Gradius 3 (Hard) (SNES)

[@malcolmmarks4330]

I need a full playthrough of this. My childhood demands it

[@semajniomet981]

Force field gives you an additional 3 hits before dying. The standard Shield blocks ~12 shots before failing, and the only other useful blocking method is Reduce, which only blocks 2 hits, but also makes your hitbox smaller. I found that one the most useful during my (emulated) times playing this magnificent game.

[@christophersavignon4191]

I second the sentiment of playing Star Fox 64. I absolutely want to see you shredding the all-red top route. Getting that after countless tries was one of my best childhood gaming moments.

[@Matthew10950]

Right there with you, brother! One of the first games where I recognized that if I wanted to beat it, I was going to have to work for it. And that final brain fight was such a battle. 12 year old me was all jacked up when I beat that bastard. Good memories man!

[@CannibalCory]

I also had a blast as a kid learning top-red route. It was then fun to try to learn all the hidden paths to take -- including the last-minute jump from an all-blue run up to the red side.

[@christophersavignon4191]

@@CannibalCory Hah, yeah. Getting as many side character events as possible was also fun.

[@Ksrwilhelm]

Hell yes! Love this game! Spent a couple months a few years back trying to beat it on hard. I didn't succeed. Then I found out that that once you beat hard difficulty you unlock a new "arcade" difficulty mode. I gave up :^)

[@62bitHero]

This is one of my all time favorite childhood games! Love to see it on here! Incredible soundtrack, and sometimes the spots where you die can be so brutal without the powerups to get back where you were!

[@62bitHero]

I made this comment before I watched and it turns out that yes this did in fact come up immediately LOL

[@joshuaallen7685]

Loved this game! It was the original 1 life challenge. I always felt like the choice where the options circled you felt like an extra shield. I think I used the tail gun with the up and down missiles and the force field.

[@Joe-Angel]

Love this game so much. so awesome to see you play it and would love to see more. Def mess around with edit your weapon section. There are some pretty powerful set ups in there

[@zzyzxzy9061]

I'm going nuts in my head thinking "GET THE OPTION!! GET THE OPTION!!!!" then relief at 5:42 lol

[@monsoon1234567890]

I beat 1942 when I was a kid, one of the few Nintendo games I can claim to have beat. For the rest of the day I kept seeing planes and bullets scrolling down, even with my eyes open/closed. It was pretty freaky.

[@michaelduff2382]

That used to happen to me and my friend with Dance dance revolution arrows lol

[@monsoon1234567890]

@@michaelduff2382 I never thought about the similarities between 1942 and the scrolling of DDR notes. Makes perfect sense!

[@davidturney2975]

1942 was such a fun game

[@spimbles]

thats always such a surreal feeling lol its hard to stay grounded in reality when shit like that happens

[@KesorodaBlk]

20:35 Oh-no, the Option Hunter got his ass! 😮😂 That weird creature is impossible to harm, and cannot be stopped, but if it flies past you, it won’t harm you either. If you prove yourself to be too powerful, it will steal your extra weapons!

[@jacobkohr7243]

So in a game where you have to keep all your powerups to progress there's an enemy that will just randomly steal all your powerups? That's next level diabolical.

[@aldrea6506]

@@jacobkohr7243 yes, such is the way of the NES era, lol. Thankfully, if you're able to dodge it it can't double back and try again.

[@coolbro6969]

Wild that happens exactly when he’s talking about LOSING all power ups -then he does

[@brev5057]

Dodging it is difficult but feels great when u do. Usually it inky takes 'option orb' but it took like 3 of Ryu must been the way they were lined up

[@user-a5Bw9de]

Since its action is diabolical, the following knowledge has been passed down throughout Gradius community for generations: You can actually not let it spawn by not having max count of Multiples/Options at certain points of the game. (few exceptions are mostly at the end of the game of later entries in the series)

[@Jesse__H]

imo, watching Ryu dominate new retro games is even more fun than watching him play Mario Maker

[@NoctisVigil]

Dominate is a...strong word for this. ^_^;

[@shakeyownz]

The parodius games are some of my favorite arcade games of all time. I love playing them on MAME with my nes advantage as a controller.(I got an NES-to-USB adapter so I can use a real controller with emulators. I also have one for SNES and n64)

[@theinvisible6713]

It would be so awesome if Ryu played Parodius for us!

