I had no idea such things were possible. I remember playing this on my ps2 back in the day. I could get to the point where you clicked the two additional speed ups going thru the angled passages. Fuck you’re good man. Fuck!!! I LOVE that you’re this fucking good at this game. I fully appreciate how hard this game is and how skilled you are. The only thing that could have made this better for me to watch is to have your heart rate and blood pressure up on screen in real time. Bravo my friend. Bravo.
I have this Gradius among others on the PSP and will I adore it, trying to play any of the titles on a small screen just makes me angry and unsociable! So being able to emulate on pc and play it on a large screen was a real blessing here, you even see and capture many details not possible on small screen as well. All the later Gradius games from IV onwards can be a nightmare to emulate if you don't know what you are doing...I'd love to play Gradius V someday.
Gradius IV is absolutely ridiculous. Even with inflationary save state abuse I had no chance through the last third until I slowed the game down by 50%, and that was still a serious pain in the a**. Hats off to everyone who can beat this game with 1cc.
Look for a guy named PEG on this site, he has a nice legit PS2 run of the game. He dies sure, but beats the game on his last life for a 1 credit clear, and he does it legitimately.
Now that the first 3 Gradius games are on the Arcade Archives on Switch, its time for Gradius 4 to come to Nintendo Switch on the Arcade Archives line. Arcade Archives Gradius IV Rating Everyone 10+ Fantasy Violence.
@@TBtheking405216 To be quite honest, Gradius is not a hard game at all, and Gradius 2/Vulcan Venture is hard but fair. Its with Gradius 3 and Gradius 4 that the thing goes completely out of Hand. With Gradius Gaiden the difficulty is back to something a normal human can handle.
@@rafaellima83 Gaiden is considered the easiest of the mainline Gradius games. The Game Boy ones aren't too hard either, but not of the mainline of the series.
This game still has a long way to go in the emulation department. I have a PC fast enough to run it properly, but I'll always play it more on my PS2 Gradius 3 & 4 collection than I will in MAME (I have the PSP Gradius Collection too, but 4 suffers from some slowdown on that for some reason). Matter of fact I own a lot of Gradius and the Parodius spinoffs too.
I own a copy of it for the PS2 and PSP. I can run PS2 emulation smoothly, but have not tried nor tested PSP emulation. Only thing I'd want to emulate for that is Darius Burst.
One of these days perhaps I'll emulate, but so long as my PSP works, and the few games I want for it aren't too expensive (except Burst, that one has never come down in price), I'll stick with the real deal. Only stuff I emulate for the PS2 is stuff I really want to play, but is too expensive, like KoF 02 Unlimited Match, and the PS2 Orochi saga (not buggy like the US version due to different developers working for SNK Playmore doing the games).
Its considered VERY hard. Only was released in america on 2 versions. PS2 with Gradius III and PSP on the gradius collection. Its a very unforgiving gradius game that in most levels a death equals a end of a run cause you can never recover from that death.
its more like Your reprieve time after revival is a few secs and THAT'S ABOUT IT. The living level is maybe the worst offender of OH you died? Good bye to your run.
Good thing you're a god, huh? I can actually tell you exact specific checkpoints from multiple Gradius games that are not possible to recover from (Gradius II and III being the worst)
Bought a PSP today solely for the gradius collection(1-4 and gradius gaiden) . Was the best 55 quid I spent on 2nd hand system and download...........fucking love gradius
This is insanity. I have this for my PS2, and it is impossible. There is a fine line between a hard and impossible game, and to be honest, I think they go a bit too far with both 3 and 4 to the point where it can become just a chore to play. Awesome skills, by the way.
Gradius IV isn't really impossible, it's far friendlier than Gradius III, that is until later loops, where it is said to be more vicious than G3's later loops. Also no skills involved, the longplayers will tell you that themselves. It's all about tool assisting.
This is the first time I see this game. Although has nice parts, it is unpolished and has a lot of cheesy effects. Like those 3D morphs are terrible. And the way the stars in the background change between stages (and sometimes mid stage) is quite jarring. The final boss looks literally like a sea cucumber.
