WiiFanboy.com has announced that Gradius Rebirth is coming to the Wii. I looked at the video and it looks like a good redo of a great game. I'm excited! I'm not a big fan of the slow down and replacing the word "Option" with "Multiple". Maybe the later is a Japanese only feature.
I personally like the visual presentation of the power up bar of the original series. This version just doesn't have that "Gradius" feel. Not sure why Konami felt the need to change it after 23 years. My biggest complaint is that it breaks the bar up into two distinct parts (icon & title) and causes the eye to look right for the title. The old bar allowed the player to know everything with one look. This is important when the action gets heavy. The color of the new bar also makes it harder to see with certain backgrounds.
Original Bar
New Bar
The slow down makes me wonder if Konami used the original NES Gradius programming code. Did they keep the original code and just built upon it? Are they really emulating the game like the Virtual Console?
Gradius ReBirth may be be a relaunch of a game many people have played for years but the updated graphics and the added features make it a must buy.