[@RossAllchurch]

@@theinvisible6713 Watching Ryu play Parodius would be hilarious!

[@Retro6502]

This is one of my favorite games as a kid. Now do the hidden Arcade mode which is much harder than hard :-) Repeatedly tap A while you have the Game Level selected in the Options screen and it will switch to Arcade mode. Good luck!

[@RoyTalwen]

Wow, I had no idea this mode existed. One of my all time favorite games. Looks like I'm going to be trying this very soon

[@slowbro13215]

I don't remember ever hearing about arcade mode until now, but then again, I couldn't beat the game on hard, so it didn't matter all that much!

[@davidaitken8503]

@@slowbro13215 It was pretty well known. I pretty much only play it on that difficulty. The game really isn't that hard.

[@davidaitken8503]

You have to be blind and deaf not to see and hear the option thief behind you. ;)

[@lavontrichardson2602]

I remember this and code wow I thought I was the only one I still play this game on my phone

[@ViperMagnum7]

Echoing other comments, I will also throw my hat in the ring for Axelay-very polished, quite challenging on higher difficulties, and a killer soundtrack.

[@venkelos6996]

That was a lot of fun! I've always been rather fond of SHMUPS, though I tend to have little actual skill at them, but I have also really liked Gradius, and its music. Back in the early 2000s, when I was in college, a group of my friends liked to usurp the front TV room, on weekend evenings, and hook up their consoles. While Gradius wasn't the thing there, Dance Dance Revolution was, and while I'm even worse at that, one of them had a Gradius theme ad a dance track, and it was my favorite little ditty on that game, that I always hoped someone would choose to play, when I was watching.😊 Sorry to ramble, but happy memories! Watching the actual game was also a lot of fun, and seeing some of the precision stuff you've pulled off in various Mario-themed stuff, I had decent expectations for this, which you did not disappoint me on!

[@donaldspangler]

You can use the Konami code on this game. At the beginning of the the level pause it, then enter the Konami code, use the L R shoulder buttons for left, right, left, right. You’ll get all your weapons at once

[@gregoryhayball]

I've beaten arcade mode in this when a mate had it and even managed to loop it a couple of times, but I did it with the pal version which is slower. Once you use one speed up and open missiles, you need to use the opening stage to level up options as far as you can go, then go for the forcefield. Once you've maxed Vic out with ripple lasers and missiles, the game will start to slow down in crowded areas so use it to your advantage and try to plan ahead. Twin thin lasers are a viable choice too. As for missiles, I always used the two-way forward firing missiles. Some players choose the two-way rear firing missiles but I found the rear firing missiles less useful as there are just more ways to get killed from the front than the rear for most of the game.

[@el_guero0958]

This is bringin out a lot of the nostalgia in me. I remember playing this game so much when I was kid.

[@dennisbartello7682]

A revised Konami code using the L and R bumpers instead of the arrows exists, and you get full up on weapons. Not sure if using the YX gives you the two-way shots version of the code. Also, on the Title screen, repeating the Y key and using an arrow key to keep the title from disappearing will yield you up to 9 credits!

[@JeffStanifer]

Fantastic playing for your first go, legitimately. I’ve heard the term “Gradius Syndrome” used to describe games where if you lose your power ups after a death, you might as well start the game over. On another note, I like using the reduce shield item since it makes your hit box smaller and let’s you dodge enemies and bullets easier. Would love to see you take another whack at this game!

[@mattkun6058]

The 194X games were great. I played 1943 a ton on NES.

[@bradmullaney8497]

I have been anticipating you playing this game. Gradius 3 is very close to my heart, and is one of the first games that I felt challenged by. I am glad to see you play it. Hope Tammy grabs that 2nd controller sometime.

[@Byrnage]

Good to see that Gradius hasn't changed since the first one. Except the first one didn't have a difficulty setting and it was still impossible to recover from a death.

[@Hoofler]

Retro Ryu is the best Ryu! I love these old games!

[@dimwarlock]

I love this one, I played it a few years ago while looking for retro shooters, took me a good amount of hours to beat in normal... then I beat it first try on hard. It's half knowing how to move and half knowing how to manage your power ups.

[@RockEsper]

Bro if you want a good, INTENSE SNES shmup, I highly recommend R-Type 3. It has infinite continues so the high difficulty doesn't make it impossible

[@PhantomDragonEternal]

Super hard game, but not impossible. My friend used to beat Hard Mode back when the game came out (when we were kids). He was insane! He could beat this game; the only secret is to literally NEVER get hit. Losing power-ups makes it impossible and the only thing you could do to save your sanity was to reset the game and try again.

