Parodius

Review by Mike Finkelstein

Konami has a history of making weird games. The company can make fairly straight-laced, hardcore, NES-difficult games that develop loyal fanbases, the likes of Castlevania and Contra, but they’re also not above getting weird. They did make a series of games about penguins on Antarctic Adventures, and platformers about babies like Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa. Hell, even their “normal” games can have weird moments, like the strange aliens that populate the Contra games, or furniture collecting as an objective in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. The company is not afraid to let their hair down and get strange from time to time.

This was especially the case in their crossover titles. For these games, most of the normal rules of order were thrown out and the company could really get strange and weird. We’ve seen that before, with Konami Wai Wai WorldOne of the stranger games released from Konami on the NES, this title features mascots crossover together in a Metroidvania-style adventure., where all of Konami’s biggest mascot stars had a crossworld adventure such that Simon BelmontThe first hero of the Castlevania series (by release date), he's been featured in more games, and referenced more times, than almost any other character in the series. could wander around in the world of The GooniesBased on the 1985 family film of the same name, this adventure platforming title never made it to the U.S. but it's style still helped Konami expand it's exploration ambitions. or King Kong and it was just another day. But Konami Wai Wai World was just the tip of the iceberg as, soon after, the company would really get strange with their hilariously weird space shooter, Parodius.

Developed for the MSX home computer system, Parodius (aka Parodius: The Octopus Saves the Earth) is a mascot space shooter. It plays, in many respects, like a Gradius game. You’ll travel from left-to-right on a fixed, belt-scrolling system, traveling through space as enemies fly at you, and shoot at you, from all directions. Take a hit and you die, and then once you’re out of lives it’s game over. Of course, like the Gradius series, the game is never that simple.

Although with your basic ship and shots, there are power-ups. These largely work the same as in Gradius where you’ll pick up power-up tokens and they’ll slowly charge your power-up bar. When you’re on an option you like, you activate the power-up and that locks in your next power. Then the bar starts charging again, letting you collect more and more power-ups over time. These can range from different kinds of main weapons shots, beam lasers or angled missiles, to bombs you drop that roll along the ground, extra ships that fly alongside you, and even a shield that floats in front of you to deflect attacks.

If this all sounds very similar to Gradius, well, it is. In many ways this first Parodius game feels like a reskin of Gradius. The levels are different, and the enemies look different, but there are a lot of things that feel all too familiar. The fact that the Vic Viper, the main ship from Gradius, is included in this game, just makes the feel of it all the more prevalent. With different, more “traditional” graphics, this would largely feel like a bog-standard Gradius game, which isn’t bad… but you’re not here for bog standard.

This extends to the ships you can command as well. While later games in the series would feature more variety for the power-ups the various ships would get, this first game has all the ships stick to the same upgrade and powers path. Each of the powers is reskinned for the ships you’re driving, so while the Vic Viper uses traditional Gradius graphics, Popolon the knight from Knightmare has his own version of the weapons, and a little knight shield he holds up in front of himself. From an octopus to a penguin, Goemon to the rest, each plays very similarly to the others.

I’m going to chalk most of this up to the limits of the MSX and this being the first game of the series. The MSX wasn’t a very powerful machine. It couldn’t do proper scrolling (which you’ll feel as you’re playing through this game and see the tile jutter as the screen moves) and its graphic capabilities were quite limited as well. I have no doubt that forcing all five ships in the game to play similarly was a limitation of the console, a decision made to put all the crossover characters in for the sake of having them. If they don’t play that differently, at least you know how they’ll all function.

For an MSX game, Parodius does actually work pretty well. While the screen scroll isn’t that smooth, the characters themselves move really well. Controls are tight and responsive, which you want in a shooter where everything is coming at you from every direction. When I died I knew it was my fault because I wasn’t able to get out of the way with the right level of reflexes and not because the controls were fighting me or the hardware wasn’t up to the task. I’m bad at games, the game wasn’t bad at me.

With that said, there were a few little spots where the game did feel cheap. Some tight corridors were hard to navigate with the jumping of the tiles as the screen scrolled. It didn’t happen often, but once in a while I got caught by the tile movement and that was a dead ship for me. Meanwhile, due to the limited number of colors the MSX could sport, especially on a single sprite, there were some times where there were so many enemies and bullets on screen that it was too hard to track all of them and I got hit by a stray shot that was lost in the shuffle.

While those aren’t great, there was a lot to love in this title. The stages are all creative and strange, and each one has new sights and sounds to delight you as you’re trying to work your way through the enemy barrage. A personal favorite of mine was the graveyard stage (stage five), which featured graves moving around, skeletons in the background, and a rendition of “Swan Lake”, all to sell the setting. “Swan Lake”, of course, was also used in the 1931 Dracula, lending it some connection to Universal’s most famous vampire, giving this stage a sly crossover feel with Castlevania even if nothing from that series officially appears in this title.

At the same time, not all the design choices really hold up now. Strange as they are, the boss comprised of eight mouths all shooting little kisses at you was more annoying than fun, and I found myself dying far too often to them. Then there was the level four boss, which was two “maids”. They looked like Aunt Jemima, a rather racist caricature in this era, and the fact that they looked like they were throwing pancakes at the player only cemented this idea. I was kind of uncomfortable battling them, if I’m being honest.

But overall I think the game is successful. Yes, it is “Nintendo Hard” (or, should we say “MSX Hard”?), but it was fun. It’s silly and weird and over-the-top, and it has so many good moments that it helps sell the package. Obviously the game was a success as it launched its own series of games, seven main titles and then the Otomedius spin-off series to go with. It’s a fun, silly little goof of a shooter that plays really well despite the hardware it was on. Konami hit gold with this, and then didn’t let up for years.