Gradius II Arcade vs PC Engine Super CD |

For best results view at 1080p60fps. It's another episode of Utterly Pointless Comparisons! Today I show you a complete game comparison of the original arcade version of Gradius II along with its PC Engine Super CD port. A lot of people used to say this version was perfect back when it was new... but was it really? Watch this video and find out!
This is a long play or let's play style video that includes a complete playthrough of both versions of the game at the same time with commentary throughout. What a miracle technology is.
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#gradius2 #pcengine #arcade #supercd #konami #shmup #complete #completegame #longplay #letsplay #comparison #retrogaming #16bit #8bit #commentary

[@danmakuman]

One of the greatest home ports ever.

[@demonology2629]

PC-ENGINE CD is okay for a 8-bit system

[@InglebardGaming]

Definitely a top notch port! One of the best on the system.

[@SeveredLegs]

You're right....the FC version of Gradius II is excellent! I love the PCE-CD version, but there's something super satisfying about the FC version, especially how they extended the first stage with the content from Life Force.

[@demonology2629]

Not bad for a 8-bit cd-rom attachment

[@InglebardGaming]

They're both great versions of the game. The FC port is cool since it's so different from the original in so many ways. Also, it's top quality for an 8-bit Nintendo shooter/shmup.

[@Fattydeposit]

Konami did sorta kinda account for the resolution difference in the PCECD port by reducing the size of the player hitbox - effectively rendering projectiles less dangerous.

[@InglebardGaming]

Maybe to a degree, but that didn't help with parts of the game where there wasn't room to maneuver and parts of the background were cut off. Same for the giant spider thingy.

[@liamconverse8950]

The Gradius 1 PC Engine Hucard has the same stars as this Gradius 2 arcade

[@PikangsFutaba]

One extra note, the credits sequence in the PC Engine CD version is slighty different if you beat the game in Professional Mode showing the remains of some of the bosses before finishing it the same way as the arcade, you also hear the Gradius 2 navigator say "Congratulations!!!" if you beat the game on that difficulty.

[@InglebardGaming]

Cool, thanks for the info! I always just play Gradius titles on the default difficulties.

[@roberto1519]

Most of ports across platforms back then suffered from this aspect ratio issue, each machine had their own resolution, some are bad to the point vertical games either crop the top and bottom parts without adjusting enemies accordingly or go balls to the wall stretching the whole thing. There are many Genesis to SNES ports, where the developers clearly targeted SEGA's console as the basis which make clear the SNES smaller horizontal resolution stretches the whole game, or vice-versa. And rare cases where the console port features more resolution than the arcade original, such as the early Gradius. Salamander and Parodius Deluxe Pack series for the Saturn, giving some of the titles in those discs more to see on screen, while the PS releases are mostly identical to the arcade original in this aspect, which again is a rare instance where the developers cared enough since the Capcom Generations games on the Saturn are lazy ports compared to the more accurate PS counterpart, as Sony's machine supports those older resolutions better. Then again, it's fair to say that Konami was one of the best companies when porting their games to computers and specially consoles since the NES and PC Engine eras. There are rare instances where developers considered the lower horizontal resolution of consoles such as the NES, SNES and PC Engine and designed the games assets with that in mind, so when they are stretched on the CRT TVs, they'll look natural, this can be verified by forcing 1:1 aspect ratios on these consoles today.

[@demonology2629]

The PC Engine CD unit Was 8-bit and this describes a lot of the suffering

[@InglebardGaming]

The late 80s through mid 90s definitely saw Konami at the top of it's game. They were one of the best, if not THE best, third party devs during that time. It's kinda sad seeing what's become of them in the modern era.

[@roberto1519]

​@@InglebardGaming I'll say that as far as sports and rhythm games go, they were the absolute leaders in the late 90's and early 00's. While this isn't counted nor acknowledged in basically all retro channels, the Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu, Winning Eleven, Dance Dance Revolution and the Beatmania series were updated frequently and I'm pretty sure they made millions and millions with these franchises, the PS1 alone has something like 10 Powerful Pro titles and 20 Winning Eleven updates, not to mention the same amount for Dance Dance and some Beatmania and the PS2 era was crazier for them, while these may not count as "true games", their relevance can't and shouldn't be denied as culturally they've been present to this day, Power Pros is still very popular in Japan, and the Winning eleven/PES soccer games are always competing against FIFA for 3 decades now, while I'm sure Konami soccer is predominant across Asia and FIFA obviously more in western countries to a degree. Yes, Konami isn't great anymore, but so aren't SEGA, Sunsoft, Squaresoft and you name it, it's really hard to keep your relevance in an everchanging market such as electronics/digital entertainment. In the early 00's, SNES and Mega Drive games were considered Atari old and almost no one cared, until it became cool again, and now a very expensive hobby.

