In the year 2210, the "ultimate arcade machine" was released: a hyper-realistic virtual reality game known as Grind Stormer. It is notable for the fifth gameplay setting, "V-V", in which the player is unable to return to the real world until they complete it. To date, everyone who has tried to take on the "V-V" campaign has failed. A government agent has been dispatched to take on "V-V", engage in the virtual NA-00 fighter, rescue the players who have been effectively abducted by it, and find out its true purpose...
The original V-V build effectively serves as a Creator-Driven Successor to Slap Fight, featuring a Gradius-style power meter at the bottom. By collecting orange diamond tokens, the player can advance the power bar and then activate the highlighted powerup with button 2. The ship has at least two Attack Drones at all times, with three different behavior modes: "Shot" (drones change angle when moving vertically, allowing for a variable Spread Shot or a concentrated Wave-Motion Gun), "Missile" (drones follow the player's movement relative to the screen and fire concussion missiles), and "Search" (drones follow on-screen enemies). The overseas Grind Stormer build eschews the power meter system and instead has the player collecting powerups through direct-upgrade/change items, and gives the player access to Smart Bombs; this mode can be activated in the V-V build through a cheat code.
A Sega Genesis port was released in 1994, featuring both variants of the game in both the Japanese and US versions.
Grind Stormer / V-V contains examples of:
- Arrange Mode: Grind Stormer is this to the original V-V, swapping out the power meter in favor of simply collecting items that directly change your ship's firing mode or upgrades your ship and adding a Smart Bomb feature. This variant can be played on V-V by inputting a code, and the Genesis / Mega Drive version features both versions, with the game defaulting to V-V for the Japanese version and Grind Stormer for the American version.
- Attack Drone: The player's ship is flanked by 2 or 4 drones that fire in sync with the player. Their firing mode can be changed by activating the "Shot", "Missile", or "Search" items on the power bar in V-V or by collecting their respective tokens in Grind Stormer.
- Dual Boss: The boss fight of Stage 1-1 and 2-1 consists of two large tanks that fight you simultaneously.
- Guide Dang It!: The secret 1-Up requires you to avoid destroying a conspicuous yellow box in Stage 1-3, and then the 1-up is rewarded in Stage 1-5. This isn't hinted at anywhere, so a new player may get the 1-up in one run and then in later runs try to figure out what in Stage 1-5 triggered it...and then realize that the 1-up is determined by actions from two stages prior.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Everyone who tries out the "V-V" campaign in-universe ends up failing and is trapped in the game.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: In-universe, players who attempt "V-V" can only return to the real world by completing it. Unfortunately, it seems the game is Nintendo Hard, as no one who has played it has completed it.
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Nintendo Hard:- As is typical of arcade shmups, enemies will swamp the screen with bullets at all times; more than previous Toaplan games in fact, making it a proto- example of Bullet Hell.
- Played for Drama with the Framing Device for the game: Nobody who tries "V-V" is able to come out alive, implying that the game is far too difficult for them.
- Single-Use Shield: Available exclusively in V-V, it is at the end of the power meter and protects the ship from one hit when active.
- Smart Bomb: Available exclusively in Grind Stormer, where what would be the "activate item" button instead fires a screen-clearing bomb.
- A Winner Is You: Were you expecting some juicy reveals about the true nature of the Grind Stormer Framing Device when you complete the game? Too bad, all you get is a credit roll and a simple "mission complete" message.
