Parodius, also known as Parodius: The Octopus Saves the Earth, is the first title in the Parodius series. The name itself is a portmanteau of "Gradius" and "Parody" and, eponymously, the game is a parody of the Gradius series of space-based horizontally scrolling shooters. The gameplay is very similar to the Gradius games, with other aspects from games such as TwinBee. However, the characters are replaced with silly characters taken from either these or other Konami games, as well as Japanese culture. The player can play as either Tako (father of Takosuke), an octopus, the Penguin (father of Pentarou) from Antarctic Adventure and the exclusive MSX game Penguin Adventure, Goemon from the Ganbare Goemon series, the Popolon knight from the MSX game Knightmare or the Vic Viper spaceship from Gradius. The game is composed of six stages consisting of various obstacles and enemies such as penguins and bees, as well as more traditional Gradius enemies such as Moai. As with Gradius, the game utilizes a similar selection-bar based power-up system.
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If you have been following my reviews on this website for quite a while now, you would know that I have played quite a few Gradius games at this point… well, “a few” of them is putting it lightly. Either way, through my experience with playing almost 10 of these games now, I have really enjoyed my time with them. Yeah, not much changes between each entry, but it just has this simple loop of gameplay that always makes me wanna go back and play more of it, despite how repetitive it gets, or how much the game wants to beat my face in. With all that being said though, there is one aspect of the series that I have been… neglecting up to this point. Not because I don’t want to address it, but more so because I both wanted to focus on the main series of games before jumping into whatever else this franchise has got to offer, and because… I am somewhat afraid of what I might find when I do address it. But hey, I guess I gotta bite the bullet sooner or later, and we will start to bite said bullet by reviewing the first game in that series, Parodius: The Octopus Saves the Earth.
For those who don’t know, Parodius is essentially the sister series to Gradius, being made not too long after the first Gradius originally came out, and is primarily known for being a parody series meant to make fun of Gradius. Most of the elements Gradius is known for is present, but a lot of the other aspects it has such as the enemies, bosses, environments, and the characters you play as are all radically changed to be as stupid, cute, or even inappropriate as possible, which does make it all the more interesting as a result. So, I decided to give the first game a try, and it was a good time, being what you would expect from Gradius gameplay-wise, but also giving you a hilarious and unique experience in every other way.
The story is just as stupid as the game itself, where a space octopus named Tako, whose main purpose in life is programming dreams for all the stupid humans on Earth, are all suddenly being eaten up by the nefarious Bug, who is a giant space tapir, so it is up to Tako, along with a bunch of other colorful characters, to go storm into his lair and get him to cut that shit out… yes, that is actually the story of the game, and I love it so much. The graphics are… exactly what you would expect from a Gradius game, but all of the different designs for the enemies, bosses, and characters do make it more visually appealing, so I will give it that, the music is pretty good, having a good mix of both great tunes and stupid ones to make you feel right at home with this game, and the control/gameplay is Gradius through and through, so you will feel right at home… somewhat, when you decide to play the game for yourself.
The game is a vertical space shooter, where you can take control of either Tako, the penguin from Antarctic Adventure, Goemon (yes, that Goemon), Popolon from Knightmare, or the Vic Viper just in case this feels too weird for you, go through a set of six levels through plenty colorful and weird environments in space, shoot whatever strange creatures you encounter along your way while making sure to dodge every single projectile towards you, gather plenty of upgrades to select to make yourself much faster and stronger than your foes, and take on plenty of bosses that will test your speed and reflexes while you question what the fuck you are looking at. It’s Gradius, folks, so you know exactly what you are gonna get once you step over that starting gate, but at the end of the day, it still ends up being fun for big fans like me, even if it doesn’t reach the same quality as other titles in the series.
When I say it is just a Gradius game at its core, I mean it, as it plays identically to one, with no changes made to the gameplay whatsoever to advance the series. That may cause some to be turned away, but it makes up for its lack of innovation with its style. Like with TwinBee, the game’s primary appeal is with the strange elements you will see throughout your journey, except unlike with TwinBee, the weirdness scale is turned all the way up to 100 here. You have the option of playing as an octopus, a penguin, a knight, or some japanese guy while flying through space, you fight off enemies such as penguin heads, fighter pilots, literal pieces of shit, and giant moles that come out of the ground.