[@demonology2629]

@Ed y Good insightful information thank you.

[@SurelyYewJest]

I watched a Gradius III arcade walkthrough the other day. I was very surprised not just at how hard it looked, but how LONG it was. I can't say I've ever seen an arcade title go that long. You had to be dedicated to beating that one to shell out the money required to get through it.

[@InglebardGaming]

Arcade Gradius III is obscenely hard and very long. Konami went a little off their rocker with it. At it's core its a fun game, but it would have been way better if they toned it down - case in point, the SNES version is a much better game to actually play in my opinion, even though the arcade version generally looks and sounds a little better. Oh and you can't even continue in the arcade version! Both versions have tons of slow down, too. Although, the SNES port has been updated in recent years to get rid of the slowdown!

[@SurelyYewJest]

@@InglebardGaming Oh crap there are no continues in arcade Gradius III?! Ya I'd be super pissed if I got really far in and had no continues.

[@cps1247]

PCE CD port of Gradius must be one of the most premium ports back in the day, considering they did squeeze an full fledged M68000 16-bit arcade game to a mere 8-bit 6502 assembler console (with 16-bit color support). As if "arcade accurate" is not enough they add an anime-like intro, exclusive stage, and different endings on each difficulties.

[@InglebardGaming]

It was definitely a fantastic port, no question there.

[@JRoqqs25]

26:14 It's "Tetran". Intruder is the dragon-like boss that originally appeared in the arcade port of Lifeforce/Salamander and the one that splits into three heads in Gradius 2 Arcade and PCE ports after shooting its first phase

[@InglebardGaming]

I've always gone by what it said in the manual for the NES game (since it was new). There's a scan of it here: www.thegameisafootarcade.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Life-Force-Salamander-Game-Manual.pdf It's still confusing as to whether or not that was an error or if other references to the name are wrong. Still, I mostly see Cruiser Tetron as the name of the dragon and Intruder as the tentacled space ship.

[@ostiariusalpha]

​@@InglebardGaming Oh, those NES manuals and their misnaming tendencies... 😅 There's an entire generation of gamers that were misled by those things.

[@gloriab702]

Another awesome video! There was the Gradius Deluxe Pack for the Saturn and Playstation released in 1996 with Gradius 1 and 2 which are actual ports and not emulation. I would say those are better ports than the PCE versions but the PCE versions are pretty impressive. Another thought: people use the word "Arcade Perfect" loosely. I never liked the term. There's no such thing as there are sound, color, resolution and other minor differences between the original pcb and the console hardware being ported. It just occurred to me there is a X68000 version of Gradius 1 and 2 as well.

[@InglebardGaming]

Yeah, when I hear the term "arcade perfect" I think it has to be literal, otherwise, what's the point? It would be fair with some games to call them close to arcade perfect, but yeah, the careless use of that term has always annoyed me. The same for the term "impossible port." No port is impossible. It's just a matter of how close to the original game you can get. Sometimes its real close, sometimes its not close at all. Someone could port Virtua Fighter to the Atari 2600... it would probably suck, but it's not impossible, anyone with programming skills can do a "port" of any game. I'm not sure I'll ever cover the Saturn and PS1 ports of the games, but I don't know, we'll see. They're probably too similar to the arcade originals overall to make them into a worthwhile video.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@InglebardGaming I think past a certain point of compromise, it stops being a port and turns into an original work inspired by the game. For example, a literal minded Gran Turismo on 2600 would be a cruel joke, but with an overhead view and a focused upgrade path, you could probably coax a RAM boosted cart into passing for a semi-hardcore driving sim. At which point, you could slap a Gran Turismo branding on anything that takes driving beyond quarter munching escapism. (Test Drive might be more reasonable, since the roads are still using techiques from Pole Position.)

[@Sinn0100]

I would love to see the Gradius II secret "almost arcade" port on the TG-16 Mini against the arcade. I would like to know how really close they are and what they differ.

[@InglebardGaming]

Maybe down the road some time, but definitely not any time soon. I'd do arcade vs SNES Gradius III if the arcade version wasn't so outrageously difficult.

