Konami wowed old-school gaming fans with its upcoming
Gradius Collection,
an all-in-one compilation of the classic side-scrolling space-combat
games, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles earlier this
month. The collection features five
Gradius titiles, including
Gradius I, II, III, IV and
Gradius Gaiden. Kit Ellis, a spokesperson for Konami, told SCI FI Wire that the new PSP title will feature a number of extra modes as well.
"Players will have a lot of customizing features to play around
with," Ellis said in an interview. "Players can resize their ship, play
with arcade-accurate slowdown on or off and zoom the game to fill the
wide screen."
Konami chose the PSP to release the
Gradius Collection
because of its fast interface and easy "pick-up-and-play"
accessibility, Ellis added. "This is one of those games you can jump
into really quickly for a few minutes and them put down, or you can get
really deep into it and play it for hours," he said.
Each title appears in its full original form and has not been
updated, so every fight and power-up has an old-arcade feel. Playing
the
Gradius titles is considerably more difficult on the PSP
than on a larger screen, so the developers have included the ability to
customize how much damage a player's ship takes. The adjustable
"hit-box" feature is optional for players who want the challenge.
Players can save any game they want in each title.
For veteran
Gradius fans, the collection offers a new gallery of content, such as the movies from the
Gradius Deluxe Pack (PlayStation),
Gradius III and
IV (PlayStation 2) and
Gradius Gaiden (PlayStation), as well music from all five titles. The
Gradius Collection is due for release this summer. —
Casey Lynch
Source: Sci Fi Wire