To anyone who played through this, how does it compare to Gradius 3 ARC difficulty wise? It still looks pretty hard IMO, I think it suffers from the same problem: being too difficult to be accesible to most people.
It isn't harder than Gradius III, no Gradius game will ever touch the difficulty of that arcade game. Hell no arcade game has ever touched G3's legendary difficulty. The closest was Parodius Da in the arcade, which has a similar difficulty system to G3, the longer you survive, the tougher the game gets, and extra lives are limited.
Polygons are no replacement for pixel art/2d art (each their own art) and the music I don't know I guess less is sometimes more. I mean take the bubbles, they simply don't animate as well as the sprite ones in earlier games.
Yup, I was thinking the same thing, this just doesn't look as nice as the older games, was just looking this up as someone offered me the arcade board, think ill pass
Not the best looking game in the series no, but pretty much as fun as the earlier games in the series before it. Gradius Gaiden still stands as the peak of the series.
I agree. And I love Gradius IV's music soundtrack. The game really felt like such a downgrade after the then-recent *Gradius Gaiden* on the PS1. Hell, I'll say even a downgrade of Gradius III that came out a decade prior in 1989.... Thankfully the amazing *Gradius V* made up for it and then some. 😊
Gradius IV is hard game from what I see it. its never came out in other countries except in japan. (shut up you guys! sometimes japan keeps it foreign some out of japan!)
@@Nestalgba92023 Gradius 4 actually tops Gradius III difficulty wise come loop 3 and beyond. By that point the bubbles in the Bubble stage are pretty much invincible.
Gradius has never been known to have final bosses that do much at all, outside of Gradius 2MSX/Nemesis 90 Kai Sharp X68000, and Salamander 2. They tend to be well protected by everything else before them though. Getting to them is the hard part, once you are there, they have no more defenses.
@@Bloodreign1 hi bloodreign. Did u know that Gradius Collection on PSP was actually released few months before the grand debut of Lovelive School Idol Project?
You say that, but the lore of the games is that the big bads in charge never stay dead. They blow up, pieces of them go flying all over the cosmos, and they start to grow anew. Eventually, one of them wakes up and decides to go on a killing spree.
@FalloutJack Yeah, but there comes a point where it starts to get tiresome and predictable. The real problem is that it was never explained who or what created the Bacterians in the first place and why they want to conquer Gradius, yet they keep failing every time.
completely agree. gradius gaiden from a year before looks way better in spite of runing on less powerful hardware and manages to mix pixel art with more modern effects in a quite tasteful manner gradius 4 is a complete eyesore by comparison
It's not emulated properly is why, otherwise they are identical, and outside of the Credits showing pre game, if you put the arcade board and PS2 version running side by side, and you don't see what is running each one, you'd not be able to tell the difference,
3:01 This game was truly ahead of its time with a Fidget boss
*Moai heads:* _"C'mon, guys! It ain't a party without us!"_
"🤣😂🤣😂👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽" (-James)
I had no idea such things were possible. I remember playing this on my ps2 back in the day. I could get to the point where you clicked the two additional speed ups going thru the angled passages. Fuck you’re good man. Fuck!!! I LOVE that you’re this fucking good at this game. I fully appreciate how hard this game is and how skilled you are. The only thing that could have made this better for me to watch is to have your heart rate and blood pressure up on screen in real time. Bravo my friend. Bravo.
its called tool assistance. he aint beat this shit on his own
Ahhhhh i see! Respect revoked!
PROTIP: Try shooting the Core!
Not necessary. They literally tell you that right before each boss.
@ReverendSyn r/whoosh
*shoot it in the core*
*shoot it in the head*
@@Persac7 classic instant man.
...or perhaps the eye.
Info:
This game came out in Late 1998 probably December because vulcan venture from march 1988.