[@visionop8]

I've got the PC Engine CD version and I love it! I knew it wasn't exactly arcade perfect but I have always been amazed at how close it is considering the PCE verison uses a single 8-bit CPU and the arcade original utilizes dual Motorola 68000 CPUs. I noticed "IGA" in the PCE version end game credits, was that Koji Igarashi of Castlevania fame? He is typically credited in his games as IGA. Well done comparison! I've also got the Gradius and Salamander collections on the Sega Saturn but I've never played the arcade original versions of those. It would be cool to see those compared to the arcade originals in a video.

[@demonology2629]

PC-ENGINE CD is a 8- bit CD rom attachment.

[@visionop8]

@@demonology2629 I play on a Duo R. CD version of Gladius 2 as opposed to other console versions

[@demonology2629]

@@visionop8 long live 8-BIT🎮 🤩📺

[@InglebardGaming]

I don't know for sure, but it's probably the same Iga, I know he was with Konami then since he started with the company in 1990 and this came out in 1992 and worked on PCE titles. I don't know if I'll cover the Saturn or PS1 ports... they're so close to the originals they're probably not worth looking at. But I don't know, we'll see.

[@cps1247]

@@InglebardGaming it was the same IGA that brought Castlevania a light on the late 90s and 2000s, he also credited as scenario writer on Tokimeki Memorial 1, an influential dating sim game.

[@davidaitken8503]

The reason the background tiles on the speed level of the PC Engine version don't have as much detail is they are animated. That is how Konami gives the illusion of multiple layers on their PC Engine games. They even used this trick on NES games such as Bucky O' Hare.

[@InglebardGaming]

I discussed that technique throughout the video.

[@davidaitken8503]

@@InglebardGaming I know you mentioned that it had a pseudo-scrolling layer. I didn't realize you actually talked about how it works. My bad.:)

[@piccolo1976]

I used to love that phrase "Arcade perfect" as a kid, was always banded about in reviews and you always got excited about the possibility of having that perfect port to play at home. As you never got to really compare the versions side by side, you were always satisfied with the port, it was only with the event of Mame did I really get to compare stuff properly years later. Great video here of a great game.

[@simon41978]

Julian Rignall and pals were terrible for that. They said Ghouls N Ghosts was nigh-on identical and Strider was like having a £1500 Arcade board in your house. Reviewers at the time weren't very objective. If the design elements like enemies and stages of the arcade game were there, they'd call it perfect.

[@InglebardGaming]

Ha, yeah, lots of people used to call games arcade perfect back in those days. It was probably worse in the UK where I'd often see high reviews for terrible ports in magazines from there. At least in US-based magazines we didn't see TOO much of that. And man did a lot of people call this port perfect. It's excellent and super well done for the hardware, all props to Konami for that. But as you can see it's definitely not arcade perfect and there were a few places that play differently because of the screen resolution change.

[@simon41978]

@@InglebardGaming C&VG and Mean Machines were the magazines. I was thinking Rignall and pals just got overexcited, lost the plot and started hyping things up. But, they were business people. The hype would sell magazines.

[@aazart8886]

PC ENGINE CD definitely more than Arcade version is a excellent Ports + almost Arcade perfect ports 😮 , Konami make a great job with PC Engine , I'm really surprised how PC Engine look fantastic, we already know Arcade wins , great ports for PC engine cd

[@InglebardGaming]

Konami definitely did a nice job on this one.

[@JRoqqs25]

19:21 Are you referring to that stage in Life Force (NES)/Salamander (FC) with an egyptian temple?

[@InglebardGaming]

No, I was talking about the PC Engine port of the first Gradius, which has an extra level kinda similar to the one in PCE CD Gradius II.

[@simon41978]

It's a great port. I like the Saturn port of Gradius II as I can continue. I think they should have had a continue option on Arcade Gradius II and III.

[@InglebardGaming]

I forgot the arcade game didn't, since it's one of those games where if you die you might as well start over anyway.

[@darkerfalcon3747]

​@@InglebardGaming Only in the JP version. Vulcan Venture (the European version of Gradius II) allows you to continue. Yes the PS1, Saturn and PSP ports retains the continue feature from Vulcan Venture.

[@JRoqqs25]

I honestly like the PCE Gradius 2 soundtrack better

[@JRoqqs25]

(Except the ending track. 😫)

[@InglebardGaming]

There are things I like better both about it and the arcade version. Like a lot of CD games of the era, it goes pretty hard on the treble. But they also added some decent reverb and updated a few instruments.

