The people of Gradius are in trouble. The amoeboid Bacterions have launched an all out attack against the planet, and it's up to you to fly into battle and save them. Along the way you'll be able to power up your ship with hyper speed, force fields, lasers, missiles, double beam cannons and more to help you battle.

Based on the arcade game, Gradius is a side scrolling shooter. Shooting certain enemies will leave a power up pod behind which can be collected to add more power to your ship. Each level features a wide variety of enemies trying to stop you, with a large boss at the end. Gameplay is for one player or two players alternating.

Worth buying 'Gradius' on the Virtual Console?

	There are better shooters available for the VC - Soldier Blade being one of them - but this is still worthy of downloading and ranks as one of the best NES games currently up for grabs on the Wii.