I have this Gradius among others on the PSP and will I adore it, trying to play any of the titles on a small screen just makes me angry and unsociable! So being able to emulate on pc and play it on a large screen was a real blessing here, you even see and capture many details not possible on small screen as well. All the later Gradius games from IV onwards can be a nightmare to emulate if you don't know what you are doing...I'd love to play Gradius V someday.
Whoever's playing this game is a fucking master
Was autofire being used here? Usually that shortens the laser and makes it less effective.
Gradius IV is absolutely ridiculous. Even with inflationary save state abuse I had no chance through the last third until I slowed the game down by 50%, and that was still a serious pain in the a**. Hats off to everyone who can beat this game with 1cc.
14:07 No Gradius game is complete without a Moai (Easter Island statue) level!
You rock with this game!
Guess that's why Gradius V is considered the black sheep of the bunch.
Gradius V was different, but it's still a great shooter for the PS2.
DBoy2029 8
Absolutely! 100% correct! i love the MOAI of easter island one of the best stages in the game!
Fun fact:do you know the secret about moais they have bodies under ground.
This game sure delivered a bump in the graphics and difficulty apartment compared to the earlier games of the franchise.
I find gradius 2 and 3 arcade much more difficult than this.
dude that bubble boss was nuts, jesus
Only total invincibility could possibly get even an expert gamer through Gradius IV! And I mean, total invincibility!
Look for a guy named PEG on this site, he has a nice legit PS2 run of the game. He dies sure, but beats the game on his last life for a 1 credit clear, and he does it legitimately.
Now that the first 3 Gradius games are on the Arcade Archives on Switch, its time for Gradius 4 to come to Nintendo Switch on the Arcade Archives line.
Arcade Archives Gradius IV
Rating Everyone 10+
Fantasy Violence.
Gradius 4 is far more like a HD remaster of Gradius 2 lol
Is this normal difficulty? Because looks insane!! Those boss fights!
This game is fucking insane on very easy (1/8).
Fuck this game.
Its Gradius. Ain't no such thing as normal difficulty
@@TBtheking405216 To be quite honest, Gradius is not a hard game at all, and Gradius 2/Vulcan Venture is hard but fair.
Its with Gradius 3 and Gradius 4 that the thing goes completely out of Hand. With Gradius Gaiden the difficulty is back to something a normal human can handle.
@@nobodytonobodysbusiness so, literally FUCKatsu
@@rafaellima83 Gaiden is considered the easiest of the mainline Gradius games. The Game Boy ones aren't too hard either, but not of the mainline of the series.
This game still has a long way to go in the emulation department. I have a PC fast enough to run it properly, but I'll always play it more on my PS2 Gradius 3 & 4 collection than I will in MAME (I have the PSP Gradius Collection too, but 4 suffers from some slowdown on that for some reason). Matter of fact I own a lot of Gradius and the Parodius spinoffs too.
I own a copy of it for the PS2 and PSP. I can run PS2 emulation smoothly, but have not tried nor tested PSP emulation. Only thing I'd want to emulate for that is Darius Burst.
One of these days perhaps I'll emulate, but so long as my PSP works, and the few games I want for it aren't too expensive (except Burst, that one has never come down in price), I'll stick with the real deal. Only stuff I emulate for the PS2 is stuff I really want to play, but is too expensive, like KoF 02 Unlimited Match, and the PS2 Orochi saga (not buggy like the US version due to different developers working for SNK Playmore doing the games).
First stage like Gradius 2, but suns are gold and so are the dragons that come out of the suns, and you don't fight a phoenix at the end of the stage.
And the bgm sounds like the 1st stage of gradius 3.
La musica de entrada de todos los niveles esta muy buena
RIP Legend
Who died?😔
So why is Gradius IV so rare and unmentioned? Did it it just come out during a major slump? Arcade only?
Its considered VERY hard. Only was released in america on 2 versions. PS2 with Gradius III and PSP on the gradius collection. Its a very unforgiving gradius game that in most levels a death equals a end of a run cause you can never recover from that death.
