La-Mulana wasn’t the first MSX throwback NIGORO worked on, back when they were known as GR3 Project they released a Gradius fan game under the name of “Kenami”. If you’ve never played an STG on the MSX or any game on the MSX for that matter then this is certainly going to be an eye-opener. No it’s not a performance issue, it’s supposed to scroll column by column, the MSX couldn’t do smooth scrolling. Just wasn’t made with that in mind. It’s incredibly jarring and will probably give you a massive headache so all you can really do is try and get used to it.
Hopefully you will have more than four E’s by the end of the stage.
It’s still a damn good game though and shapes up well compared to official Gradius titles. It looks really good and sounds really good just like something Kenami, sorry, Konami could’ve made themselves. Like a real home port you’re only allowed two options max but to make up for that shortcoming you can buy new weapons after each stage using any ‘E’ orbs that you’ve collected. You better hope you can play a stage perfectly, just like your power levels your currency gets zeroed when you get killed which is going to happen frequently unless you’re really good at Gradius. It is such a difficult game. Oh god it is so so difficult I’d rather play loop two of Gradius 3 even though it’s totally bullshit. I’d go a remake though, they remade La-Mulana they should remake this. If it was as good as Hydorah that’d be sick.
The first stage has a really cool boss at the end. I can’t imagine what this is going to be like playing Re-DEATH.
Then you get to version Re-DEATH which is the hard version. Yep, the standard game is the easy mode. In addition to more aggressive enemies stage layouts have been tinkered with which is a genuine reason to play this if you can take it.
Some versions of this only work on old version of Java. I threw up everything I had that wasn’t my dinner so it’s up to you to find the ones that work. Of course the hard one is one of those, hah hah, fun for everyone. Now excuse me I gotta go throw up.
WTF dude even the Spectrum could scroll things smoothly.
Well, you tell me where the enemies are.
Gradius and R-Type together at last like chocolate and orange. It’s a Click n’ Create game and we all know about those so if you’ve got a pad and want to use buttons 3 and 4 ("C’ and ‘V’ on the keyboard) you’ll have to set 'em up with JoyToKey or whatever.
These guys had to turn up some time.
R-Type mechanics work well enough in a Gradius environment even with the power-up bar. It’s just fun to use a Force Pod to take down enemies from a different game, shooting it into the face of bosses, using it to block Moai Head ring lasers even though lasers and particularly big bullets slip though. The developer was kind enough to respawn you instantly after you die and not send you back to a checkpoint which is very appreciated especially after GR 3.
The charge shot is more trouble than it’s worth.
Get it from the usual place.