Gradius

Gradius (グラディウス Guradiusu), also known as Nemesis, is a 1985 horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Konami, originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1985. It was the first game in the Gradius series of shoot 'em ups.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Addicting Shoot 'em up gameplay.
 * 2) Awesome 8-bit soundtrack.
 * 3) Vivid and detailed graphics at that time (the arcade version).
 * 4) Unique powerup system that you can choose depending on how you collect powerups:
 * 5) * Increase movement speed from slow to fast.
 * 6) *Missiles that shoot downwards.
 * 7) *Double fires projectiles diagonally upward. Incompatible with laser.
 * 8) *Laser, the most powerful weapon in the game. Incompatible with double.
 * 9) *Options, fire support ships that follow behind the player's movements. Up to four (two in NES version) can only be active at a time.
 * 10) *Block enemy projectiles via an energy shield.
 * 11) Challenging difficulty.
 * 12) Many ships to choose from.
 * 13) Multiple difficulty levels that increase every time you beat the game.
 * 14) The MSX port includes a few new power-ups, weapons, enemies, bonus levels and an extra stage.
 * 15) Was the first game to introduce the Konami Code, while Contra popularized it.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The final boss is anti-climactic, you can beat it in less than a few seconds. Unfortunately, this trend continues on many sequels.
 * 2) While the difficulty is challenging and well balanced, it can be a little to much for casual players, especially considering the one-hit death mechanic and losing all of your power-ups upon death.