Sir Sapphire the 3rd Ah, powerup starvation.
its more like Your reprieve time after revival is a few secs and THAT'S ABOUT IT.
The living level is maybe the worst offender of OH you died? Good bye to your run.
Good thing you're a god, huh? I can actually tell you exact specific checkpoints from multiple Gradius games that are not possible to recover from (Gradius II and III being the worst)
@@SaphNeedsCoffee hi saph. For me Gradius 4 is not as hard as Gradius 5.
OO, this game is insanely beautiful
Probably the most underrated shmup. I would take it any day over Gradius V.
I will throw in the hat with Gradius Gaiden as well.
I'm the center of the universe. My will rule every live in this universe.
Dies by breaking 3 cords stick into his head.
So called center of the universe my ass.
Well he will just spread throughout the universe and reborn again.
Elijah Tan but for now gofer must wait for another gradius game where he is the main bad guy
Juan Joestar Which I hope Konami don't F up this time.
Elijah Tan yep at least V was a success
vaya el gradius 4 parece un juego de nintendo 64 por sus graficos 3d
Gofer having heart attack be like: 39:54
Gradius are truly bad ass games.
Core shooting intensifies
Bought a PSP today solely for the gradius collection(1-4 and gradius gaiden) . Was the best 55 quid I spent on 2nd hand system and download...........fucking love gradius
What is Gradius 1? I've played Gradius but never seen the title "Gradius 1" on any product.
@@zippityzop There is no Gradius 1. Its just called Gradius.
@@zippityzop Why are you being so stupid? First games in a series are referred to as 1 even though they did not have it as part of the title.
I remember playing this on the PSP, Gradius Collection. I thought the graphics were incredible back then.
Gradius 4 is the 5th hardest gradius game of all of gradius game. After:
1. Gradius 3
2. Gradius 5
3. Gradius Gaiden
4. Salamander 2.
Nope it goes
Gradius 3 (arcade)
Gradius 4
Gradius 2
Gradius 5
Salamander
Gradius gaiden
Gradius
Gradius 3 (snes)
Salamander 2
@@Persac7 i agree
Gradius game is not for the weak hearted
salamander 2 is the one with a final boss that's actually hard right?
@@theimortal1974 yep. The only ever time the final boss being this hard.
Hello friend, I would like to know which PC processor you used to play Gradius 4 MAME? because I thought it is with a great speed!
This is insanity. I have this for my PS2, and it is impossible. There is a fine line between a hard and impossible game, and to be honest, I think they go a bit too far with both 3 and 4 to the point where it can become just a chore to play. Awesome skills, by the way.
Gradius IV isn't really impossible, it's far friendlier than Gradius III, that is until later loops, where it is said to be more vicious than G3's later loops.
Also no skills involved, the longplayers will tell you that themselves. It's all about tool assisting.
wow, your level is insane !
This game was released in December 1998.
3:30 and thus the fidget spinner was created😀
Yep
"👏🏽 Arcade graphics are so neat! 🤩 But the background music just took a vacation at the boss at 23:00. 🎵 🛣️ 👋🏽 Hahaha!" (-James)
This is the first time I see this game. Although has nice parts, it is unpolished and has a lot of cheesy effects. Like those 3D morphs are terrible. And the way the stars in the background change between stages (and sometimes mid stage) is quite jarring. The final boss looks literally like a sea cucumber.
Fucking bubbles!
To anyone who played through this, how does it compare to Gradius 3 ARC difficulty wise? It still looks pretty hard IMO, I think it suffers from the same problem: being too difficult to be accesible to most people.
Gradius 3 was its own beast but this one was quite difficult too but not in a Gradius way, I always thought this was the oddball of the pack.
Me encanto!!!
those golden dragons comming out of the golden blog in the beginning. is it like that on the original or it is an emulation issue?
Those tentacle monsters around 19:30 ... you seem to be able to predict when and where the tentactles swipe...how do you do that?
ベリアールが最後の弾撃たない……海外版はそうなのか?
