Getting Started

Press at the Title Screen to enter POWER METER SELECT and select your POWER METER.
Choose 1 of 4 WEAPON MODULES and 1 of 2 SHIELDS. Press or to confirm.
The game begins after you make your settings.

If your ship suffers an enemy attack or collides with an obstacle, you lose a ship.
Lose all your ships and it's GAME OVER.

If CONTINUE is set to ON in OPTION MODE, you will be able to continue after a GAME OVER.
Press or before the countdown reaches 0 to return to the POWER METER SELECT screen.
Once you have selected your POWER METER, you will restart from the beginning of the last stage you played.

Basic Play

It's been two years since the VIC VIPER super-dimensional warship led the GRADIUS army to victory against a swarm of alien invaders. Having been attacked by Special Forces Unit GOFER, the GRADIUS army now faces a new crisis. VIC VIPER once again takes off for the stars to stop GOFER's assault.

Power up VIC VIPER (YOUR SHIP) as you battle through wave after wave of enemies to find their source.

A POWER UP CAPSULE appears whenever you destroy certain red-colored enemies or enemy formations.
For every red capsule you collect, your POWER METER will advance 1 bar, allowing you to activate that power up by pressing .
Collecting a blue capsule destroys all small on-screen enemies.
A boss awaits at the end of each stage. Destroy it to clear the stage.

Power Up

	SPEED UP	Increases speed level to a maximum of 5.		TAIL GUN	Fires shots in front of you and behind you simultaneously.
	MISSILE	Destroys ground enemies in front of you.		LASER	Fires a penetrating laser beam.
	SPREAD BOMB	Destroys ground enemies in front of you with wider range.		RIPPLE	Fires laser beams in ring formations.
	PHOTON TORPEDO	Destroys ground enemies in front of you.		OPTION	Creates a dummy ship that mimics your attacks.
	2-WAY	Fires missiles above and below you simultaneously.		SHIELD	Absorbs attacks from the front up to 15 times.
	DOUBLE	Fires shots in front of you and diagonally above you simultaneously.		FORCE FIELD	Absorbs attacks from all directions up to 3 times.

DOUBLE and TAIL GUN cannot be equipped with LASER and RIPPLE.

Option Mode

OPTION MODE allows you to change game settings.
To access it, press at the Title Screen, then press when GAME START changes to OPTION.
Scroll through and adjust options with .
When you are done, press to exit.

GAME LEVEL	Select between EASY, NORMAL, HARD or PROFESSIONAL. The default setting is NORMAL.
CONTROL PAD	Change button settings for shot, missile and power up.
PLAYER	Select between 2, 3, 4 or 7 remaining ships. The default setting is 3.
CONTINUE	Turn continues ON or OFF. The default setting is OFF.
MUSIC	Listen to the game's BGM. Make a selection by pressing left or right with . Press to play and to stop. allows you to toggle sound effect output between STEREO or MONAURAL.