Parodius Da!

Review by Mike Finkelstein

The original Parodius is a solid game, a fun little space shooter that, quite purposefully, doesn’t take itself too seriously. It was one of a number of mascot crossover games that Konami released in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and those games loved to have their tongue planted firmly in their cheeks. Parodius was no exception, with octopuses and penguins flying all over, giant mouths and pancake-throwing maids as bosses, and a whole lot of jaunty, public domain music keeping the game trucking along. It’s a silly, fun time hampered only by the fact that it was locked to the MSX for the longest time, a console that didn’t have the reach of Nintendo’s Famicom, and also didn’t come out the West.

Thankfully the sequel, Parodius! From Myth to Laughter (originally titled Parodius Da! Shinwa kara Owarai e in Japan, and later titled Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy in Europe) corrects that one big issue, debuting in Arcades before seeing release on the Famicom (and later NES in Europe), Game Boy, PC Engine, Super Famicom (and SNES in Europe), Sega Saturn, and PlayStation. And it’s also just a massively improved game in just about every way you could think of.

The basics of the game hew closely to the gameplay set by Parodius (and thus, by extension, the gameplay of the Gradius series that came before). You choose one fighter from a handful of options and then fly and blast your way through a series of horizontally scrolling stages, each more difficult than the previous. The stages are populated by all kinds of enemies, tight passages, and traps, and each is capped by a boss fight before you’re sent into a transitory zone to grab upgrades and get ready for the next stage. Blast through all of them to beat the game.

Like the first title, there really isn’t much in the way of plot for Parodius Da! You get an opening scene that shows the evolution of the Gradius series and then the debut of Parodius and, well, that’s it. You’re dumped straight into the game to pick your fighters and get to flying. That’s not really a bad thing, though, as this is an irreverent space shooter that exists mostly to make you laugh as you’re blasting your way along. Plot would, in fact, only get in the way of the action. We don’t need explanations for why there’s a pirate ship with the head of a cat or why a giant dancing girl is moving back and forth across the screen. We just want joyful action, and this game provides that in spades.

The action is on point, carrying on the series’ great space blasting action. Konami were kings of space-shooter games, with their Gradius series setting a high bar for others to meet, so it’s no surprise that Parodius Da! brings all that great feeling action in this sequel. Of course, while it’s as tight and responsive as you expect, it’s also just as brutally hard as Konami liked to make it. This is an arcade game first, and that means the goal is to give players just enough gameplay on a single quarter to feel like they got their money’s worth right before killing them off so they have to shove another quarter into the game.

The early stages of the game are easy enough, and most players will likely be able to get through them before they lose all their lives, but the difficulty quickly ratchets up with more enemies, more speed, and tons of bullets flying around everywhere. To get through the later stages of the game you’ll have to be really good, and really know the exact bounds of your ship’s hitbox. Otherwise you’re likely going to get hit and killed, spawned back in a basic ship with no upgrades, facing a relentless horde that’s going to wipe you out.

That is one of the hardest parts of Parodius Da! If you die you spawn back in with a very basic ship, and the enemies don’t care that you’re suddenly weak and powerless. They keep coming and you’re going to have to work fast to get up to speed or that first death is going to be quickly followed by the rest of your lives and a game over screen. The game has no sympathy expecting you to keep up or shut up. It’s Konami Hard, just as you would expect.

Thankfully the game has enough upgrades to its basic package that will keep you coming back for more. Since this game was released for a variety of platforms, many of them vastly improved graphics and sound hardware over the original games MSX console, Konami could really put the spit and polish into Parodius Da! The game is quite lovely, with big, bright, colorful graphics filling the screen at all times. The sprite work is fantastic and even now, all these decades later, it still holds up. It’s complimented by a bouncy, fun, toe-tapping soundtrack that’s full of synths and instruments, sounding fantastic on its upgraded hardware.

The best feature, though, is the selection of ships in the game. Unlike with the first game, where the various ships on offer were all just reskins of the Gradius Vic Viper, Parodius Da! features four ships that each function differently. The Vic Viper is present, acting as you’d expect, but it’s joined by the Octopus, who has rear firing guns and ripple lasers, TwinBee, with a rocket punch and triple laser, and Pentarou, who has torpedoes, double shot, and laser bullets. Each ship’s configuration has its pluses and minuses and finding the right ship for your play style matters. Of course, that also means you can play the game over and over finding just the right ship that feels great in your hands.

Upgrades work as before, with the Gradius power-ups filling your bar at the bottom, letting you select when you get a power-up and how they apply. The TwinBee bells are back, and this time their upgrades are more obvious and meaningful. Unlike the Gradius upgrades, which stick around until you die or swap them out, the bell power-ups are limited use. You have the shoot the bells to change their color and then the corresponding color gives you a massive, but temporary, upgrade, from a giant forward shot, to a moving, protective barrier, and even a giant-size invincibility mode. These power-ups are great, but trying to grab them while working through all the obstacles and enemies and bullets at the same time can be difficult… and might just lead to your death.

Honestly, Parodius Da! is packed to the gills with content. It’s a fast and fun and massively difficult space shooter that keeps the humor and strangeness going through every moment, every stage. It’s a classic Konami shooter from the masters of the craft, all set up in a package that has withstood the test of time. The original Parodius was good, but this game is better across the board, making it easy to understand why so many consider this the true start of the franchise (and not just because so few even knew the MSX game even existed). If you’re going to play one of these games, you’re best to start here and experience the franchise firing (pun intended) on all cylinders.