Destroy them all
October 20th, 2005
Last weekend I burned a good 10 hours playing Gradius on the PS2. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a session like that. It felt pretty good.
The game is a truely old-school shoot-em-up. I fed the Gradius II coin-op, in the 6th form common room, many 10p’s (it’s still the only coin-op I’ve ever finished), so the game’s appeal to me is mainly nostalgic.
Gradius III yielded to my assault on Saturday. The Gradius IV campaign continues; soon it will capitulate. My right wrist and lower back hurt.
As the last boss dies in Gradius III it declares “I was born out of the greediness of mankind. While man exists …so will I.” At the time this didn’t make any sense at all, but after thinking over the slightly mangled engrish I realised what the video game was telling me. Human nature and greed are inextricably interwound. Right. Thanks for that lesson, Gradius, I haven’t wasted my weekend after all.