[@laumpolumpio]

"arcade shows way more stars" I think developers at Konami realized that the arcade had too many "double" stars in the background that it looked bad, so they redrawn it for the PC EngineCD version to make it look more like a real space sky..

[@maddumass]

To match those real Phoenixes 😊

[@darkerfalcon3747]

Gradius II is my favourite Gradius game. You Will make something about Gradius III, such: Gradius III (Arcade VS SNES)? or Gradius III (Arcade JP VS Arcade Asia)?

[@InglebardGaming]

I'd like to, but the problem is Gradius III arcade is so ridiculously hard I don't think I can even stitch together a deathless run of it with save states. It's got to be the hardest game I've ever played. I've beaten it a few times, but never well, lol. The SNES port is nice and way easier/better despite all the slowdown... so I really would like to do an episode on it.

[@darkerfalcon3747]

@@InglebardGaming The JP Version is unplayable but try the Asian version is less harder than the JP version. The best way to go far in the game, is use the Type B (the most powerful one).

[@mortenera2294]

The PC Engine CD is an excellent port that gives the X68000 a run for its money thanks to the superb programming skills of Konami's developers! Too bad NEC shot themselves in the foot with the PC-FX

[@InglebardGaming]

Definitely. On both counts. Man did NEC crash and burn with the PC-FX.

[@waynecuff3140]

Have both, personally prefer the Engine version. Much like Gradius 3, love the Snes version, hate the arcade.

[@InglebardGaming]

I like arcade Gradius II better but they did a great job on PCE CD Gradius. But arcade Gradius III may be the most evil arcade game I've ever played, lol. Just obscenely difficult. The SNES version is so much better despite the slowdown. And the arcade version also had plenty of slowdown, just not as much.

[@Sinn0100]

​@@InglebardGaming Have you seen the secret Gradius II port on the TG-16/Core Grafx Mini?

[@darktetsuya]

I emulated both the PCE CD and FC ports of gradius II, both pretty great ports in their own right! I definitely played a ton of this in konami's classic arcade collection after it landed on switch, still need to upgrade to the arcade archives version, but getting it and a bunch of other classic konami shmups for the price was not a bad deal! as for the PCE CD version, I definitely did not realize it wasn't as close as originally thought!

[@InglebardGaming]

Yeah, the PCE CD port is definitely great, but yeah, it's "perfection" is a bit overstated. Overall it's fantastic, though. I just wish that they hadn't kind of messed up a couple of the bosses that ended up being different because of the resolution reduction. Took me a while to figure out how to take out that big wall machine in the last level without getting slaughtered.

[@demonology2629]

PC-Engine CD port was many leaps behind the 16-Bit consoles. Emulation is the best way to go because it has improved graphics Over the Original 8 bit hardware

[@jasonmuller1199]

I only have gradius 1 and 2 on NES and I love them both but it's 1 of those games that I have never even seen stage 2 lol

[@InglebardGaming]

It's definitely like that for some people. But it's just a matter of practicing and having the gameplay click.

[@jasonmuller1199]

@Inglebard Gaming yeah you seem pretty good at them, I enjoy shooters but I'm bad at them and have alot of Famicom games so I normally just get frustrated and play something else

[@davidaitken8503]

I'm just going to say it. The arcade of Gradius III sucks. It's hard to the point of not being fun. The SNES version has vastly superior audio, better looking colors, and contrary to popular belief really doesn't slow down much worse then the arcade version. Gradius III is just an incredibly demanding game. The fact that the SNES runs it as well as it does is actually quite impressive. The later Parodius games run much better no doubt thanks to lessons learned in how to get the most out of the SNES hardware.

[@InglebardGaming]

Now, here I mostly agree. Arcade Gradius III does have a lot of slowdown and it is INCREDIBLY difficult and unfair. Indo like some of the music better in the arcade version than the SNES version, though.

[@Gamevet]

Somebody put out a ROM hack for the SNES game, that takes advantage of the SA-1 chip. The slowdown is much less in that version.

[@dieseldust27]

Can't stand the grating sound of the arcade. PC Engine wins for me

[@demonology2629]

Another pointless comparison right? Well the PC-ENGINE SUPER CD is just a 8-bit CD rom unit. The graphics are many steps behind the Arcade counter part. The graphics are weak on the super cd👎

[@demonology2629]

@Ed y Honestly It's a decent port For what machine is. Thanks for the insightful information.