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Gradius for NES (Last Updated 3/24/21)

In case you don’t know Gradius is a side-scrolling shoot ‘em up where you fly a jet like ship, with some levels possibly being an overhead shoot ‘em up and “NES” stands for “Nintendo Entertainment System.” It can be played 1 player or 2 players, but when playing 2 players the 2 players alternate, they don’t play simultaneously.

The different ways you can play the NES version of this game are: buy the standalone NES cartridge and it should work in any system that plays NES games. Buy the Super Game 500 in 1 Multicart for NES, the Super Game 400 in 1 Multicart for NES, the Ultimate NES Remix 154 in 1 Multicart for NES, the Super Games 150 in 1 Multicart for NES, or The 100 Best Videogames 143 in 1 Multicart for NES and it works in original NES systems and all Retron systems except the Retron 5 and this is what we have and it works great in our Retron 2. It’s not on the Unlicensed Collection 142 in 1 Multicart for NES or the Pocket Games 30 in 1 Multicart for NES.

For this game you really want to have a turbo controller, otherwise your right thumb will get tired of pressing the A button over and over, and SurvivalPartyStore.com sells them. For those of you that don't know, “turbo” is where when you hold the button down it acts as if the button were being pressed as fast as it can be pressed, and “turbo” is also known as “rapid-fire.”

In the game shooting some stuff will reveal a power up. Get one power up and you can select “speed” by pressing the “B” button or wait and get a second one and then you can select “missile” by pressing the “B” button, and a “missile” is much more useful to get than a “speed,” so the more you get without using them the better the power up will be but if you lose a life when you have it so you can select “missile” or any other item it now goes back to where if you select it you will select “speed.” The order of the power ups is: speed, missile, double, laser, option, and a “?” symbol, and then it goes back to speed which means collecting the 7 power ups now acts like you just collected one power up which is kind of a waste of power up collecting.

Lots of Power Ups Code (must be entered during game play when the game is paused):
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start. (This code will give you full second, fifth and sixth items. (so at least one missile, at least two options, and at least one of the “?” symbol.) It can only be used once per level and even if you die after using the code but are still on the same level you can’t use the code again. The code is activated as soon as the “A” button is pressed, pressing Start is just to unpause the game but you can unpause it later if you want. This code is known as the “Konami Code” because it works for a bunch of Konami games (Konami is a company that makes games).)

Other game code sites say if you beat a boss in 5 seconds or less you skip a level, but we haven’t tested this yet. Other game code sites say you can continue game play by quickly pressing Down, Up, B, A, B, A, B, A, B, A after losing your last life on level two or higher but we tested it and it didn’t work. Other game code sites also say if you hold A+B it will do a sound test, but we tested this and it also doesn’t work.

Game Genie Codes (for North American version):

Both players have unlimited lives:
SXOOYYVI

Both players start with 9 lives:
AENELZLE

Both players start with 6 lives:
IENELZLA

Both players start with 1 life:
AENELZLA

Never lose weapons:
YGUONUZS
YGKPUUIL

Keep power capsules:
KOXOLYSP

Increased force field protection:
NNOEKPIE
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