I see. 
 

I like the Gradius upgrade system  

Hmm I made it nearly four stages further and my score was half of my best so far ???

also I take the same path every time and have had different stage orders a couple of times. 

Wtf this game has tricks and technique I must be missing!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!! Lol

The only trick is to not die.  It's a fairly simple game once you play through it a couple times.  Come on skinny, it's not even that hard.
 

Progress doesn't mean that much in terms of score. I've reached stage 21 and still haven't cracked 700k.

Not being accurate enough on the target stages really hurts your score.

Hitting the ramps is worth 10k a pop.



 

But I was expecting this to be harder. It's not as bad as RC Pro-Am.

Sampsie...I had a lil time to grind this week and that motivation from the human cyborg... wwwwwwwwooooooooo... BABYYYYY!!!! Here comes the tapeworm!!!

 

1363000

https://imgur.com/gallery/utF0M

Those are the "make or break" stages for me in terms of score.

 

I think the weapon that shoots from all sides might be better for the bonus rounds, but my favorite weapon is the forward spread shot.

Now that I’m not working tonight I am going to take another crack at this game and use all my continued to boot.
 

Score posted on page 1

Are you using upgrades? Press select when you collect pods to upgrade stuff.

I know how how to play the game. I got participation and that’s what matters.
 

Score updated. Upon further review,this game is not so bad. Still not a fan of some aspects of it,but not a bad game at all.

259,450


This is my first time playing this, wow I can't believe it took me this long.  This is the best NES game I've played for the first time in quite a while, like years maybe. The variety is amazing and the graphics are crisp. I'm having that same feeling from the first time I played MTPO or Battletoads and just keep thinking, damn this game is awesome and original all the way through.

I'm posting this score now but I know I will be playing Cobra Triangle this weekend lots and I will top myself, so far I put in 4 or 5 attempts and improved every time.  The waterfall jumping is stalling me but I enjoy repeating old levels on a new run and trying to maximize there.  Gonna check out the instruction book now to get a better handle on the power-up system before I try again.

SCORE EDIT: Started to figure this out and got more longevity, I scored in this range twice
old score, 114,350

Leaderboard updated.  

I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting RC Pro-Am with boats. It can be aggravating, but nowhere near RC Pro-Am levels, and it's fun.
 

Ooooh I just beat gutsmans score by a hair. But I'll really need to step up to reach those top tier scores

Yeah I’m with you on RC pro am I just don’t dig it. This game is quite a bit different though.  I’m done playing for now but I’m going to tweak my inventory strategy to give myself a forcefield through the whirlpools. And also to master hitting the crazy jump and landing back in the canyon for 10K (did it by accident once, it’s risky)

Did anyone else notice when you fall into the waterfall it makes the same noise as when you fall in Marble Madness?
 

414,200

I did better than I thought I would.

I always feel like I do okay. Not great, but decent. Then I see some of these scores and they seem unreal to me lol. I did not figure out you had power ups until the waterfall stage lol, and i died running out of time to the crab monster. Need to start reading the manual before playing  .
94,150

First to break the 800k barrier. I finally worked out a good high score strat.

However, I expect the _good_ players such as Swift to get well over a million with these rules. It wouldn't be that hard to do.

 

Wooohooooo!!! Nice job mbd.