Konami's Gradius II Blasts Its Way Onto The Switch eShop This Week

Great game, but already got it on the Konami Arcade collection.

Now how about doing Gradius 3 or Parodius instead?

Dear lord please give us Gradius V for the Switch... one of the very best soundtracks of all time!

Gradius 3 would have been more welcome. Is this the same Gradius 2 that is on the PC-Engine, by the way?

Gradius 3 would be nice, but why does nobody think of Gradius 4? I'd love that one on the switch more than 3.

Is this a one hit kill shooter?

@Robzilla Maybe you should buy the soundtrack then.

I just wish Konami and M2 would give us a Gradius Anniversary Collection (and include the Famicom port of Gradius II and the SNES port of Gradius III).

I look forward to a HAMESTER eShop sale!!
I own 4 of these re-releases and there's about a dozen more I want!

@alexybubble Gradius IV is pretty recent. Might be way more work to emulate than Hamster could justify for a single game.

Might be best off with someone else outside of the Arcade Archives line, that ports classic games from source code. Would make for a nice pairing with a HD port of Gradius V.

Obviously I am a fan, but would've preferred arcade Gradius III since as mentioned, II is already in Konami Arcade Archives. Maybe next week!

this version of gradius 2 is eh...i wish they would bring salamander 2, the msx version of gradius 2 and a remastered version of XEXEX to the switch

I just bought Contra so I’m gonna stick with that until Green Beret.

@dram951 Salamander 2 is such a wonderful game, it has so much character and for me, represents an apex for shooters as a genre.

I thought it was announced at Tokyo Game Show recently that we would be getting Gradius III soon. I wonder if it’s still coming, or that was a typo? Love to have Gradius III on Switch, to extend the Gradius collection on Switch started by the Konami Shooting Collection!

On the subject, I wonder if we’ll ever see a Gradius VI?

Frustrating shooter.

@Expa0

I love Parodius <3

It blasted its way onto the eshop a year ago. Why the hell do they keep doing this?

Not enough people praising this incredibly good shooter.

Gradius 2 absolutely rules.

@Gradius @alexybubble @Expa0 Gradius III is coming, as was announced at TGS a couple months ago. This looks like another parity release since the PS4 Arcade Archives release was back in 2016.

@TG16_IS_BAE It's the same, but no animated intro. More stars in the background and more crystals on that one stage, too.

@EvilRegal HAMSTER tends to buffer the popular releases with...other releases. So it might be another month until the next "popular" game comes out (and who knows when Gradius III will drop). I give props to anyone who's still getting every game every week, but I need to pick my favorites. I'll probably even pick this up even though I have the Konami Classics Collection because of the leaderboard.

If buying it helps boost the chance to get Parodius as well, I'll have to put it on the list.

@sketchturner It is more or less a one-hit kill game. You can upgrade the ship with a shield to absorb a few hits but when that runs out it's insta-death if you touch anything. Then the real pain begins then because you lose all your power-ups when you die.

As much as I love the Gradius games I do suck at them. The only ones I've ever been able to beat are Nemesis on the GameBoy and Gradius III on the SNES (and only on Normal difficulty).

I wonder how many people asking for Gradius III have only played the SNES version? The original arcade version is almost impossible to beat and is considered a bit of a black sheep in the series. Gradius II is WAY better than III (although I do agree that the Konami Collection makes this latest release somewhat redundant).

Are we just done with the NES and SNES uploads? Gradius 1 is on NES, and gradius 3 would ge awesome on SNES

I love this game, played it most on Wii VC. I do enjoy it on Arcade Archives. Its my most played game on there.

Like many, it baffles me that Gradius 3 isn’t on the SNES service, and wasn’t on the Classic Edition. And other shmups like Axelay.

Its about time Konami gave us Gradius gaiden, Gradius V, Gradius rebirth, Gradius 3, Axelay, Parodius. I have all these games but would be nice to have on switch.

Give us Gradius V

People want Gradius III, that's all well and good. But we should be asking for Gradius Gaiden, a game we only ever got in the PSP collection, plus it's co-op and has some crazy customization for the ships.
Hands down my favorite version of Gradius. But also yes, I think Gradius V would be great to have as well.

This release isn't too exciteing because the game is already available on Switch as part of Konami's Anniversary Collection, but seriously:

Gradius 2 , both the arcade and the TG16 version, is a much better game then any version of Gradius 3.

This doesn’t look like Raiden.

As much as I love Gradius games, I would really like to see some love in other shmup games of old. Axelay was one of my very favs among others like R-Type, Cybernator, Phalanx, Raiden, Contra, Firepower 2000, Super Turrican, and so many others. Come on Nintendo, bring us the old goodies!