Gamers in this day and age don't know what it's really like to play a videogame. Many of them whine about graphics and storyline, and don't enjoy a game unless it meets all the technical standards of other games on the platform. Those gamers don't know the joys of twitch reflexes and mindless gaming, and will probably not be interested in Konami's latest shooter, Gradius V. However, they'll be missing out on some of the best moments gaming has to offer.

Gradius V is your basic 2D, sidescrolling shooter. You man a ship and take to the skies in an attempt to shoot down as many bad guys as possible. The levels are long and the bosses are hard. It's old school gaming fun at its finest. Upon starting the game, you'll have four ship types available to you. Each ship type has a set of six upgrades available. The first gives you a speed boost; the second will give you missiles shooting in various directions; the third will give you a double fire option for behind you or diagonally depending on your ship type; the fourth provides lasers instead of your standard bullet-like attack; the fifth will give you a multiple to add more firepower to your ship; and the last upgrade will give you a force field capable of withstanding a few hits.

The type of ship you select will have a significant impact on your play style. As you progress through each level, you'll come across yellow orbs after destroying certain enemies. These orbs will determine which upgrade you can select. At the bottom of the screen, all six upgrades will be listed, and each time you get an orb, one of the upgrades will be highlighted. For example, if you get four orbs, lasers will be highlighted and you can select them as your upgrade of choice.

Selecting your upgrade isn't as easy as destroying the proper ships and picking up yellow orbs. Your ship type will determine what each upgrade does, and you can only have certain upgrades at the same time. You can have lasers or double fire, but not both. You can only have one force field at a time, and a maximum of four multiples. So you'll need to decide which upgrade(s) best fit the stage you're working your way through.

When you first begin the game you'll have a very small number of credits, and you probably won't get very far. For each hour you play, you'll earn an extra credit. Once you have completed 18 hours of play, you'll have unlimited continues available. However, that doesn't necessarily make the game any easier. When you die, you lose all of your fire power and upgrades. Even if you start at an area littered with enemies that give you orbs to upgrade with, having only your small blaster will almost always result in further loss of life.

Like Contra, Gradius V is a game that requires quite a bit of memorizing. Knowing what's coming next, and experiencing a stage multiple times will make things easier for you. However, if you get too good, there will be penalties. If you get too far in the game without losing a life, new enemies will come forth to take your multiples away, or make things harder for you to progress. Oh yes, this game is all about difficulty.

Luckily, Gradius V features a two player mode. Now, sometimes having a second player makes the game slightly easier. When you die, you'll remain in the same location and won't have to start over, plus if you had any multiples, they'll remain onscreen for you to retrieve when you come back to life. But to help even things out, you still have a limit of four multiples, so you'll be fighting over who gets them.

In the end, Gradius V is a top notch game in the shooter genre. You've got multiple options for your ship type, two player co-op, and a good number of levels that you'll never make it to because the game has some good, old fashioned difficulty to it. The graphics are great for a 2D shooter, with a ton of stuff going on at once, but there is a good amount of slowdown at times as well. Bottom line, if you like shooters buy Gradius V. If you don't like shooters, rent Gradius and find out what real games are made of!