Gradius II on the Famicom is one of those ports that shouldn't work as well as it does. Konami's sound team squeezed the NES hardware until it screamed, and the result is a chiptune adaptation that stands completely on its own.
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"Burning Heat" still rips, even through the 2A03 sound chip, that opening melody is seared into the brains of an entire generation of shmup players. "TABIDACHI" sets the tone for the air battle stages with this driving urgency that never lets up.
"Something Ghostly" takes a hard left into eerie, hollow territory for Stage 7, while "Heavy Blow" and "Dead End" tag-team Stage 3 with two distinct flavors of intensity. The way Stage 5 weaves in boss themes from both Gradius 1 and Salamander is a great bit of fan service baked right into the music.
"Farewell" closes things out with a surprisingly emotional ending theme that earns its name. Fifteen tracks, no dead weight, pure Konami NES-era craft at its peak.