Gradius for Pc Engine

I have been playing some Gradius for Pc Engine. I wanted to finally play a game to the end that is not on the Game Boy.

Gradius is a pretty sweet and short game. I like Gradius because it feels like a complete and very nice standard shooter, with nothing weird in it. No surprise death as in Salamander (Life Force). No bullet hell as in some games. And the levels are varied, good graphics and good music. Unlike a famous game like this.
Xevious on NES. The most sold shooter for the famicom in Japan. Did people really play this? Why?

Also you have to think strategy in Gradius -- should I use Laser or the Double? I also like how you can destroy the computer so easily when you power up. Hahaha!

Some reviewers complain that Gradius on Pc Engine is not a good game because of slowdowns. They are wrong, a normal user would hardly be able to get through it without the slowdowns.

Well, I made it almost to the end once, getting some help from the Konami code (all Options + Shield, but you can only use it 5 times). The boring part is that the first levels are quite simple and I don't think there are any warps, so I'm getting tired of playing the game now. Well, it has been sold so I have to send it soon.

I do have the Saturn version, which is said to be a good port of the pc engine version. Actually the pc engine version is a good port of the arcade version. In the Saturn version you can chose to turn on or off slowdows, proving that slowdowns are part of the game. They could have eliminated slowdows by lowering the numbers of Options (Options are the small little missile helpers you have). They did it to the NES version. Clearly they intended there to be slowdows in the Pc Engine version. 

Since I made it to just before the Brain, I might just call myself the moral winner of the game and leave it at that. Sort of like I call myself practically finished with my degree.... I think you should play a game because it is fun, not because you have to beat it. I always stop playing games when they aren't fun. (I do that with books too)

Here is someone else's video.

He likes Lasers more than I do. What's up with that? The Pc Engine has turbo controllers so the Double is usually superior except if you have some need to defeat every boss ship in 2 seconds. 

I will probably be coming back to the game soon enough.