Reviews// Gradius Portable (PSP)

Shooting things is fun - just ask Dick Cheney. Why else do US soldiers whoop and holler when that guided missile takes out those terrorist women and children? Why do humans still hunt deer, when you can easily buy venison from Waitrose? Making a target pop, explode or vaporise satisfies something inside us. If, however, the death of Bambi's Mother still wakes you occasionally in the middle of the night, maybe it would be best for your conscience to find a virtual alternative to bloodsports. (bloods-ports? Ed)

You Say Shmuck, I Say Shmup

Perhaps this is why the shoot 'em up (shmup) genre is the oldest in video game history. The urge to take aim and shoot targets - without worrying about the consequences - became gaming reality in 1962. An experiment conducted by a certain team of computer scientists, called The Tech Model Railroad Club, sent shockwaves through computing academia - in the form of Spacewar.

"So ultimately this is to blame for turning generations of children into psychopathic, amoral zombies", we hear the Daily Wail cry? Well, yes and no. Spacewar was a revelation, but only to those in academic circles - it didn't register on the general public's radar. Of course, it was cutting edge technology, and therefore too expensive to be made into a widely available form of entertainment for the public. But things soon changed for the better and along rolled the seventies, along with ROM chips, and suddenly videogames were becoming a viable and affordable entertainment medium. And the major catalyst for the gaming explosion? Space Invaders.

Even if you were born in the nineties, or Uncle Bernhard still has you locked in his cellar, it's pretty likely you'll have heard of this legendary title. It's the Granddaddy of shmups, and quickly paved the way for other classic titles. Galaxian introduced autonomous enemies that broke rank; Defender released shmups from the shackles of just one screen; and Moon Cresta pioneered the now ubiquitous power-up. However, in 1985 a shmup arrived on the scene, and made an evolutionary leap in the genre.

Gradius (Nemesis in Yurp) took all the groundbreaking elements before it, and forged them into a radical, polished new mould. Space Invaders may be the Granddaddy, but multi-weapon selection, helper drones, and (at the time) complex enemy AI instead of fixed attack patterns, make Gradius the Jedi Master.


Wow, Cutting Edge Graphics!!11OneOne

One thing all classic shmups are based on, whether vertical or horizontal scrolling, is the good ol' 2D playing field. Even modern classics like Ikarugu and Gradius V (the latter sadly missing from this collection) - with their fancy 3D graphics - only rely on 2 dimensions of play. And this might be an issue for the relative newcomers of gaming; weaned on Tomb Raider, Tekken and Daytona USA.

Since the release of the PSOne, 2D gaming has suffered a slow death - at least in the West. The power at its disposal could render “believable” characters and environments in 3D. Yes, laugh it up you Xbox 360 owners. But before the mid-nineties and the arrival of texture mapping in games, 3D games were either wire-frame or flat-shaded 3D and were mainly used for simulators. It was a significant shift and even the mighty SEGA got it wrong. The company was blind to the market potential, and designed its Saturn to be a 2D powerhouse - ironic, considering SEGA arguably the catalyst for the modern obsession of 3D, thanks to Virtua Fighter/Racing.

But one genre has (only just) survived the modern obsession with 3D, thanks almost exclusively too our Japanese cousins - the shmup. Its dominance in the 80s and early 90s has given way to FPSs and GTA clones, but it still has a strong following. And the reason is quite simple; very few genres combine combat strategy and adrenaline-powered reflex gaming as successfully as the shmup. Plus, they’re just damn fun.

Yes, gameplay footage of even the prettiest in this pack - Gradius IV - won't impress an onlooker to the degree of Resident Evil 4 or PGR3, but who cares - shmups are all about the gameplay, baby!