The bosses that you can face can range from a giant penguin, a giant tapir, a… weird bag hanging on a string (I don’t know what they are called), or even two giant, disgusting maids, and some of the levels you go through include one an ice kingdom, one filled with birthday cakes, and one full of religious gravestones and worship sites that remind you to constantly be in fear of whatever god is looming over you, just waiting to strike………………………….. but yay, cake! It is all extremely weird, uncomfortable, and oh so wonderful, making this one of the most disturbingly creative shmups I have ever played in terms of the visuals and variety, which is scary, because the further I go, there’s probably gonna be even more weird shit they throw at me in future games.
With all that being said though, if none of the insanity that occurs in this game is enough to win you over, then at the end of the day, it is just another Gradius game. If you have played any other game in the series before this, then you know exactly what you will get out of it, and thus, you will probably skip it to go onto other titles that manage to provide more engaging gameplay. As for me though, I will gladly embrace all of the stupidity this game gave me, as well as whatever else this series wants to throw at me later down the road. I think my favorite weird element to come out of this entire game is with the second boss, where before the fight, you are able to choose between one of three hands that are either rock, paper, or scissors, and depending on what you choose, you can immediately kill the boss, who is a giant hand, without having to fight him at all. It’s shit like that that gives a game personality, and I am all here for it.
Overall, despite doing nothing to change up the core gameplay whatsoever, the original Parodius makes up for that with its insane, whacky charm that I desperately want to see more of, and as a whole, makes for a good time, one that I am glad that I decided to finally experience. I would recommend it for those of you who are Gradius fans, as well as those who love it when games aren’t afraid to get weird, because while this is a very simple kind of weird, it is still my kind of weird, and I love it for that. So, now that I have started off this series, I do have one requirement going forward: each game after this one has to get even weirder than this, to the point where when I am done with the entire series, my face will have melted off, and I can see the edge of the universe.
Game #511
For those who don’t know, Parodius is essentially the sister series to Gradius, being made not too long after the first Gradius originally came out, and is primarily known for being a parody series meant to make fun of Gradius. Most of the elements Gradius is known for is present, but a lot of the other aspects it has such as the enemies, bosses, environments, and the characters you play as are all radically changed to be as stupid, cute, or even inappropriate as possible, which does make it all the more interesting as a result. So, I decided to give the first game a try, and it was a good time, being what you would expect from Gradius gameplay-wise, but also giving you a hilarious and unique experience in every other way.
The story is just as stupid as the game itself, where a space octopus named Tako, whose main purpose in life is programming dreams for all the stupid humans on Earth, are all suddenly being eaten up by the nefarious Bug, who is a giant space tapir, so it is up to Tako, along with a bunch of other colorful characters, to go storm into his lair and get him to cut that shit out… yes, that is actually the story of the game, and I love it so much. The graphics are… exactly what you would expect from a Gradius game, but all of the different designs for the enemies, bosses, and characters do make it more visually appealing, so I will give it that, the music is pretty good, having a good mix of both great tunes and stupid ones to make you feel right at home with this game, and the control/gameplay is Gradius through and through, so you will feel right at home… somewhat, when you decide to play the game for yourself.
The game is a vertical space shooter, where you can take control of either Tako, the penguin from Antarctic Adventure, Goemon (yes, that Goemon), Popolon from Knightmare, or the Vic Viper just in case this feels too weird for you, go through a set of six levels through plenty colorful and weird environments in space, shoot whatever strange creatures you encounter along your way while making sure to dodge every single projectile towards you, gather plenty of upgrades to select to make yourself much faster and stronger than your foes, and take on plenty of bosses that will test your speed and reflexes while you question what the fuck you are looking at. It’s Gradius, folks, so you know exactly what you are gonna get once you step over that starting gate, but at the end of the day, it still ends up being fun for big fans like me, even if it doesn’t reach the same quality as other titles in the series.
