It's worth noting that this game is yet another WiiWare title that doesn't quite stretch the full width of the screen, which has become a rather sore subject with many widescreen HDTV owners. If you can appreciate that, you'll surely enjoy what Gradius Rebirth has to offer in terms of visuals.
But for the most part it's clear that developer M2 was going for the nostalgic look. The end-of-level bosses are probably the high point of the visual experience with some being absolutely immense and extremely detailed.
It has a very pixilated look reminiscent of the 8-bit era of gaming and, although there are probably more colours onscreen than we saw back then, it still looks like it would be more suited to running on an NES or PC Engine system than an advanced piece of gaming hardware like the Nintendo Wii. Visually, Gradius Rebirth looks like it just stepped out of a late 1980s arcade. Of course there is a wide range of difficulty settings, but unfortunately there's little difference between the various settings. The game also features a fairly high level of difficulty, so if you find yourself easily frustrated, you might want to take that into account. That's not to say that there's not still plenty of classic arcade shooter-style play to be enjoyed, and the tricky enemy and bullet patterns and plenty of closed-quarter levels will keep you ducking and dodging for cover. So while the feel of Gradius Rebirth closely resembles that of the classic Gradius titles, this isn't necessarily always a good thing.
While the Speed power-up can be useful for making your ship move around at a faster rate of speed, the cannon fire and bomb power-ups can be tricky as certain types work better in certain situations and you often have to decide ahead of time which type of power-up you want to use in a given situation.
As with most of the early Gradius titles, the pacing of the game is a bit on the sluggish side and lacks the high level of intensity found in many of the other shooter series of the time period. The exact same power up system is still in place and the game even allows you to set a button to rapid-fire, which will save your thumb some serious wear and tear. The gameplay itself couldn't be any more familiar to fans of the classic Gradius series. You can even record your scoring runs and replay them at a later time, a nice feature for those that like to show off a bit (you know who you are). You can attempt to outscore players locally or on a worldwide scale via the Wi-Fi function. If you're looking for something a little more competitive, you can choose to take on the Score Attack mode that allows you to play through the levels in an effort to rack up the most points. While this will come in handy for less-seasoned shooter fans, most hardcore shooter enthusiasts will seldom, if ever, use any type of continue or save point while playing, but at least the feature is there if you need it. As you progress through the game, you'll have the ability to start back at the last check point you reached. You'll navigate through the many levels blasting baddies and eventually facing off with a boss. The main game mode is pretty much what you'd expect it to be.
The game also features several play modes and options to keep things interesting, not to mention a wealth of configuration options to customize the controls to your exact liking. Gradius Rebirth allows for a wide variety of control methods including using the Wii Remote on its side, the Nunchuk, the Classic Controller, or even a Gamecube controller if you're so inclined. So how does a game that attempts to mimic the 8-bit shooter stylings of its early counterparts fare in a world where shooters have long since lost their lustre, not to mention become so ridiculously intense that they've garnered such labels as "bullet hell" and "manic"? With the release of Gradius Rebirth, Konami (with the assistance of emulation experts M2) decided to revive the franchise on Nintendo's WiiWare service, but instead of making use of the more modern shooter conveniences, they chose to take a trip back to the origins of the series to try to cash in on the popularity classic gaming is currently enjoying on the current generation consoles. The Gradius titles have been copied and cloned more times than can be counted and, much like other popular shooters over the years, the series has gradually evolved, taking on more modern touches. The original Gradius arcade release was one of the first truly great side-scrolling shooters and, along with R-Type, spawned a legion of copycat video games back in the 80s and 90s.