Gradius

Gradius (グラディウス, Guradiusu; /ˈɡræd.i.əs/ GRAD-ee-əss or /ˈɡreɪ.di.əs/ GRAY-dee-əss) is a series of shooter (shoot'em up) video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper.

On December 5, 2025, Konami Arcade Games held the Gradius Lottery, a lottery sale to commemorate the series' 40th anniversary. The lottery sale offered a chance to win Gradius items featuring numerous original illustrations, as well as special postcards as bonus gifts.

An early horizontal-scrolling shooter from which gameplay elements of the Gradius series were inspired. Although there is no canonical relationship between Scramble and the Gradius series, Scramble is implied to be a spiritual predecessor to the series, evident by its appearance in flashbacks during Gradius introduction sequences (Gradius Advance). Scramble has been ported to other platforms, including MSX and Commodore 64. In 2002, Scramble appeared on GBA as one of the titles featured in Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced as well as later Konami game compilations for PlayStation and Nintendo DS.

The first true Gradius game to introduce the concept of the 'weapon bar'. During the game, many enemy craft leave behind items or 'pick-ups' when destroyed that can be used to power up or modify the player's vessel. Collecting one of these will shift the selection cursor along the weapon bar at the bottom of the screen. The player can then select the weapon highlighted if they want it. The cursor then resets. In general, the more useful 'power-ups' are towards the right-hand side of the bar, so the player may decide to stock up on pick-ups until the better item is available. This innovation allowed for deeper tactics on the part of the player and for greater freedom of weapon choice rather than relying on the pre-determined power-ups common in other games in the genre. Originally released as an arcade game, its popularity resulted in ports to the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, NES/Famicom, MSX, Master System, X68000, Amstrad CPC and PC Engine. More recently, ports to the Saturn, PlayStation, and certain mobile phones were created. (Saturn, PlayStation and computer versions are all packaged with Gradius II as Gradius Deluxe Pack). In addition, the NES version was re-released for Virtual Console, NES Classic Edition, and the PC Engine version on the PlayStation Network. In territories outside Japan, the arcade and MSX versions of Gradius were released under the title Nemesis.

Set in the same continuity as Gradius. The game is noteworthy for a number of reasons. Most prominently, the game switches between horizontal and vertical stages, one of the first games of its kind to do so, and it was also one of the first shoot 'em ups to include cooperative gameplay.

The first player ship is Gradius's own Vic Viper ship, while the second ship is the Lord British space destroyer (sometimes called the "RoadBritish") which is based on the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Unlike Gradius, Salamander uses a more conventional weapons system, with enemies leaving a wide variety of distinct power-ups. The NES version of Salamander, called Life Force in North America (and marketed in that region as the "sequel" to the first Gradius), and the MSX version used the power meter from the Gradius series. There also exists an arcade game named Life Force that is identical to Salamander released in Japanese arcades the same year, except that a Gradius-style power meter is used instead of conventional power-up items, and the stages were recolored slightly as well as given some voiceovers to make the mission about traveling inside someone's body, rather than through space. Stages took on names such as "Kidney Zone" and "Stomach". An American release was also made, but it retained the original power-up system of Salamander, though it was renamed as Life Force.

The MSX Gradius 2 is unrelated to the second arcade Gradius game (which used the Roman numeral "II"). Instead of controlling Vic Viper, the available ship is called "Metalion" (code name N322). Like the MSX version of Salamander, this game also has a storyline, which is told through cutscenes. The gameplay is mostly unchanged from the rest of the series, though there are some power-ups that temporarily give the ship some enhancements. In addition, when the bosses are defeated, the Metalion can fly inside them before they explode, and a smaller level will start that awards weapon upgrades when finished without dying, depending on the speed at which the boss was defeated. In the same year, Zemina released a version for the Korean Master System. This version was ported to the X68000 computer under the name Nemesis '90 Kai, with a number of graphical and aural enhancements. A graphically enhanced version with smooth scrolling appeared in the Japan-exclusive PSP Salamander Portable collection.

Bearing no relation to the MSX game titled Gradius 2, Gradius II is the chronological sequel to Gradius. The game did not see a North American release until 2006 as part of the PlayStation Portable title Gradius Collection. On November 12, 2020, it was released on the Nintendo Switch as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives series. It was released as Vulcan Venture in territories outside Japan.