Grind Stormer

For the 2024 re-release by Retro-bit, see Grind Stormer Collector's Edition.

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Grind Stormer
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Tengen
Developer: Toaplan, Tengen
Licensor: Toaplan
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1994-03-25 ¥7,800 (8,034)7,800e T-48173 US 1994-03 $39.9539.95 T-48256
Non-Sega versions <img alt="Arcade" src="https://retrocdn.net/images/thumb/5/53/Logo-arcade.png/16px-Logo-arcade.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" srcset="https://retrocdn.net/images/thumb/5/53/Logo-arcade.png/24px-Logo-arcade.png 1.5x, https://retrocdn.net/images/5/53/Logo-arcade.png 2x" />

Grind Stormer, called V-Five or V-V (ヴイ・ファイヴ) in Japan, is a 1992 arcade shoot-'em-up developed by Toaplan. It was ported to the Sega Mega Drive in 1994 and released by Tengen exclusively in the US and Japan.

Story

Players assume the role of the last surviving Terran Defense Force fighter pilot taking control of the Grind Stormer fighter craft in order repel an alien race known as the Zeta Reticulli from invading Earth.

Gameplay

V-Five

The game is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up. There are two game modes, Grind Stormer and V-Five, corresponding to the North American and original Japanese releases of the arcade game respectively. Both modes play through the same stages but vary in how items are acquired. The game mode is selected from the options menu, which is accessed by pressing , , or at the title screen.

In either mode, the player's starfighter is moved with the D-Pad. It fires its weapon with or , which can be held for rapid-fire. The starfighter fires two parallel streams of bullets, and it is accompanied by two side pods that augment its fire with their own. There are three different weapons that can be equipped for the pods, which also change how they move. The starfighter's movement speed can be upgraded four times, and its weapon power can be upgraded three times. The weapon level is retained if the weapon is changed. The second weapon power upgrade adds two more pods.

Atypically, the game has a "Left-Handed" control mode where the D-Pad is inverted, so that left-handed players can use the controller flipped upside down.

In Grind Stormer, items are dropped by some enemies when they are destroyed, and the player collects them by flying over them. Items are always dropped in the same order. The starfighter is armed with screen-clearing bombs, which are detonated with . The starfighter can hold up to six bombs at a time, but more are found by collecting diamonds.

In V-Five, diamonds are the only item dropped by destroyed enemies. Similar to Gradius or Slap Fight, collecting a diamond selects the next item in the sidebar; the player can choose the selected item by pressing . The next diamond collected starts over from the beginning of the item list. There are no bombs in this mode, but there is a shield item that temporarily protects the starfighter from damage.

If the starfighter collides with an enemy or an enemy projectile, it is destroyed, and the player must restart the stage from the beginning at the cost of a life and any acquired upgrades. The game ends if the player runs out of lives. There are no continues. The player earns an extra life at 300,000 and 800,000 points and then every 800,000 points after that. There are multiple selectable difficulty levels (Easy, Moderate, Hard, and Very Hard).

As with other Toaplan shooters, the game loops over again from the beginning, with the difficulty increasing, after it is completed.

Items

In Grind Stormer, the speed and weapon items are dropped by destroyed enemies in order. Collecting the item for an already equipped weapon or collecting a Power item when already at maximum weapon power awards 10,000 bonus points.

In V-Five, the speed and weapon items are chosen by pressing when the desired item is selected in the sidebar, and collecting a diamond selects the next item in the sidebar. If a weapon is already equipped, it is blanked out in the sidebar and skipped when a diamond is collected. The Power item is also blanked out and skipped once the weapon power is at maximum level.

	S-Up
	Increases the movement speed of the starfighter, up to 4 times.
	S-Down
	Decreases the movement speed of the starfighter. This item only becomes available when the starfighter is at maximum speed.
	Shot
	Equips the pods with the Shot weapon, which fires a stream of bullets similar to the starfighter's main weapon. The pods stay fixed next to the starfighter and can be positioned to aim at diagonal angles to cover a larger area or directly ahead. Similar to Sol-Feace, moving without firing closes the position of the pods relative to each other and moving without firing opens them. This is the initially equipped weapon.
	Search
	Equips the pods with the Search weapon, which shoot long laser beams. The pods orbit around the starfighter; when an enemy comes near, a pod breaks away and attaches itself to the enemy until it is destroyed.
	Missile
	Equips the pods with the Missile weapon, which fires missiles. The pods spread out to cover a larger area without overlapping but follow the movement of the starfighter around the screen.
	Power
	Increases the weapon power, up to 3 times. The second upgrade increases the number of pods by 2 (for a total of 4).
	Max-Pow
	Upgrades the weapon power to maximum level (or awards 100,000 bonus points if already at maximum level). Appears in the last stage before the final boss fight.
	Bonus Points
	Awards bonus points.
	1-Up
	Gives the player an extra life.

Grind Stormer

	Diamond
	Arms the starfighter with another bomb, up to 6 (or awards 10,000 bonus points if already carrying the maximum number of bombs).

V-Five

	Diamond
	Selects the next item in the sidebar. The selected item can be chosen by the player by pressing .
	Shield
	Temporarily ensconces the starfighter in a protective barrier that can absorb several hits before it dissipates.

Stages

	Stage 1
	Stage 2
	Stage 3
	Stage 4
	Stage 5
	Stage 6

History

Release

American copies of the game were reportedly afflicted with a manufacturing defect (supposedly poor quality PCBs) that reduced the lifespan of many cartridges.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English (US)	Grind Stormer	Grind Stormer
Japanese	ヴイ・ファイヴ	V-Five / V-V

Production credits

• Project Leader: Jun Amanai
• Main Programmer: Jun Amanai
• Programmer: Takayuki Muraoka
• Assistant Programmer: Osamu Yamamoto
• Graphics: Ken-ichi Nemoto
• Audio: Kenji Yokoyama
• Test Players: Ken-ichi Nemoto, John Arvay, Mike Kruse, Rob Boone, Kenji Yokoyama, Jim Hernandez
• Special Thanks: Bill Hindorff, Mitzi McGilvray, Tatsuya Uemura
• Presented by: Tengen

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Grind Stormer/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in (US) #0705: "Vol. 7 No. 5 May 1994" (1994-0x-xx)
also published in:

• (US) #58: "May 1994" (1994-xx-xx)

Print advert in (JP) #1994-02: "February 1994" (1994-01-08)

Print advert in (JP) #1994-03: "March 1994" (1994-02-08)

Print advert in (JP) #1994-04: "April 1994" (1994-03-08)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score (RU) 40 (JP) NTSC-J 70 (US) NTSC-U 68 (US) NTSC-U 58 (US) NTSC-U 56 (JP) NTSC-J 65 (FR) NTSC-J 68 (DE) PAL 67 (UK) NTSC-U 39 (DE) NTSC-U 61 (UK) NTSC-U 54 (UK) NTSC-U 82 (NL) 80 (UK) NTSC-U 27 (UK) NTSC-U 57 (UK) NTSC-U 78 (JP) NTSC-J 83 (RU) 57 (DE) NTSC-U 65

	62
Based on 19 reviews

Grind Stormer

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

Main article: Grind Stormer/Technical information.