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Universe is a new freeware Gradius fangame that came out earlier this year, and might just be one of the best Gradius games ever made.
It's a very wild game, turning up the Gradius gameplay formula to basically eleven.
It takes the most after Gradius V, and tries to modernize the series even further.
Some very forward thinking additions to the system like:
- A 16:9 playfield to allow for more dynamic design.
- Being able to refresh your shield when you only have 1 hit left on it.
- If multiple powerups spawn on top of each other they will move off each other.
- A dedicated button to shoot behind you.
- Your missiles and Double change during bosses to shoot forwards.
- Special powerups to lower your speed.
- A test mode where you can freely test loadouts.
- Your shield having different colors for each hit left.
More QOL stuff too like there not being any Gradius syndrome.
There are no checkpoints and you only lose your current weapon upon death, which makes recovery very easy. More powerups in general too, as well as there being no option hunters.
The game is very much a Gradius power fantasy, it gets rid of the more anal stuff and let's you get far more powerful than in any of the official games.
There is a much bigger shot limit, an ability to shoot behind you, a super tiny hitbox even while shielded, and wild weapons like crazy homing missiles. Which lets you do things you never could before.
Though this doesn't mean the game is easy by any means, as it does compensate for you being more powerful by throwing a crazy amounts of enemies and bullets at you.
It's very much a bullet hell as well as an enemy hell, and you'll need everything you can get to get through the carnage.
It does ultimately play a bit more like a modern bullet hell shooter than an old-school Gradius.
There is a lot more focus on dodging than memorization and abusing safespots. The design of enemies and stages also have a lot more random elements to them now that you need to react to.
That said it's a game I can basically recommend to anyone though.
It's basically Gradius but without any of the things that people usually dislike about Gradius.
It has more modern bullet hell sensibilities for newer players while still being Gradius enough to scratch that Gradius itch for old-school players.
The game has 3 difficulties: Easy, Normal and Hard.
Besides that it also has loops that go up to loop 99.
Main modes are One Round Mode and Score Attack.
One Round Mode is only 1 loop while Score Attack keeps looping and making the game harder. You can choose whatever loop you want to start on.
Doing Hard mode Loop 99 One Round Mode for this run, which is the hardest the game can get.
Loop 99 is insane with how many revenge bullets enemies shoot at you, especially bosses.
The way the revenge bullets work kinda reminds me of Gradius Rebirth on super high loops, where something can just shoot a continuous stream of like a 100 revenge bullets at once.
The only real way to survive is to try and seal as many of these revenge bullets as possible.
Luckily the sealing range is quite large, so as long as you stay near the right side of the screen you should generally be safe.
This looks really crazy, but this is still easier than most official Gradius games ha.
There are two extra stages in this game that you can only access via the stage select menu.
I can only guess these were scrapped concepts but I've included them here as a bonus.
EDIT:
Looks like the game got updated to version 1.04.
This changed a bunch of subtle things, but also added some huge new things like a different option loadout and the Very Hard difficulty.
Download the game here:
www.esc-j.net/stg/stgdu/upload...
(Look for 'stgdu0000595.zip')
00:00 - Intro
00:20 - Stage 1 - Volcano
04:04 - Stage 2 - Remains
08:25 - Stage 3 - Cell
14:40 - Stage 4 - Plant
19:04 - Stage 5 - Crystal - A
21:38 - Stage 5 - Crystal - B
26:00 - Stage 6 - Asteroid
31:55 - Stage 7 - Fortress
38:17 - EX-1 - Stone
42:14 - EX-2 - Labyrinth
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