You know, back in the day, Gradius was hard. Now I’m able to plow through a bunch of stages just having been playing it a few days (bought it on Wii VC after my Wii got back).
Well, to be fair, I’ve played a lot of Gradius V since I picked it up a couple years back. But still… You really do get better at these games if you play them enough years.
Actually back in the day I think I rented Salamander more than Gradius; I’ll have to pick that up next (I hope it’s in the VC).