- Publisher: Konami
- Release Date: Sep 14, 2004
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GameProIncredibly difficult and insanely enjoyable, Gradius V is one of those magical games that you can pick up and play instantly, but spend weeks mastering. [Nov 2004, p.104]
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Combines best-of-class graphics with a surprisingly back-to-basics approach to the series' familiar gameplay. The result is a sublime shooter that not only does its legacy proud, but actually transcends it.
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Players who are looking for one of the most charming, addictive, and challenging shooters to come along in a long while should waste little time in picking up Gradius V.
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The perfect successor to Ikaruga and the space shooter genre for this PS2/Cube/Xbox age. The action is intense. The control is smooth. The game is screamingly difficult.
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The star of the game is your own craft, the Vic Viper, which comes in four flavors. Each offers a similar set of basic upgrades – missiles, lasers, forcefield – each of the four types has slight differences in these upgrades.
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Quite simply put; this is the finest horizontal shooter on the PlayStation 2. In fact, it’s the finest horizontal shooter on any of the next-generation systems to emerge in some time - a game that can sit proudly in the upper echelons of gaming excellence.
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Balanced, tuned and counter-weighted to within a pixel’s distance of perfection, Treasure have masterminded a game both technically adept and visually astonishing. Revel in this pean to the art of destruction. [JPN Import]
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One of the best games I've played this year, and belongs in any former arcade rat's game library.
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It's pretty, it's accessible, it has a nicely-balanced difficulty level (hard, and frequently quite hard, but practically never unfairly so), and it doesn't hurt that Konami's asking only 30 bucks.
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Edge MagazineThe action creeps up slowly, starting out like a gorgeous-looking but fairly standard shoot 'em up. However, by the middle of level two, it's pummelling you with a relentless parade of conceptual set pieces so audacious and inventive you'll laugh with delight as you gape in horror. [Sept 2004, p.94]
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Unless you’re a shooting god, it’ll be a while before you beat this… and even then, once you do, you’ll unlock lots of new ways to play it all over again.
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And while previous games like "Silpheed" and "R-Type Final" are both excellent games, there is something about the style and the legacy associated with the Gradius franchise that makes Gradius V a force to be reckoned with.
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Sporting incredible visuals and gameplay incredibly similar to the older Gradius games, a Gradius fan or even just a casual Shmup fan should love this.
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With just the main game and the Score Attack mode, it's a bit short on play options; however, for what it does offer, you get a lot of game for just $30. If you're into this type of game or if you have even a remote interest in space shooters, you need to buy this game.
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The production values are excellent, and the simplistic gameplay is classic and at the core of so many old games as well as those new today.
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Gradius V may not reinvent the wheel that is the space shooter, but it refines it to near perfection. This is a title that no serious gamer should miss.
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TotalGames.netDespite the game's incredibly high difficulty level (that sometimes borders on the frustrating); the intricately designed levels, sumptuous aesthetics and razor sharp gameplay will constantly pull you back, until all you can live for is annihilating your previous high score.
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Even with only seven levels, which are huge, it will take even the best shooter fan quite a few tries to complete this one to the end.
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It's a short but sweet experience and unquestionably worth the effort to fight from the beginning to the end. Just don't expect to get very far on the first couple of plays.
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Play MagazineThe graphics are stunning and the enemy and boss patterns will have you laughing with delight at their ingenuity and hand/eye stimulation...This one's not to be missed. [Sept 2004, p.72]
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Though the difficulty level is steep, it isn't the type that sends you home with a gauzy head and a fractured spine. It's more of a glove slap to the face - a challenge from a worthy foe that keeps you coming back for more. [Oct 2004, p.136]
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Gradius V's particular brand of hard-boiled shooting mayhem is so intense that it can keep you breathlessly entertained for as long as your extra lives don't run out.
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The best side-scrolling action game for $30 this side of buying $30 worth of live crabs. That means buy it.
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Weekly Famitsu8 / 7 / 8 / 9 - 32 gold [Vol 815; 30 July 2004]
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Two-player action can get a bit confusing, though, and the game will appeal to a niche audience only. But for those with the fever for quarter-crunching thrills, consider the eagle landed. [Oct 2004, p.94]
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PSM MagazineEverything blows up really well, too. Konami has preserved the classic, 2D action, but rendered the graphics in full, beautiful 3D. [Oct 2004, p.40]
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The only downside is that there isn’t as much to Gradius V as there is to some of its competition (R-Type Final, for example) in terms of variation and replay value, but the key element of Gradius V is its challenging and fun gameplay.
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While non-fans probably won’t dig in as much, this is still an exceptional example of the side-scrolling shooter. It looks great, plays better than ever, and the addition of a two-player option gives it significant staying power.
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Hard as hell, scored like an epic sci-fi movie soundtrack, tighter control than Billy Joel’s car and more gorgeous than a dozen Victoria’s Secret models put together; Gradius V is a real man’s shooter (sorry ladies).
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Very challenging and incredibly addictive. The game does a great job of doing what it set out to do and this is a solid side scrolling shooter.
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Quite simply put - this is the finest horizontal shooter on the PlayStation 2. In fact, it’s the finest horizontal shooter on any of the next-generation systems.
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Electronic Gaming MonthlyWhatever your skill level, good luck finishing the last three levels without unlimited credits. [Nov 2004, p.143]
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Space shooter games are a very specialized taste, but if you get it, it’s very hard to lose the taste and Gradius V has enough variety in it to absorb new players to this genre.
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There is little to make such a game appealing to those who don't find the idea of billions of options for instantaneous death exciting.
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The good news is that although it does require more patience than most games, you at least are rewarded with stellar visual effects that make it worth your while.
Awards & Rankings
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36
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72
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#72 Most Shared PS2 Game of 2004
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 25 out of 28
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Mixed: 2 out of 28
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Negative: 1 out of 28
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May 21, 2018
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Mar 5, 2023best shot em up ever played... graphic 10
sounds 10
gameplay 10
value 9.... no final boss -
Jul 12, 2023The best old school scrolling shoot 'em up bar none. One of those games that you can't imagine ever being bettered.