Gradius, for those not familiar, is a side-scrolling shooter that is credited with inventing the genre as it is recognised today. A major influence on all the greats – including R-Type – the games see you pilot the combat ship Vic Viper into combat against hordes of technological and biological enemies. Seething and swarming all over the screen and filling the tight levels with their often compact and always deadly forms, these entities spew bullets in arcing patterns that mean manoeuvring is as vital to progress as vaporising the foe.

Aiding you in this is the Viper’s compliment of weapons. Similar to its offspring, Gradius gives you a choice of power ups to boost your arsenal. What stands out as a unique difference is the method of selection: instead of collecting armaments as you progress, you have a selection bar at the bottom of the screen. Eliminating certain enemies leaves behind a glowing core which, when collected, moves an indicator along the selection, comprised of speed up, missiles, lasers, ‘Options’ (glowing balls that surround the Vic Viper and mimic your fire) and a ‘?’, which represents a force field.

There are four different configurations of armament, selectable from the start, which alter slightly the way your weapons operate. Type 1, for example, allows you to lock the ‘Options’ in a single position with the press of a button, whereas Type 4 with the same button sees the option whirling around your ship in a protective circle.Once any selection is activated, it resets and you must collect more pickups to start the process again. The whole process really makes you think about which element is most vital to your progress.

Such a deep system of play enthrals as much as the geared, grinding of the stages that thrust you towards the vicious bosses that glower in the recesses of each level. Treasure have crafted a game engine as technically precise as it is beautiful – the Vic Viper has a tiny hit box, allowing the pilot to careen around the claustrophobic stages with startling grace, evading weapons fire and burying indestructible parts of the ship in walls, protecting the core. The idea of ‘the core’ is central to Gradius: before a boss fight, you are barked at to “Destroy the core!” – normally a blue, glowing mass of energy hidden behind the boss’s armour plating. Locating the weak spot isn’t the problem – managing to hit it, however, is. The bosses use both their own weaponry, their impenetrable shielding and the environment to destroy you. The level 5 boss, for example appears in numerous forms, each one with a greater number of cores to ravage with your guns, whilst also boxing you in or closing you out, depending on its configuration. This lends a puzzle element to the game that is most welcome – you need to memorise the layout of the ship and the attack patterns in order to devise an attack plan.

Treasure showed, in the form of Ikaruga, that you could create a sumptuous aesthetic whilst retaining the visceral thrill of destruction. Gradius V is no exception: vermilion, chrome and neon-blue cascade in cyclical patterns; at the point of explosion there’s an ecstatic pop of combustion; the impervious fabric of the enemy glistens with incendiary sparks as your lasers impact on their hulls. Each level is masterfully rendered, in high resolution (and bearing a kissing-cousin similarity to Ikaruga in terms of design and colour scheme), full of pulsing alien innards, meteorite-infested battle stations and acidic-green processing plants keen to annihilate you. It is, undoubtedly, the best-looking side-scrolling shooter ever made.

As with all titles in the Gradius series, number five is severely difficult. On Normal setting, the game is far harder than the (notoriously tough) original, and completing on one credit is a stern challenge. Thankfully, this version has an option called Reflex, whereby your ‘Options’ remain on the screen for you to collect on your next life. Any power cores you had stocked will revert to the first option (speed) regardless of how far you had progressed along the bar. You can, if you like, remove this option in the config...but that would be foolish, wouldn’t it? Extra credits are earned for each hour of game-time, lessening the burden slightly, and it’s also worth mentioning that a well-implemented two-player co-operative mode is available, and that the traditional weapon edit mode (where you hand-pick you power-up selections) is unlockable.

Treasure have engineered an awe-inspiring entrant to the Gradius franchise that succeeds on almost every level. There are only two minor, peripheral weaknesses: some Gradius enemy types are missing from the lineup: although the Salamanders (huge red planets with rotating eyes) return, the trademark Easter Island monoliths are bafflingly absent, as are the flame- and sand-dragons. Secondly, the game does not innovate as Ikaruga did, by invigorating the genre with unique touches. Although G-five could not, conceivably, be more polished - slowdown is practically non-existent, except where deliberately added for effect - it remains part of the canon rather than becoming an evolutionary offshoot.

Those caveats aside, Gradius V competes alongside the monumental R-Type Delta as the greatest shooter of its type, eclipsing even the previous Gradius titles as the best in the series. Balanced, tuned and counter-weighted to within a pixel’s distance of perfection, Treasure have masterminded a game both technically adept and visually astonishing. Revel in this pean to the art of destruction.