You really need luck if your going to play gradius 18:15 - 18:25
Holy crapthis looks hard!
It is, but with practice it starts to feel a little easier. It's the later loops that will eat you alive.
Who thought it was a good idea to make this game even harder than the previous one?
It isn't harder than Gradius III, no Gradius game will ever touch the difficulty of that arcade game. Hell no arcade game has ever touched G3's legendary difficulty. The closest was Parodius Da in the arcade, which has a similar difficulty system to G3, the longer you survive, the tougher the game gets, and extra lives are limited.
@@Bloodreign1Did you saw THIS 😵💫👉 11:30 ??? This whole lava sequence is nuts
@@Bloodreign1 Maybe it's not harder than Gradius III, but G4 sure comes close.
0:12 Pieces of all apart
40:04 Fortress transforms back into a planet.
The fourth level is similar to Salamander
Is there are way for Konami to port the first 4 Gradius on PC and modern consoles?
The first 2 are on PS4.
0:09
The guy was playing with slow motion mode or he did like 1000 attempts....
すごいです。
Gradius 4 is the 4th best gradius game
And 2nd hardest
So Life Force and Gradius is some what Related? from my perspective their ship looks awfully the same but their origin seems very much different!
I remember playing this on the PS2
25:45-27:10 Looks like something out of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey!
How can I buy this or play this on my PS5?
I miss the gradius series... :(
I HAVE AN IDEA!!! I will bring gradius back,I will make gradius 6 all by myself... lol
edit: it probably won't happen
You are very good at Gradius, NES Horizon, without death
did he cheat?
That final boss was such a let down.
No One That Special That's the unique characteristic of Gradius.
This is way harder than PS2 version and finally I realized what the boss at 26:10 was doing
PS2 version and this arcade original match in terms of difficulty, Konami did not dumb the game down for home release.
Why are the Gradius final bosses so dumb?
Glitch: high speed stage boss 24:00 no BGM
This game is hard enough on low difficulty
グラⅣは全然やってないんで勘違いしてたらごめんだけど、何でレーザー連射してんの??? Ⅰ~Ⅲまではレーザーってそんな打ち方する装備じゃないです。基本押しっぱなしじゃないの?
レーザーの隙を無くすためだと思う
Polygons are no replacement for pixel art/2d art (each their own art) and the music I don't know I guess less is sometimes more. I mean take the bubbles, they simply don't animate as well as the sprite ones in earlier games.
Yup, I was thinking the same thing, this just doesn't look as nice as the older games, was just looking this up as someone offered me the arcade board, think ill pass
Not the best looking game in the series no, but pretty much as fun as the earlier games in the series before it.
Gradius Gaiden still stands as the peak of the series.
I love Gradius but of all the games this has the worst music and sfx of the lot.
I agree. And I love Gradius IV's music soundtrack. The game really felt like such a downgrade after the then-recent *Gradius Gaiden* on the PS1. Hell, I'll say even a downgrade of Gradius III that came out a decade prior in 1989....
Thankfully the amazing *Gradius V* made up for it and then some. 😊
Gradius IV not for the weak hearted.
Insane gamer no touch
定番のパターンがほとんどなく、初見プレイのようなヤバい動き。泡まみれになったバブルコアとか細胞面とか思わず声が出る。カバードテトラン、バーサクコア戦もヤバイw
© 1985, 1998 Konami Amusement Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Anyone remember when Konami was
"Dodomita"0:11
愛新持栄隊総館超久保田勉ゲーム新大臣!仕事対策大臣!規制緩和大臣!地方活性化大臣!安全自殺対策大臣!
Gradius IV is hard game from what I see it. its never came out in other countries except in japan. (shut up you guys! sometimes japan keeps it foreign some out of japan!)
Asian disdain for foreigners = ethnic & national pride
White disdain for foreigners = racist & bigoted hatred
Gradius collection for PSP
@@desktorp Isn't that the same thing though?