[@G_marden]

My buddy and I could beat the game on its normal difficulty setting, but ya...We pretty much had the same deal. You die, you reset! The SNES could be a brutal mistress

[@ug333]

There are recoverable spots. But not everywhere to be sure. And very few in hard mode

[@kbsanders]

This was great. I hope to see another attempt soon.

[@russellgardner2647]

Great video! would love to see a full playthrough. Gameplay was practically flawless and so fun to watch.

[@WickedTimeFox]

Would love to see you finish the game! It is quite insane on hard mode. Admittedly I have gotten past those areas on hard mode after dying but, that’s only after having beaten this game like 50+ times

[@mutt-the-barbarian]

This is basically expert, you gotta do the super expert by turning it to arcade difficulty by spamming A on the difficulty select very quickly

[@ramblinevilmushroom]

This is not a "shoot em up" This is called a bullet hell. Thats legit what this genre is called. And part of a bullet hell, is that if you lose once, you're punished into never being able to beat the game. You have to do it in one go, just like a kaizo. Thats how its SUPPOSED to be. This game is MEANT to be played for MONTHS to YEARS in order to get good enough to beat it.

[@theimperfectgod7140]

actual bullet hells focus on insane amounts of projectiles as a gimmick... Not many gradius games focus on that. It is a shmup, because Gradius' focus is shooting... and all the learning and reaction that comes from it

[@CharlesHepburn2]

In Gradius 3, the difficulty modes are actually mis-labeled in the game. They should be: Easy = Hard, Normal = Master, and Hard = Ultra Insane. They should have included a "Baby" mode, which would actually be Medium difficulty.

[@arrenmund8732]

I played this game so much as a kid but completely forgot about it. This was fun to watch for the nostalgia!

[@Lonewolf3515]

lol at that point, restarting the whole level at every death would be a god-send.

[@fangoriously1]

This game was my jam back in the day. (You can cheese the game, and get all of your power ups instantly, if you choose "speed down" before acquiring any other power ups, the box will be blank, however choose "speed down" before any other power up, and it'll give you all power ups instantly)

[@josephhamm3569]

Please do more of this game! I used to play it as a kid and it's one of my favorites! And to watch my favorite KZbinr play one of my favorite games to completion would be awesome!

[@danmoran5991]

This game was my pride to beat when I was younger! You're 100% right about dying makes it game over. That's why using specific upgrades is game changing. Shrinking would be amazing for you since you're amazing at movement...laser is best for level clearing, while egg is God tier for bosses...singular rocket seems the worst, but actually rides on the walls! So many wierd nuances to the game...but, you're the one person that can probably beat it!! Hope to see it!

[@philliphunter6586]

OMFGOSH! The soundtrack is so so so good! I love this game! You just made my day!!!!!

[@jpfanfic4226]

Looking forward to debunking the difficulty video on this one

[@danm2084]

I looooved this game as a kid. The way you can choose your build is awesome. I would just try every option and die every single time lol. Never beat it. Hard game, but its the best game of this style I ever played. Also, I'm like screaming at the screen to shoot those faces in the mouth to kill em! Lol

[@Merennulli]

This was one of the 4 games we had as a kid. It took a long time before I was able to beat it. I will say, try out E. Laser. It's a charge shot, so you have the option to choose between charging and spamming, making it more fun to play with. And you are absolutely right, they did not playtest this. There are so many places like that, even on normal mode, where you're just screwed if you die even once. And there are places where you can totally cheese many of the bosses - though I won't spoil it unless you want me to. Also, this was my only Konami game when I learned about the Konami code. I ran home and tried it, and, well... try it out and see what it does on this game. 😂

[@Helio_Asou]

Funny thing is that this version of Gradius III (SNES) was playtested. If you look into the Arcade version (not the Arcade difficulty, completely different things) you'll see what's "not playtesting at all". And yeah, Konami code here is a big troll :b. Good thing that with pressing 2 more buttons you can make it work

[@Merennulli]

@@Helio_Asou You can imagine me as a kid, excitedly trying out the code I just learned about on the only Konami game I had. "Wha... wait...did I do it wrong?" Then repeat 20x. And this was pre-internet so I didn't learn about the real code for years. Long after I'd graduated college, moved out, and quit console gaming. So I got a second "WHAT?! Those bastards!" moment from the code. 😂

[@Helio_Asou]

@@Merennulli HAHAHAH I can imagine that scene. It happened to me too, just not that badly. Worst thing is that I knew this game had the troll Konami Code but I just forgot that when trying to test it. Indeed, those bastards XD

[@ryanmckenzie5918]

That was awesome! I've missed these. Yes, please, more Gradius!

