Just when the PSP was completely lacking a great shooter (Sengoku Cannon was terrible and Star Soldier was just alright), Gradius Portable flies in and gives gamers five complete titles in a single package. Featuring the arcade versions of Gradius I through IV and the Playstation Gradius Gaiden, Gradius Portable is filled with hours of meaty gameplay. But the real question is, how well have the arcade versions both held up and made the transition to the PSP?
Gradius I
Originally released to Japanese arcades in 1985, Gradius still holds up incredibly well on the PSP. In fact, the game has surprisingly more depth than even some modern shooters now twenty years later. Back in the day, the big innovation that set Gradius apart from other shooters was the idea that players could choose which weapons to use through the power-up system. By collecting glowing orange orbs that filled up a weapon selection bar one item at a time, players could choose what weapon they wanted whether they were lasers, bombs, or even floating orbs known as "options" that surrounded the ship and fired along with it. This gave Gradius a good deal of variety that, along with, the great stages and unique boss battles really made Gradius 'the' shooter to play at time.

Gradius II
A few years later, Gradius II arrived at arcades in 1988. For the most part, Gradius II generally followed the same game design as its predecessor, but this time around it had even better level designs and bosses. The game also gave the option to choose from multiple power-up routes. Now instead having a two-way shot in the second slot of their power-up bar, players could opt to have back-firing shot instead. Overall the game was a nice gradual improvement over the original, and thus like the original, it holds up quite even today.

Gradius III
Gradius III actually had two separate releases: The original arcade release back in 1989 and a Super Famicon/SNES release the following year in 1990. Saying that the original arcade release was a tough game was a bit of an understatement. Not only was the game ridiculously hard, but on top of that the title wouldn't even allow continues. Taking this into consideration the game was later changed dramatically for it's SFC port and was made into a much easier and player-friendly title. But, the version presented in this PSP collection is not this easier title, but instead the arcade one. Trying to make up for this a "PSP Tuned" difficulty option as been included but at the end of the day even with this continues still aren't allowed, which makes the game cruelly difficult. Still, for those that are up to the challenge, the game improves even further on the basic Gradius systems by allowing players to construct their own weapon power-up routes and decide exactly which weapons they want in each slot.