Nemesis 2 is a 1987 shoot 'em up published by Konami. This is the third game in the Gradius series to be released for the MSX after the first Gradius and Salamander, but unlike those games, it's an original work instead of a port. In Japan, it's known as Gradius 2.
Compared to the other sequels, the MSX subseries is characterized by its story, which is quite detailed (for a shoot-em-up). Some time after the events of the first Gradius, Dr. Venom, the director of the Gradius empire's science agency, is arrested after his failed coup d'etat and exiled as a punishment. One year later, Venom escapes, and another year later, he commences an invasion on the empire by causing what'd be now known as the Silent Nightmare incident, cutting off the empire's communcation systems with its seven governing planets. So in the year G6666, the Gradius empire counsil summons James Burton, the ex-pilot of the Vic Viper, and gives him a mission to aboard the new spacecraft Metalion and defeat Venom's army.
In terms of gameplay, Nemesis 2 has a peculiar method of level structure because the MSX hardware technically does not support scrolling. Konami got around this issue by moving the foreground tile-by-tile (transposing it 8 pixels at a time), making the game a jagged mess, but the game is still playable in spite of it. Nemesis 2 also has many unique power-ups unseen in most other Gradius games, such as Up Laser/Down Laser that shoots horizontal beam upward or downward.
It received three sequels. Salamander on the MSX, despite basing its gameplay heavily on the arcade game of the same name, is branded as a continuation of this game, with Dr. Venom returning. Nemesis 3: The Eve of Destruction is a more traditional sequel reprising the gameplay, but the plot skips to the distant future. Gradius ReBirth covers another adventure of James Burton, but it ignores almost any gameplay systems unique to the MSX games.
Releases:
- Nemesis '90 Kai: A remake on the Sharp X68000 that brings the graphics to the level of the arcade games and tweaks some gameplay systems. Developed by SPS. Despite the name, it came out in 1993.
- Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol. 2: A 1998 compilation on PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Emulates the MSX version.
- Salamander Portable: A 2007 compilation on PlayStation Portable. Based on the MSX version and includes an enhanced port that features smooth scrolling.
Not to be confused with Gradius II, a completely different game; that game was released in English as Vulcan Venture.
This work provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: Nemesis '90 Kai adds two stages and new bosses for them.
- Bonus Dungeon: When you beat a Core-type boss, your spaceship can squeeze into their destroyed core and enter its interior. If you beat this bonus level and kill another boss inside quickly enough, you can capture an extra weapon slot for the Vic Viper.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Every interior stage uses the same white mechanical design regardless of which boss it is.
- Fake Longevity: It has seven stages, but you have to replay the first five stages in reverse order again, with the justification that Venom has invaded James' home planet and you have to make a return trip. Nemesis '90 Kai slightly eases this by replacing two of these with original stages.
- Narrator All Along: The ending reveals that the story cutscene is actually a record written by James himself, who became the Emperor Lars 18th after the adventure.
- Number of the Beast: The time period of this game is the year G6666, which can't be a coincidence as Venom is treated as a perpetual evil.
- Offered the Crown: After thwarting Venom's masterplan, the Gradius empire decides to make James their new king, appointing him as Lars 18th. (His predecessor was killed in G6665 in a turmoil, so the throne was empty.)
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: Stage 3 has vaguely Greek architectures that must be destroyed to open your way out. But why do they exist in the first place? They don't look like anything that humans could live in, just a random collection of roofs and pillars.
- Shock and Awe: The final boss shoots lighting bolts that travel quickly, actually making it not a Zero-Effort Boss (although still not very hard).
- Updated Re-release: Salamander Portable includes an update of the MSX version that adds enhanced graphics and smooth scrolling.
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: The Fire Blaster is one of the optional upgrades for Double, but in the original MSX version, it doesn't do any damage against any enemies that aren't biological obstacles, rendering it completely useless for the majority of the game. Later versions (Nemesis '90 Kai or Salamander Portable) added an option to fix this oversight, but its short range is still unimpressive compared to the other weapons that perform just as well without such issue.
