Nemesis '90 - Konami/SPS

Nemesis '90 is another Gradius game by Konami, and this time the platform is X68000. I think the main idea of Konami is to cover all the platforms with Gradius and Castlevania games, maybe Contra games too, but we couldn't find the X68000 Contra yet... All major platforms before the 3D era had a Gradius and a Castlevania game (well, except for Genesis, SMS and GG, cause Konami didn't develop titles for Sega that time).

Loading Screen(Nemesis games are known for their great title screens. Click for fullsize)

This version has a peculiarity: this is an "upgraded" version of the MSX Nemesis 2 (or Gradius 2 for non-Japanese countries) game, and I must admit Konami and SPS made a very good job. All the classic Gradius elements are present, and some new ones too, and even a story!!! =P. All the stages looks similar to other Gradius stages, and one that deserves special mention is the fire stage, just like Salamander's fire stage. You go through caverns, plants, crystals, fire, ruins, spaceships and alien/organic stages just like in any shooter, with the same Gradius feeling we all know and love. The bosses have the Konami classic design, and all of them are very Gradius-ish (with a cameo appearance of the classic Stage 1 boss of Gradius 1/Nemesis 1, multiplied by 10). Weapons? Don't you know the "Speed-up, Missile, Double, Laser, Option and Force Field" style?! Hah, don't kid me! =P

Carcass Powerup

Well, is everything just the same old? NO! Actually, some minor changes to game play were made to ensure this game doesn't get confused with others in the series: you can invade the defeated enemy's carcass and steal a weapon! That's a pretty cool feature, and some of the new weapons are really useful. The only problem is that the weapons bar gets too big, and you spend more time collecting power-ups to get the best weapons than normal. Among the new weapons, there are some up and down lasers, more powerful missiles (like the spread bomb) and a totally new yoyo-like weapon called Reflex. This is the first Gradius game I see that uses itens too, like a very powerful wave laser, a slowdown device, and the coolest feature of the entire game: the R.Drill! The R.Drill will make your Metallion (yep, they changed the old Vic Viper name) spin like crazy, generating a force field-like effect. That's a pretty cool thing to see, too bad it only happens in the alien/organic stage.

It's a difficult game, like most of X68000 games are (I don't know, maybe something in the hardware? Akumajo Dracula is one of the most freaking difficult Castlevania games ever made!), and the graphics are in the SuperNES or arcade level. The music is pretty good too, and the X68000 hardware helps it sound good (that’s not the case of the OPL3 X68000 MIDI implementation in Ex68, which causes the notes to get stuck). Overall, its a great game that any Gradius fan would be proud to have in his/her collection.

--Vitor

More Screenshots...

*** Emulation tips: Using Ex68 v1.06, you'll come across a few problems that can be easily solved changing some options in the emulator setup. First of all, to activate the keyboard (so you'll not panic when the continue screen comes up and you can do nothing), go to "OPTION", then "KEY/MOUSE" and check the first keyboard box "Keybd Int (JIS keybd)". Now you can press F5. Another problem you might find is in the fire stage. The fire background blocks your weapons bar. To solve that, go to "OPTION", "Debug" and check the "spr bg0 off"box. You can uncheck it after the fire background goes away.