[@jordanneal576]

I used to play the hell out of this one. Might need to boot it up again after this. I always did 2 way missiles, twin Lazer, the option where they're above and below you, and the spinning shields. I was never great at the game though.

[@nikirick]

I'm so damn happy you did this game.

[@NooniRobertson]

It's really fun watching you play a game that I played A lot as a kid. I see you making a ton of mistakes that I used to make and figured out slowly overtime. Also reduces the best because it shrinks your ship and it also kind of acts as a shield

[@BrettEPierce]

Gradius is a one life game. If you die and lose your powerups, you have to start the game over. Reduce makes you smaller and harder to hit, it's really good. Also max out your options, and keep your forcefield up at all times.

[@cha0sunity]

one of my favorite games when i was growing up

[@ballistic66]

I used to play this game all the time as a kid growing up this is actually one of my favorite SNES games of all time and I always come back to revisit this game when I get the chance I even have an emulator of this game lastly I know that I died on a lot of these levels even at the difficulty on arcade level and I still make up for it every time this game really shows about the skill gap between gamers from the 90s and The gamers we have today

[@jamescaudill2124]

This was one of my first games. Glad to see you play it. :)

[@BBrecht]

Watching Ryu repeatedly pass over the Option is so painful to watch!

[@bradmullaney8497]

Lol

[@caseycbenn]

Oh Ryu, man.... you just reminded me that the original Gradius on NES belongs in your Debunking the Difficulty series. It was wicked hard as well. Gradius 3 is a great game to do a vid on. Lots of fun and still somewhat difficult.

[@feedbacker89]

Yessssss, totally unsurprising to see you are into shmups, would be awesome to see some modern ones on this channel. Zero Ranger is one I think you might dig, very challenging without going into full bullet hell territory.

[@jasonguimond8994]

I remember spending the night with my best friend one night and renting this game which we had absolutely no idea what awesomeness we were getting into! The music brings me back sooo much. I would so love to see you do a playthrough even if you do play it on normal

[@shooter-vx7xy]

I had that game when I was a kid. Loved it.

[@GhostRevenant]

There's no shoot-em-up I can recommend more than Ikaruga. its base mechanic is that your ship and all enemies have a white or black attribute, and you can change your attribute with a button press. you're immune to bullets of the attribute you're currently on, and your bullets will deal double damage to the opposite attribute. with just these simple parts, they've made a masterpiece that is brutally difficult, and amazingly fun. Also, the high score runs of Ikaruga are insane, and several of the top runs use different patterns to do so. It's a relatively short game, but the challenge it provides is infinitely replayable, and I can't recommend it more. I'd love to see you give it a shot!

[@slowbro13215]

It's awesome that you played this game, this is probably the game I played the most back in the day. I'm surprised to see no one mention the ROM hack for this game that removes slowdown. It makes the game more pleasant to play, but also much much harder. I think easy mode with no slowdown is about equal to hard mode with slowdown. You did really well, considering you didn't know how the powerups worked or anything. You were dodging bullets better on your first playthrough than I ever have playing this game.

[@punchabunchabuttons]

That ending... He looked like a kid that got his toys taken away. That was hilarious.

[@SuperNintendies]

You should try out Axelay. I think you will like it! A very polished and challenging game but not unfair if you die.

[@eugenethomas1636]

20:35 that thing behind him took his shit away

[@Merennulli]

Yes, I hate the Option Hunters. About your only way to deal with them is to keep a Mega Crush in reserve. I don't know what the game logic is on them either. One time I got rid of it with Mega Crush and another appeared almost immediately to take its place.

[@mewthree6586]

The original blue shell of death!

[@jonkohrr2.06]

we need the Ryu-venge!

[@marcosquiroz6997]

Probably my favorite super Nintendo game it's sooooo amazing and yes it's hard don't die. They literally have a name in the shmup community called gradius syndrome that specifically references the fact of dieing to late in the game to progress, and leads to chain death after chain death. It's not the only shmup that does this but it's one of the many many thing the gradius franchise is known for. Love it keep on the grind we all wanna see you triumph this beast of a game that is actually very hard and very amazing.

