Quite possibly the easiest Gradius game ever. But no matter. *EDIT* - It probably didn't help - the game was not set to hard mode. It's a great game! This game features nifty things such as cutscenes (all of which are displayed here), weapons select (which IIRC none of the other 8bit games had.) and even every boss has different music. This is also one of the few Gradius games without Moai, a defenseless final boss or "Space" sections before levels. It's pretty cool though, I might have a look out for a copy.. :)
seeGAMEPLAY