Let’s start here: Gradius Origins is a great, and overdue, idea. A package consisting of not just some early, classic Gradius titles, but multiple versions of them—no small thing for a series like Gradius, which released multiple games after the original Gradius before officially reaching the game we know of and consider as Gradius II. A series where Salamander (Japan) and Life Force (North America) are the same, except not, and also Life Force (Japan again) is different still. Where there is a Gradius 2 and a Gradius II, and they are not the same. You get the idea.
Collecting the various editions of Salamander/Life Force together is welcome—the Japanese edition of Life Force is only available via Arcade Archives, which is on the Playstation 4 and Switch, but not on Xbox or PC, so this lets owners of those platforms complete the set. The real fun is in the things exclusive to Gradius Origins, however, such as having both the ROM and bubble system editions of Gradius to choose from—the bubble system was a magnetic arcade board that had to heat up, and allowed for a whole lot more going on as far as display and processing power went compared to the standard ROM boards of the time. It was also expensive, prone to failure, and discontinued after being in just a few games, which is why there is also a ROM version of Gradius in the first place. The bubble one is within Gradius Origins, though, minus the drawbacks of the system. Being able to compare notes between the two will be fun for a certain kind of sicko.
And you’ve got an unreleased version of Gradius III in there as well, which is basically a completely different game than the Gradius III that was actually released. Gradius III AM Showwas recently compared toDoDonPachi: The Great Resurrection, and “Gradius” and “DoDonPachi” are words that probably never appeared together in a sentence before that one. At least never one describing similarities between the two. To say I’m excited to see what that’s about would be underselling it.
And M2—responsible for this collection and these ports—is also making a brand new Salamander game, Salamander 3, for the collection. Between M2 handling it and the use of their patented ShotTriggers gadgets that give you a clearer and fuller understanding of how these games even work—look at what they did for the seemingly impenetrable Battle Garegga, for instance—it’s fair to say these will likely be the definitive versions of all of these games. Which makes it an easy purchase even for those of us who already have 90 percent of what’s in there. Cough cough.
Therein lies an issue, however. Yes, having the bubble and ROM versions of Gradius is going to be lovely, and Gradius III AM Show being available is a first-time-ever thing, but much of what’s here is already available. Which again, is fine because M2 is handling things this time, however, there’s so much Gradius out there that isn’t available and… still won’t be. Because it’s not part of Gradius Origins.
Now, there might be a Gradius Origins 2, or Gradius: The Middle Years and Gradius: Conclusion somewhere down the line. And there has to be, because, as far as a representation of the best that Gradius has to offer in the 40th anniversary of the series, Origins is lacking. It is both essential, and not enough. Not when Gradius Gaiden and Gradius V, inarguably the peak of the series, are nowhere to be seen. Not when there isn’t a single one of the many handheld Gradius titles here—the “Nemesis” name used for the North American release of the original Gradius was utilized for multiple Game Boy family titles. Where’s Gradius Advance, or the arcade spin-off Solar Assault, which is a first-person, on-rails Gradius title that has never seen a home release, nor left Japan? Gradius ReBirth, the WiiWare revival of the series developed by M2 in 2008, isn’t in this collection.
Neither of the MSX-exclusive games are here—Gradius/Nemesis 2 and Nemesis 3: The Eve of Destruction aren’t included, and neither are the Playstation Portable or X68000 revisions of the former. If you want to really dig deep, the Famicom turn-based tactical space warfare game, Cosmic Wars, is missing, as is the mobile phone title, Gradius Arc. The point is that there’s so much Gradius out there, and much of it is still missing. The “Origins” seems to refer to “arcade,” here, which is fine, except it’s incomplete there as well, since Gradius IV isn’t in the mix—even stranger is that Konami’s website markets Origins as including “all 7 arcade titles in the series.” Gradius IV is the seventh one! What is going on here?
This is without getting into that the decision to so strictly focus on the arcade leaves out all of the various home ports of these titles, which seems like a misstep when M2 themselves has gone out of their way when they’re doing the publishing and development work—such as in the Toaplan Arcade Garage titles—to include multiple home ports of Toaplan’s arcade shooters when possible, even if the real draw is the arcade edition. Which means we’ll miss out on things like the NES edition of Life Force, which is its own lovely experiencebecause it’s so different from the arcade ones. Remember, too, that unlike the arcade editions of what’s in Origins—prototype of Gradius III aside—none of these other games are available anywhere else, either, making their absence felt yet again.
Now, Gradius Origins includes seven games and 18 versions of those games, which is substantial, especially for a $40 price tag. I’ve got complaints, as you can tell, but they aren’t about what’s in Origins, so much as what is not. Which is a solvable problem, and not even by Origins. Hopefully, Konami has something else up their sleeve here—some things, really—to make the rest of Gradius available. If Gradius Origins is more like “Gradius Arcade,” then we need to know that there’s also a “Gradius Home” happening at some point. Castlevania games received multiple collections, and Metal Gear is in the midst of the same thing, so it’s certainly possible. Then again, Konami didn’t decide to skip celebrating the 35th anniversary of Castlevania until it turned 36 because they seemingly forgot it was happening, so you understand the apprehension spilling forth from my keyboard, given that this very thing did happen with Gradius.
No, really. In 2021, they launched a line of merch through OKS Gear under the banner of “Gradius 35 Years,” and did so in the middle of a stretch that began in 2011 and will end the moment Salamander 3 releases that saw no new Gradius games or collections of any kind released. The shirts are pretty dope, though. Maybe we’ll get lucky and there will be a 40th anniversary design next year.
The point is that if we’re going to celebrate Gradius, then let’s celebrate Gradius. It deserves the Castlevania and Metal Gear treatment, which it never seems to get despite being so integral to Konami and its long history. Gradius Origins is an excellent start to giving Gradius the respect it deserves, but if it’s all there is, then the context changes, and disappointment ensues. Which might be par for the course for Gradius fans over the last decade-and-a-half, but that doesn’t mean we need to be happy about it.
Marc Normandin covers retro videogames at Retro XP, which you can read for free but support through his Patreon, and can be found on Twitter at @Marc_Normandin.
