gradius Origins is as a package, it's far from complete, which I guess is to be expected with a series that 's been around this long.
However, the title of this one has Origins in the name, so it's understandable they'd focus on the arcade roots—even if that does come at the expense of the often superior console versions of some of these games. Maybe it's personal bias, but I really love the NES version of the original Gradius even if it's technically inferior visually. In fact, I still have my physical copy!
There are several other notable exceptions as well, such as the JP PlayStation 1 exclusive Gradius Gaiden, Gradius IV, and the beloved PlayStation 2-exclusive Treasure-developed Gradius V. I also have a soft spot for Gradius Galaxies on Game Boy Advance, personally, which blew me away with its visuals and speed back in the day.
The fact that Gradius Gaiden and Gradius IV were included on the PSP Gradius Collection makes those omissions a little more obvious and perplexing as well, but perhaps they're planned as updates, DLC, or something like that.
Gradius Origins
As far as game collections go, Gradius Origins is a real treat. Most of these versions and iterations I'd never had the pleasure (or pain) of trying for myself, so it's been an educational and exhilarating walkthrough arcade shoot 'em up history. Part of me is still disappointed that the excellent NES version of the original Gradius, otherwise known as the first video game to ever feature the iconic Konami Code, didn't make the cut, but hopefully that just means more collections are on the way.
The Gradius games are harder than ever here, but the new quality-of-life and accessibility features finally make them feel approachable for someone who may not have the patience to memorize bullet patterns and spawn locations. Whether you're a hardcore fan or a casual enjoyer of the genre, there's plenty to sink your teeth into here.
Platform: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC
Developer: M2
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: August 7, 2025
Price: $39.99
Score: 8/10
Disclosure: A representative on behalf of Konami sent me an early download code for a digital copy of Gradius Origins on PSN for the purposes of this review.