[@jay_cee583]

Do we tell him about the hidden difficulty above Hard? Ryu, In the options screen when you make it say Hard, mash A really fast for a little while, and you get a hidden difficulty.

[@metalmachine76]

aka "soul-crushing" mode

[@Nick_Lyston]

So entertaining watching a twitch gaming expert figure out classic game mechanics in real time. In most cases someone as skilled as Ryu would know how Gradius’s powerups work.

[@KevinVideo]

Should definitely play it on Normal like a scrub and dominate. This is a game that's worthy of Debunking the Difficulty.

[@Polynyce]

I cannot describe the white hot rage I feel that you didn't pick the e laser which is easily the best weapon in the game by miles

[@JasonSmith-jv7wl]

Honestly it is a toss up between having spread missile and c-laser package (better against the stage) or going small spread, e-laser, and the following option which can literally one shot bosses if you get full charge and align all your options against the boss weak spot. Spread missile also wrecks bosses but only if you can get the explosion to hit their cores.

[@dominikkhilji808]

Never played this one LOVED Parodius though! It’s basically a cuter comic version of this game with penguins, pirates, penguinpirates and more awesome stuff. I believe the games are similar in mechanics. In Parodius some weapons did. way more dmg than other ones. Where you restarted, might have been able to do enough damage if you utilized the missile or torpedo right.

[@cha0sunity]

Round option + e laser + reduce...

[@JeremyFe]

I still play this game every once and awhile on the SNES and it’s one of my favorite SNES games that I like to play out of the 25 that I have.

[@Gerardmenvuca413]

I've played a lot of that game.. and the monster that steal your power up is a really rare rng you are lucky

[@dankybongblunttree9634]

This video is old by now but if anyone doesn't know if you get all 4 of the options that are in a fixed pattern you can spread them further by highlighting the option bar.

[@dm319-j5y]

Great to see this! I think I was asking for a while to see you play Lifeforce on your ridiculously hard series, which is a NES game part of the gradius series. Your ability is insane btw in those tricky bits. Would also love to see you beat this one.

[@Eight-Bytes]

The SA-1 patch + Arcade difficulty I would say makes this an absolute nightmare to play through.

[@Steve-Fiction]

Very fun, I would love to see a Gradius III Arcade version attempt now (that one is the real hard mode).

[@semajniomet981]

In order to access it, you need to mash A sixteen times in a second, something that I was only ever able to do using the turbo controller on an emulator.

[@jeremymajors8982]

This vid is absolutely hilarious!! I'm shouting, get the options!! Finally, gets the options. Then, later, Ryu's options get snagged right out from under him, and he's like WFT!!! Yeah, these games were bonkers hard, and if you don't keep the power ups until the final boss, you're toast. Imagine, having to beat this game with ONE straight playthrough on hard mode.

[@kylehaney4124]

This is one of my all time favorite games and even to this day some 20 or so years later I still haven’t beat it lol

[@Bigd2k]

8:20 reason #1 that while I love these kind of games, I can never beat them without near unlimited lives.

[@littleboyblue707]

This Guy Played Gradius 3 for the First Time on Hard. But survived until the 3rd lvl before his First Continue. salute!!

[@PigDaddy2020]

Ways you can tell Ryu hasn't played Gradius before: 1. Doesn't immediately pick speed up at least twice. 2. Unlocks anything instead of option next. 3. Pronounces Gray-Dee-Us instead of Grad-E-Us. Optimal power-up selection for those interested: Speed-up (x2), Option, Missiles, Option, Laser, Option, Option, Shield. Following this setup, feel free to switch to double/tailgun when necessary. Not counting that scenario, make sure to no longer pick up red powerups once you are over shield, to facilitate immediately replenishing your shield once it has been lost. Extra Pro tip: If you die at any point mid stage, you're better off just reseting the game & starting over. TBH, your better off reseting if you die at all, so try not to do that, lol!

