Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou

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Gradius II

Title screen

Developer:	Konami
Publisher:	Konami
Director:	Hiroyasu Machiguchi
Music:	S. Tasaka M. Furukawa K. Matsubara S. Hukami
Program:	Toshiaki Takatori K. Tsutsui T. Horimoto A. Suzuki T. Fujii.
Art:	M. Yoshitaka H. Ashida M. Iwamoto A. Nonami K. Kakuwa
Release date:	March 24, 1988
Previous game:	Thunder Cross
Next game:	Parodius

Gradius II, also known as Vulcan Venture, is a horizontal scrolling shoot em' up developed and published by Konami in the year 1988. It is the sequel to the first Gradius, being released after the spin-offs Salamander and Life-Force. Since then, Gradius II has been ported to home consoles several times, some of them very closely resemble the Arcade version while others not so much.

Gameplay Overview

Controls

Gradius II is a 3 buttons game. There are 8 stages and after beating them the player goes back to the first stage, starting on a harder second loop.

• A button: Equips the slot highlighted in the Power Meter.
• B button: Fires the player's main weapon.
• C button: Fires the player's missiles.

Power Meter

This is the powerup system in the Gradius series. Collecting Power Capsules highlights one slot going from left to right. Grabbing a Power Capsule when the ? slot is highlighted makes the Power Meter roll back to the Speed Up slot. Dying with a Power Capsule not utilized will highlight the Speed Up slot regardless of where it originally was.

Each slot does the following:

• Speed Up: Increases the player's speed. Can be equipped up to 5 times.

• Missile: Adds a ground-based projectile.

• Double: Adds a secondary shot giving more coverage. Equipping Double replaces Laser in case the player was using it.

• Laser: Upgrades the main shot. Higher damaging than both the regular shot and Double. Equipping Laser replaces Double in case the player was using it.

• Option/Multiple: Adds an orange orb that mimics the player's movement and weapons. Can be equipped up to 4 times.

• ?: Activates a shield that grants protection against bullets and enemies.

Weapon configurations

Type 1
Weapon loadout from the original Gradius. Has enough versatility to handle any situation.

• Missile: Fired downwards and travels across the ground.
• Double: Secondary shot fired at a 45° angle.
• Laser: Thin beam that can pierce through enemies, but has a considerable cooldown before being fired again.

Type 2
High power, but lacks coverage. Precise option control is needed against enemies blocked by the terrain.

• Spread Bomb: Explodes upon impact dealing heavy damage.
• Tail Gun: Secondary shot fired backwards.
• Laser: Thin beam that can pierce through enemies, but has a considerable cooldown before being fired again.

Type 3
Arguably a better version of Type 1.

• Photon Torpedo: Falls in a straight line and travels across the ground, can pierce through enemies.
• Double: Secondary shot fired at a 45° angle.
• Ripple: Becomes wider as it travels across the screen, cannot pierce through enemies.

Type 4
Weapon loadout from Salamander. Greatest coverage, recommended for novice and experienced players alike.

• 2-Way: Two missiles fired up and down, they can't travel through the ground.
• Tail Gun: Secondary shot fired backwards.
• Ripple: Becomes wider as it travels across the screen, cannot pierce through enemies.

Shields

	Shield Grants frontal protection against bullets, can withstand several hits.
	Force Field Grants protection from all sides against bullets, can withstand up to 3 hits.

Power Capsules

There are two types of Power Capsules that can be found throughout the game.

	Red Power Capsule Appears upon defeating enemy formations and orange colored enemies. Advances the Power Meter by one slot.
	Blue Power Capsule Appears after 12 Red Power Capsules. Clears the screen from small enemies and bullets. Does not advance the Power Meter.

Loops

Gradius II loops infinitely. After the first loop, enemies will fire suicide bullets after being destroyed, with the difficulty maxing out at loop 4. Higher loops feature more suicide bullets that spawn with a slight delay, making them harder to predict. The loops also feature some stage changes.

Stage 1

The fire dragons spawn more often, have much more health and sometimes extremely long bodies, being able to easily corner the player if not disposed of.

Stage 4

Stage 4 has a significant layout change with almost all of it having erupting volcanoes, making it a very challenging stage.

Strategy

For a breakdown of particularly high-scoring sections see: Gradius II/Scoring Sections

For a collection of video references see: Gradius II/Video Index

Story

Basic story breakdowns, plot information, and endings are included here.

If there is no story at all, or any information about the setting, then this section can be omitted. Try to include at least small things here when you can.

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Development History

If available, you can include information here about the hardware, the development of the game, and its general reception. Try to have as much information in this section cited as possible.

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Version Differences

Extends

There are three versions of Gradius II:

• gradius2b. Referred to as "Older" version in MAME.

• gradius2a. Referred to as "Old" version in MAME.

• gradius2. Referred to as "New" version in MAME.

The most notable difference between them is the extend thresholds. In gradius2b and gradius2a they are awarded at 20k and every 70k points, while in gradius2 it's 20k and every 150k, making the game harder. The actual reason behind this change is due to an infinite pattern in stage 5 during the jumping moais. It's possible to stay in a safe-spot milking rings until a timeout happens where the moais will subsequently award 48,000 points, which is already dangerously close to reaching the extend. This situation being a non-issue in the New version because the score needed is higher. Furthermore, the moais self-destructing grant an insignificant 1,600 points making the infinite essentially impossible. This also explains why gradius2 is the version used in virtually every rerelease and not the other ones.

Vulcan Venture

An international version released in the same year. Similarly, it has "Oldest", "Old" and "New" versions (ROMset names being vulcanb, vulcana and vulcan respectively), though they are seemingly all based upon the Old versions of Gradius II (this may need more research).

Renamed weapons

Probably to more closely resemble Nemesis and Life Force, the Ripple and Options were renamed to Pulse and Multiple. The narrator now has different voice clips to match this change.

Continue option

Brand new to Vulcan Venture is a continue feature. The player can keep playing unlimited times after a Game Over as long as credits are inserted.

Trivia

• When reaching 100 lives, an overflow bug causes a Game Over.

Gallery

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  Japanese version logo

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  International version logo

References & Contributors

1. Primary info provided by Andrew98
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTNOnWjXeRU