Nice scores Stan and Ookii.

Stan -- I actually died in the tunnel with the 4 red enemies, but not by them (I was too busy shooting them), but instead by a stray bullet behind me. I know about the "wall" and was more than ready for it, but I got a bit unlucky before I even got there.

Any of you guys have some tips for stage three with the faces that shoot bubbles? I cant seem to safely navigate that stage at all.

Try to stay on top of the stage, with missiles, two options, and lasers.  The missiles and options should keep the orbs the moai shoot at you at bay.  Oh, and make sure you have a shield, with the "?" highlighted so that if you lose your shield you can instantly upgrade back to it.

Awesome score man.  Let's see what I can do when I loop it again, if I have time!  Pray my grading gets the best of me this week.  3 is actually pretty easy to recover from, I just hate the collision detection with some of the damn walls.

Great advice! I got my score up to 191,300! edited my original post, I think I can do better next time, gotta go to work though. 

669,400

Really stupid deaths on stage 2

Glad you could join in on the fun this week. I'm looking forward to seeing more scores.


You'd better make time.hehe

I am so lost in Stage 3 without any powerups. The game is kind enough to reduce the difficulty a bit when you don't have any powerups, but even so...

Stay on the top, and use timing to skirt past each grouping. I typically blow up all faces pointed at me, and when you run into a pair that are facing each other, wait on the top of the left head until the very last moment then run past both (and then duck under the back of the right head or below the top and bottom level separator). 

Some other easy-points tips:

1. Pick up EVERY power-up if you're already fully shielded and armed, because those points add up fast.
2. Kill every end boss for an easy 10K (to do this, don't just shoot -- time your shots to remove the vertical bars in the center of the ship).
3. Run through the volcanos that have passages for an easy 5,000. 
4. In level 2 (Stonehenge), the bottom valleys are also an easy 5,000


Some other tips (I hope it's OK to post these!):

1. If you get to the amoeba level (level 6) and final level (level 7), try using Double instead of Laser -- it's much easier to live. Before the end of Level 6 I try to get enough weapon containers for Double. I think this is why they have the enemies at the end of Level 6 positioned the way they do -- it encourages you to get Double for Level 7. Level 4 (upside down volcanos) may be easier with Double, but I personally prefer to keep Laser here.
2. If you have trouble with the "circle" enemies at the end of the Moai level (that open up and shoot 3 shots at you), and you're not fully powered up anyway, just die -- this will bring you back to basics, but beating them will be much easier (you can power up again easily in the next level). These get more difficult as you have more weapons. If you have both options and lasers, just position your ship so that the options destroy them and get your ship out of harm's way.
3. For the end bosses, there's always a dead spot in the middle of the screen that you can sit in to shoot. Find this before trying to kill it.
4. Always try to get at least 2, but no more than 4, speed ups. I prefer 2 personally because it gives me a bit more control to collect points on the very top and bottom of the screen.

Man, I suck. And to think I'd be good at this since I played a lot of Lifeforce back in the day. :V

42700

It's all about saving them powerups.

WOW!!! 418'900 POINTS



Me, my NES, and my controller, as well as my Gradius Game Pak in the NES. It's on my NTSC NES

Soon, Dain, Soon... (I hope you won't ban me for a probable future score-beating at gradius )

Oh, and video proof on the link below(no emulators, no nothing, just me with my ass on the bed with a controller)





EDIT: I forgot to turn off my phone camera, so I'm cutting out the part after the game (It's just me doing weird noises because of my sore throat and me watching youtube)

I'm soooo going to ban anyone that beats me. Then I'm going to un-ban you, then ban you again. And then again.

OHHH Looks like I finally found a way to get out of all the NA workload.

Anyone got a few days to teach me how to be a master at Gradius?

I was going to try and break 1 million tonight, but now that Dain is going to play with my emotions...

Nice scores by everyone so far Glad to see you join in on the fun this week, Dain

I go in Beast Mode with a couple of Jack and Cokes!! So we will see how this goes later.

I just tried drinking Sake and it only made me suck more at this game. I keep flying into mountians while im drunk. 

Sure, why not?

Check out last year's thread for some more valuable tips: 
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/...

I kill it at Gradius and Gradius III when I am drinking. Problems happen if I get too drunk then I play sloppy as hell.

TOM GOT 8,000,000?!

I am sick to my stomach. That participation point is looking pretty good this week We'll see what we can do.

This ones for Dain... On my way to hopefully my first 2 million point game!



Edit... OK.. I didnt hit 2 million... And Im so irritated about how close I came that I may not play this one anymore this week... So close..

I was on a huge run, going into my third flip with 12 ships.... only to misstep and lose all my weapons From there, it was rough going, but I did manage to get to the beginning of Level 4 (upside down volcano) before biting it.



1,253,800

Now get to work you guys!

My single-life score for this run was 1,103,500 with 12 lives (after beating it twice).

Awesome score man. Going to see if I have more time tonight. I want at least a million. After that it's how much you can stand playing it.

84,800

updated old post. bump for my new score, slowly making my way to 200k, 196,200

Dain with the skillzzzz. Too bad he's up against a super natural force.