Thanks to a kind DP member on here, who I'm not sure I can mention publicly, I got a copy of the bonus DVD that came with Gradius V today.

I popped it into my PS2 and was very impressed. The Gradius V gameplay scenes are nice and remind me of the 'preview' stages that you can see in Gradius Galaxies for the GBA. Very helpfull.

Then I looked at the history of the Gradius series. And my jaw dropped in surprise.

Now, I know many Gradius games did'nt come out here in the States. And I know many were remade in Japan only. And it probaly does'nt include EVERYTHING that it could (for example, no mention of the Gradius Deluxe Pack of 1 and 2 for the PC).

Still, I wish there had been some documentation included with the DVD explaining WHAT we were seeing in the gameplay and intros included here. It left me totally confused as to where they got the material from and just how many Gradius games and remakes have been released, and what the differneces were.

For example, the gameplay of Gradius -- that can't be the NES version. The graphics are too different. And there were no voices in our version. I always thought Salamander and Life Force were the same game, just a different name. Why were both included in a re-release in Japan? What the heck is Salamander II? Are we looking at the SNES or the Arcade version of Gradius III on here, or something else? How come our version of Life Force did'nt have all those cool voices?

Can anyone point to me a file or a website that explains the ENTIRE Gradius series -- games released, what platforms, changes between the versions, etc.? Or can anyone just explain what we're seeing here on the DVD? It's very cool and all, I'm just left feeling very confused by what I'm seeing. And wondering what I have to do to play those versions we're seeing on the DVD.