Gradius II NES Stage 2

Gradius II Stage 2: Alien
Minibosses	Big Eye
Boss	Giga
Music	"Fortress"
Game	Gradius II (NES)
◄ Previous stage	Artificial Sun
◄ Previous stage	Artificial Sun
Next stage ►	Volcano - Crystal
Next stage ►	Volcano - Crystal

Alien is the second stage in the NES version of Gradius II.

Overview

This is a pseudo-organic themed level inside of a massive fortress made of metallic skulls and barriers that completely block the flight path.

This stage is based from the same stage of the arcade version, Alien, but with a few changes like the music, color pattern and enemies.

The mini-boss is Big Eye, guardian and probably the heart of the fortress. The boss, on the other hand, is Giga, a Life Force boss encountered after the destruction of the level.

Layout and tips

There is a bunch of red coral-like stuff blocking your flight path. You have to shoot it to make a path through it. You'll want to keep choosing down until you get up to the round orange enemy that go around and around their platform.

These "shrimp" can each fetch you a power up, but they take a couple of shots to kill.

When you start the next part of the level, there's a bunch of ground enemies that you need to kill. The big blue arms are too tough to bother with. The best part is that you can laugh at them, because only two can be on the screen at a time. After you get past the really narrow stretch, this is where your missiles will come into play. Fly up near the top of the screen and start shooting everything at the top, and let your missile take care of the bottom.

Keep shooting at the top and be sure to kill the purple flower creatures as soon as possible. If you don't kill them, they'll release four quick moving spiders. At the end, you'll face two bosses, Big Eye from the arcade version, and Giga from Life Force NES as an additional boss.

Enemies

Miniboss

• Big Eye

Boss

• Giga

Music

Description	Audio
Theme of Air Battle #1 - Air 1 Tabidachi.
Theme of Alien - Fortress.
Theme of Boss Fight and Enemy Base 2 - The Final Enemy.

Trivia

• Two enemies from this stage were lifted straight from Contra, the purple pods and the facehugger like creatures. Both enemies (and the stage itself) are inspired from H.R. Giger's designs, which are prominently seen on the Alien movie franchise.