[@Philip027]

Ahh, Gradius, the perennial "Continuing is Painful" classic. It's probably already been pointed out, but the game can be started on an even harder difficulty setting called Arcade by pressing the A button repeatedly on the options screen while the cursor is pointing at the difficulty setting. And regardless on what mode you start on, when you beat the game it loops again from the start on an even harder setting. After a certain point it is nigh impossible to recover should you die, but up until that point, one of the hallmarks of a skilled Gradius player is not actually just never dying (which mainly comes down to memorizing patterns and level layouts), but dying and still being able to recover and continue moving forward despite the loss of your powerups. This is easier in some Gradius games compared to others.

[@vladkraven7491]

This moment you lost your item is golden. You re the best ryu

[@Jonathan29085]

Damn can't believe this flew under my radar for so long. Easily my favorite and most played SNES game outside of R-Type 3, SMW, & Yoshi's Island. If you ever go back to beating it, I can give you the rundown of the basics and some tips to help you out.

[@BknMoonStudios]

There's literally a game design term called "Gradius Syndrome" that refers to games taking away all your powerups upon death and forcing you to play underpowered. Gradius 1 wasn't the first videogame to have it, but it certainly was the most popular. The complaints from gamers in the 90s got so bad that other companies and even Konami itself (the developers of Gradius) removed the checkpoint system and began to allow players to credit feed through the games. As far as I can tell, the only company that insisted on keeping the checkpoint system was Irem/Granzella, the developers of R-Type.

[@Rob_Enhoud]

I admire your ability to laugh at the bullshit and not throw your controller through the monitor.

[@chrisandrew7577]

I just noticed your hat collection in the background. Dang I feel that. I got a rack that rivals yours! Keep collecting my dude!

[@powerhound]

I definitely would like to see you go through Star Fox 64. Multiple paths even.

[@bottomofthemeters7952]

"You can't do it. You're too weak. You're too weak." -Ryukahr, Motivational Speaker.

[@williamlusk52]

Loved this one when I was younger... sux you got nailed RIGHT as you picked up one more P/U that put you at SHIELD!!! Also, you're too GOD-TIER to go to normal, you'd just own it. It was a rough and unforgiving game, but SO much fun to try and try and try again - similar in ways to R-Type 3 for SNES.

[@blackpow3r]

This was my game! This game Gradius Gaiden and Gradius 5 really help your hand eye coordination and reflexes! Advice is to always get 2 options first and 2 speed ups before lasers lol

[@ederwolf3363]

I'd love to see some debunking the difficulty in romancing saga games

[@user-a5Bw9de]

As far as I can remember, somebody came up with feasible recovery strategy for every checkpoint in this game. That's actually crazier than it sounds.

[@mrmanju6989]

Most ppl prefer the RIpple but the Laser has it's uses in some of the middle levels for blasting straight through hordes of baddies

[@maxhebertson6403]

Gradius 3 is awesome!

[@unimaginativexhandle]

Use to play this all the time with my grandfather, and the struggle with the sand cave boss is real. Always got stuck there

[@Swnkmstr]

I always opt for Missle, Double, Ripple, R Option, Reduce, and Mega Crush. I've yet to beat the game but i find having a smaller ship makes it much easier to not get hit by things or just get out of making bad decisions much easier.

[@Merennulli]

What's the benefit of Ripple over the other energy weapons?

[@Swnkmstr]

@@Merennulli Honestly i just like the large AOE hitbox on the ripple, vs say the laser which is more or less a beam of death. I can play safer when attacking units on either the floor or ceiling by not moving as close to either obstacle.

[@Merennulli]

@@Swnkmstr Thanks. I usually did Cyclone Laser or Energy Laser because I never could figure out what Ripple was doing for me.

[@Swnkmstr]

@@Merennulli That's fair, i mean at the end of the day there might be an optimization that's best but i figure it really comes down to how you like to play/what play style is comfortable for you.

[@Merennulli]

@@Swnkmstr True. Though I just was ignorant of what it did. As a kid in the early 90s with no internet, all I had to go off of was trial and error. And I wasn't very good at video games, so it was mostly error. 😅

[@hevertonfonseca9366]

Love this game!

[@troyjesso1567]

This game has a small cheat code where if you die you can get a full power up by pausing the game and then input this Up,up,down,down,L,R,L,R,b,a,b,a,select,start.

[@shmubob]

used to play the cabinet release of this on MAME all the time. love it!

[@Llohr]

_1942_ was my first shoot-em-up too. I was never good at it.

[@Alex-rl4uy]

As a gradius 3 expert, autographs later, I was yelling at my phone the whole time you played this in frustration. That hurt bro.