When I say it is just a Gradius game at its core, I mean it, as it plays identically to one, with no changes made to the gameplay whatsoever to advance the series. That may cause some to be turned away, but it makes up for its lack of innovation with its style. Like with TwinBee, the game’s primary appeal is with the strange elements you will see throughout your journey, except unlike with TwinBee, the weirdness scale is turned all the way up to 100 here. You have the option of playing as an octopus, a penguin, a knight, or some japanese guy while flying through space, you fight off enemies such as penguin heads, fighter pilots, literal pieces of shit, and giant moles that come out of the ground.
The bosses that you can face can range from a giant penguin, a giant tapir, a… weird bag hanging on a string (I don’t know what they are called), or even two giant, disgusting maids, and some of the levels you go through include one an ice kingdom, one filled with birthday cakes, and one full of religious gravestones and worship sites that remind you to constantly be in fear of whatever god is looming over you, just waiting to strike………………………….. but yay, cake! It is all extremely weird, uncomfortable, and oh so wonderful, making this one of the most disturbingly creative shmups I have ever played in terms of the visuals and variety, which is scary, because the further I go, there’s probably gonna be even more weird shit they throw at me in future games.
With all that being said though, if none of the insanity that occurs in this game is enough to win you over, then at the end of the day, it is just another Gradius game. If you have played any other game in the series before this, then you know exactly what you will get out of it, and thus, you will probably skip it to go onto other titles that manage to provide more engaging gameplay. As for me though, I will gladly embrace all of the stupidity this game gave me, as well as whatever else this series wants to throw at me later down the road. I think my favorite weird element to come out of this entire game is with the second boss, where before the fight, you are able to choose between one of three hands that are either rock, paper, or scissors, and depending on what you choose, you can immediately kill the boss, who is a giant hand, without having to fight him at all. It’s shit like that that gives a game personality, and I am all here for it.
Overall, despite doing nothing to change up the core gameplay whatsoever, the original Parodius makes up for that with its insane, whacky charm that I desperately want to see more of, and as a whole, makes for a good time, one that I am glad that I decided to finally experience. I would recommend it for those of you who are Gradius fans, as well as those who love it when games aren’t afraid to get weird, because while this is a very simple kind of weird, it is still my kind of weird, and I love it for that. So, now that I have started off this series, I do have one requirement going forward: each game after this one has to get even weirder than this, to the point where when I am done with the entire series, my face will have melted off, and I can see the edge of the universe.
Game #511
Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8
If there’s anything the MSX is known for, it’s badass Konami games. They pretty much single-handedly kept the MSX afloat, or at least it would seem from all the awesome Konami games on there. It’s like Activision with the Atari 2600, yo. Okay, enough making stuff up.
Who doesn’t love Parodius? Conceived of as a parody of Gradius (get it), Parodius probably has just as many sequels as Gradius does, including a really weird one on SNES. If you’ve played the NES or SNES versions, which I assume most people who are reading this are more familiar with, you pretty much know what to do here.
If there’s anything the MSX is known for, it’s badass Konami games. They pretty much single-handedly kept the MSX afloat, or at least it would seem from all the awesome Konami games on there. It’s like Activision with the Atari 2600, yo. Okay, enough making stuff up.
Who doesn’t love Parodius? Conceived of as a parody of Gradius (get it), Parodius probably has just as many sequels as Gradius does, including a really weird one on SNES. If you’ve played the NES or SNES versions, which I assume most people who are reading this are more familiar with, you pretty much know what to do here.
a bad game but a great base
Segue a mesma filosofia de level design, ritmo, dificuldade e sistema de power ups dos Gradius para MSX, o que me agrada muito. Entretanto, aquele que seria o seu grande diferencial, o humor, acabou não atravessando a barreira linguística - aparentemente esse é um game que usa e abusa da língua, folclore e cultura japonesas para fazer boa parte de seus trocadilhos e piadinhas meu raso conhecimento dos silabários japoneses e visão estereotipada da cultura destilada por anos assistindo anime não me ajudaram muito. Mas não dá para negar que o visual dos níveis e, principalmente, chefes são bem variados, diferentes de qualquer coisa do gênero.