@@Jeansowaty depends on who you ask
PS2, it was release worldwide, so not necessarily true about it being Japan only, unless you meant arcade original.
27:16
this game was just too hard :(
Yep, agreed. That's Gradius for ya.
Have you seen Gradius III the arcade game, that one is InSane!
@@Nestalgba92023 Yep, Gradious is up there with Ghosts 'n' Goblins in the it's unfair and unbalanced
@@Nestalgba92023 as those Gradius 5 and Salamander 2.
@@Nestalgba92023 Gradius 4 actually tops Gradius III difficulty wise come loop 3 and beyond. By that point the bubbles in the Bubble stage are pretty much invincible.
上級者が初心者っぽいプレイをしてるのかな?と思いましたけど、どうなんでしょ?
ただBGMの途切れや細胞面の異常な雑魚の抜け方を見ると正常なプレイではなさそうですねw
ただ通常プレイではあまり見る事の無いバーサクコア等の攻撃が見れるのは貴重ですねw
Fukk, that's great Konami music.
Please, guys, is this graphics 2d-polygon or 2d-sprites? Thanks in advance!!
both
2.5d
38:59 lol that music
Seems really cheap to make the final boos go down so effortlessly after all the effort it takes to killthe other bosses
Gradius has never been known to have final bosses that do much at all, outside of Gradius 2MSX/Nemesis 90 Kai Sharp X68000, and Salamander 2. They tend to be well protected by everything else before them though. Getting to them is the hard part, once you are there, they have no more defenses.
Thumbs down for unskippable ad
What arcade system boart was used to this game? Naomi?
+Raziel Dark Konami Hornet System Hardware is what runs this.
Thanks !!
Raziel Dark You're welcome.
@@Bloodreign1 hi bloodreign. Did u know that Gradius Collection on PSP was actually released few months before the grand debut of Lovelive School Idol Project?
@@purwantiallan5089 I wouldn't know about the Idol game, but I did buy Gradius Collection for my PSP when it first came out.
Destroy the core!
I don't like the look of this as much as the older ones
個人的には好きなゲーム。ただ、癖は強くて人に勧めづらい。
23:10(あ、あれ¿? BGMは?)^^;
Nice 10 year jump
Basically a re-make of Gradius 2......
You say that, but the lore of the games is that the big bads in charge never stay dead. They blow up, pieces of them go flying all over the cosmos, and they start to grow anew. Eventually, one of them wakes up and decides to go on a killing spree.
@FalloutJack Yeah, but there comes a point where it starts to get tiresome and predictable. The real problem is that it was never explained who or what created the Bacterians in the first place and why they want to conquer Gradius, yet they keep failing every time.
人を大切しろ❗️愛新持栄隊総館超久保田勉ゲーム新大臣!安全自殺対策大臣!地方活性化大臣!規制緩和大臣!仕事対策大臣!会社改革大臣!
Baru tahu, ternyata GRADIUS sampai 4
The Bacterion Empire Strikes Again! Fly The Vic Viper And Destroy The Core Once Again In Gradius 4 Fukkatsu The Arcade Hit From Konami!
Gradius + R-Typeand all the stuff in Real Life:
Lost War because: unable change direction!
07:53 Looks easy
I hate how the graphics are CGI looking....:/. It’s why I still like 16 bit.
You see in intro scene it's flashback in Gradius 2
completely agree. gradius gaiden from a year before looks way better in spite of runing on less powerful hardware and manages to mix pixel art with more modern effects in a quite tasteful manner
gradius 4 is a complete eyesore by comparison
人を大切しろ!愛新持栄隊総館超久保田勉ゲーム新大臣!規制緩和大臣!仕事対策大臣!安全・自殺対策大臣!会社改革大臣!地方活性化大臣!
Somehow different from the PS2 graphics.
It's not emulated properly is why, otherwise they are identical, and outside of the Credits showing pre game, if you put the arcade board and PS2 version running side by side, and you don't see what is running each one, you'd not be able to tell the difference,