Okay, so the Gradius III part of the package looks like an old Super Nintendo game. Gradius IV has a tighter look, one that feels both more hand-drawn and more rendered. It also uses a polygon or two, unlike the strictly sprite-based Gradius III. Neither of them are exactly taxing when it comes to processing power, although I'd imagine that GIV can get pretty tough at times, especially in the later levels.

The point I'm trying to make is: who cares? GIII seems to be an emulated version of the original arcade game. Of course it's going to look old -- it's not a remake. And Gradius IV looks plenty fine enough. Sure, it's no Einhander, even, but Square's shooter masterpiece couldn't handle the number of on-screen bullets and beasties that these can. There's something to be said for simpler graphics.

The sound is decidedly old-school as well, but I've always loved the music from the Gradius series. There's something about that synth-pop-classical that's always clicked for me, and I can hum the first level tune of Gradius III at the drop of a hat. If I were to be objective, I'd have to admit that the music in both titles sounds dreadfully dated. But, thank the gods, reviewing isn't an objective job, and I've got to say that I like the music. Not everyone will, though. The sound effects are strictly 16-bit fare, with shots and explosions and the occasional "Shoot the core!" or "Speed up!" You've been hearing this stuff since the mid-80s, and it really hasn't changed a bit.

The gameplay hasn't changed a bit either, and that's both a good thing and a bad thing. If you love old-school shooters, where absolute precision is key and the challenge never relents, then Gradius III & IV may be the best bang for your purchasing buck. If, on the other hand, you grew up on the more recent style of shooters, where eye candy is key and insane reflexes play second fiddle, you'll have a hell of a time getting anywhere in these two games.

The core gameplay in both titles is quite similar. You control the Vic Viper, a state-of-the-art spaceship, on a quest to... blow stuff up. There's no plot, but that's not the point. There's a bar at the bottom of the screen that shows the power-ups available for the Vic and your current location on the bar. Every time you pick up a red power-up icon, you move up one space on the bar. Pressing the Square button on the controller uses up all of your power-up icons and gives you whatever ability is highlighted. Every configuration has Speedup, and there's a general pattern that the rest follow: missile, dual shot, laser, Option, shield (and GIII has a "special" after that). Options are the only one that really needs explaining -- they're basically ghost ships, which follow your actual ship around and fire the same weapons you have when you fire them. Their main benefit is that they can't get destroyed. Of course, your ship can generally only take one hit, so you've got to be very, very careful when you play.

The level structure and power-up structure differ between the two games. Gradius III offers a "build-your-own" power-up setup, whereas GIV forces you to pick from a set of pre-builts. Luckily, my favorite setup is a prebuilt already, so I have no problem with that. (In case you're curious, it's torpedo spread ripple option shield. Say that ten times fast.) And the first level of GIII is sand, whereas in GIV it's floating golden balls of dragon doom. Bubbles appear in Gradius III's second level, whereas they wait until Gradius IV's third to show up. But, despite the differences in the bosses and level structures, the basic gameplay experience is quite similar.

Despite the old-school gameplay, there's a ton of fun to be had with these two games. I played the hell out of the SNES version of Gradius III, and I'm glad to see it on a current console. And I'd only played Gradius IV for about two minutes before this. The games keep track of how much time you've logged in them, and offer to save your high-score data and other stuff on your PS2 memory card. At 78K, it's one of the smallest saves you'll ever see.

There are also a few special things that you can really only get on Gradius III & IV. You can set the DIP switches to however you like, making the game "easy" or "hard" (read: impossible or really, really, really impossible), jacking up the number of lives you start with, and even slowing down GIII some. It also sports a Stage Select mode where you can start at any stage you've already gotten to. GIV also sports a Boss Attack mode that lets you go after all of the bosses without all that intervening "level" stuff. But those features are just icing on the cake.

The main problem with these two games, although it's perhaps not their fault, is that they're so damned difficult. Even on the easiest difficulty settings, most people will have problems getting past the first few levels, and on the normal and hard ones, the games are downright impossible. It's a "I could have done that" impossibility, though; one where you realize you shouldn't have been camping so close to the edge or something like that. Rarely do you feel that you were killed cheaply -- actually, you always feel like it's a cheap death, but it's one you deserved. Very, very, very few people will ever beat these games, though, at least not without continuing like madmen. And this is the main reason that I docked the score -- you have to be seriously Old-School to even have a chance at these.

The controls in Gradius are as tight as you'll ever see, and the use of the left Analog Stick will make your life much, much easier. Yes, the Digital Pad is excellent for precision, but not speedy precision. Both work excellently, though. The button configurations are solid in default mode and configurable to whatever you like. The menus are easy to understand and navigate, although you may have to look up (in the rather too brief instruction book) what a few of the more obscure options mean. And the core mechanics of the games themselves -- blast, kill, destroy -- are as solid as shooters ever get.

They may not be gorgeous, they may not sound fantastic, but Gradius III & IV are blastathons from the "Get ready!" till the last twinkling explosion of the Vic. They're hard as hell, old-school as hell, and a hell of a lot of fun to play. If you don't mind getting thrashed repeatedly by a game, you owe it to yourself to pick up Gradius III & IV. If, on the other hand, you found Spyro the Dragon to be a little rough at times, you'll want to stay far, far away. Hardcore gamers only need apply.