THE GRADIUS TIMELINE

It's the end of Shoot-Em-Up Week, or Fortnight, or whatever it was. I'd have like to do more, but the dread force known as "real life" kept invading my time. Overall, I'm still terrible at shooters, although I think I might be a little better now, and Boogie Wings was a real gem that I'm very glad I got to play. Anyway, Shmup Week is going out with a bang - and by a bang, I mean a honking great chart / timeline of all the releases in Konami's genre-defining Gradius series, along with its associated spin-offs.

(Click for the big version)

So what can we learn from this? For one thing, it's been too damn long since the last Parodius game. It's the kind of game the PSN / XBLA / WiiWare was made for, and I'd certainly buy a copy (especially if it had a Silent Hill parody in it). Also, recent years have been dominated by the Otomedius games, which is a shame because I want to play a Gradius game but equally I don't want to end up on the Sex Offenders Register.
So, there it is. I'm hardly an encyclopedia of Gradius knowledge, so if you spot any errors, drop me a message at vgjunk(at)hotmail.co.uk and let me know where I fucked up. I'm also no graphic designer, so if you want to take this and make a version that doesn't look as if a five-year-old with no fingers made it, please go right on ahead. Normal VGJUNK service should be resuming after the weekend, and it's only a few weeks until October and the Hallowe'en season begins...