Konami's Gradius franchise has long been one of the champions of the long-suffering shoot-'em-up category. The genre has fallen out of favor with mainstream gamers -- now it's primarily the hardcore ...

Gradius Origins released this week and it’s pretty fantastic, but you can read my full review to see my more in-depth thoughts. Whether you’re a longtime series fan or a casual shoot ‘em up player, it ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Jagneaux is a writer and analyst, covering MMOs and retro games. I can’t think of many game franchises that have been around ...

Though side-scrolling shooter series are in no short supply in the States, few franchises in the genre have earned as much notoriety and fan support over the years as Gradius. The Konami-developed ...

It was just about 20 years ago that the Vic Viper, the world’s best-known alien-armada-killing single-pilot spacecraft, flew her maiden voyage in the original Gradius. That game is hardly the first ...

Publisher Konami has certainly made some missteps in preserving and re-releasing its older games. Silent Hill and Metal Gear “HD” collections of old have soured some players on Konami’s attempts to ...

Shoot ’em ups were one of the first video game sensations to sweep through arcades. The novelist Martin Amis became so obsessed with 1978’s Space Invaders he wrote an entire guide/appreciation of ...

While the Vic Viper might not be a household name on quite the same level as Mario or Master Chief, it still is emblematic of what makes video games great. This spacecraft and its distinctive ...

Matt Karoglou is a freelance writer and musician who has been playing video games for 36 years and writing about them for almost as long. When he's not editorializing about the intricacies and ...

To understand how it ends, first you must go back to the beginning. Gradius was born from the 80s post-Space Invaders gold rush, created by a team within Konami's Osaka headquarters headed up by the ...

Retro-games. Space Invaders and Ikaruga, Monkey Island and Super Monkey Ball, Donkey Kong and Super Mario 64, Game & Watch and Neo-Geo Pocket Color, 1975 and 1999, Pong and Virtua Tennis, Centipede ...