The origins of a classic
Sometimes I forget just how many shooters exist in gaming. The genre may not be as prevalent as it was back in the arcade days, but the sheer volume of games of this style is incredible. Today I am taking a look at just a sampling of one of the most well-known series, Gradius. This new collection from Konami contains six original arcade games, a brand-new entry, as well as various versions of each of the originals. It is a hefty collection packed with a ton of extras. Revisiting these games has been a treat, and it serves as a great history of this storied franchise.
Let’s kick off with what is included. We get six original arcade games including Gradius 1-3, Salamander 1 and 2, and Life Force. Each one of these has different iterations of the arcade games such as Japanese and European versions. It even includes Gradius III AM Show Version, which was previously never available on a home console. Sadly, there are no console iterations included in the collection. The arcade versions are far superior, but it would have been cool to have those versions as well.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99
Also included is a brand-new entry in the series, Salamander III. It is wild to see this in 2025. It feels straight out of a 90s arcade with its crisp pixels and ridiculously hard difficulty. This is how to put an accent on a collection of classics like this. The game retains that Gradius feel and while it is a bit on the short side, I loved every minute of it. Sadly, the omission of Gradius IV and V are sorely missed, but perhaps they could be added in future DLC?
If this collection was just the games, it would still be awesome, but Konami went the extra mile here. Unlike other past collections, this one is packed with a ton of extra goodies from these games. First up, Gradius is known for its music as much as its game play, there is an entire collection of tracks and a music player to check them all out. This even includes sound effects like inserting a coin, which is a pure nostalgia hit. Some of these tracks live rent free in my head, even all these years later.
There are also a ton of filters to customize how the game looks. There are standard pixel perfect modes, stretch and fill modes, as well as plenty of wallpapers and of course the traditional black bars. There are different visual style options including scanlines, but the bonus here is I could adjust them by line, which is super cool. I could recreate the old arcade screen effect. This is one of the better implementations of these effects I have seen.
There are also a TON of quality-of-life options within the game. The standard rewind and save state features are here. I laughed how the game had to constantly tell me when I instinctively hit that rewind because I messed up, that I was no longer eligible for leaderboard. I get it, I suck. There are also various control options like rapid fire and other toggles. There are easy modes, invincible modes, and even training to improve your skills at the game. It really is packed with extras that I genuinely appreciate. It makes the game approachable for those who suck at shooters, while leaving the challenge there, even the Achievements are interesting, which is rare these days.
Finally, we have a museum that is packed with a ton of artwork and documents about the games. There is some great art here that I loved digging through, including overviews of the enemies in each game and details like how many hits they take to defeat. This thing is really packed with extras, it is by far the best collection Konami has put out, and if you love the history of Gradius, this is a must own.
Gradius Origins is a phenomenal package that has just about everything you could want from one of these. The games included are incredible, they created a new entry just for the collection, and the additions and inclusions are simply amazing. I had a great time just digging through all the stuff, the only way it could be better is having a documentary built in, sort of like what Digital Eclipse does with their Gold series. This is as close to that standard as far as these collections go. Now I want Konami to do Contra and Castlevania like this one. Definitely recommended if you have any affinity for the series or genre.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
