Collection essentials #198: Gokujou Parodius (SNES)

I talked before about how Konami likes to spoof their own games, such as with Kid Dracula. Here’s another instance, where “Gradius” gets spoofed in this series called “Parodius”, combining the original title with the word “parody”. Parodius games are, delightfully, very goofy, bizarre and charming. They also use a bunch of music that’s either borrowed from the public domain or other Konami games.

On a basic level, Parodius uses the same gameplay as Gradius. There is a difference, though, as Parodius also implements the colored bells from the “TwinBee” series (which I haven’t talked about yet) to grant temporary power-ups (as opposed to the permanent ones which this game also has), and this is a welcome addition because it makes it a little easier to recover when you die, something that’s a big problem in most Gradius games.

There’s a better version of this game on a console I haven’t gotten to yet, and I’m actually going to hold back from sharing all my thoughts on Parodius until I get there. But this Super Famicom release is significant because it was the first version of any Parodius game that I ever played many years ago. It’s also notable for having three exclusive characters, those being Goemon, Kid Dracula and Upa, all from other Konami games, and they each have unique play styles too. The problem with the Super Nintendo version, aside from the inferior graphics and sound, is the large amounts of slowdown. 

Stay tuned for a post that I should be making later this year when I’ll be saying more about Gokujou Parodius. It’s actually one of my favorite games of all time…just not this version of it. But for being my first experience and having exclusive characters, it’s still a collection essential.