I’m incredibly jealous of Europe with this one. I did not become aware of the Parodius series until the 16-bit era, when magazines began featuring import coverage. The SNES version of Parodius is truly excellent and probably the closest to the arcade for its time. There were many other versions, such as the PC Engine and even Gameboy. But surprisingly Konami also ported it over to the Famicom and even released it in Europe. While there are plenty of shooters the US did not receive Parodius is one of the best in my opinion.
This NES version of Parodius is the most interesting out of all of them. Obviously it would never be arcade perfect but Konami have done a more than admirable job here. The overall stage themes are the same but they have made some smart changes here and there. As a bonus there are few hidden and exclusive levels that make this worthwhile for fans of the series. Aside from some really bad slowdown and flicker this is an otherwise excellent shooter.
While Parodius mainly parodies Gradius it is also a celebration of Konami in general. The four “ships” and weapon sets you can select are all representative of past Konami titles. Obviously the Vic Viper represents Gradius with its now familiar weapon set. Pentarou the penguin has weapons representative of Gradius III. Twin Bee, uh, is from Twin Bee. Come on man, common sense. Thankfully you won’t have to juggle bells for power-ups here. Oddly enough Tako the Octopus represents Salamander, with its photon torpedoes and ripple laser. This is my personal favorite but I found that every choice is viable.
As much as I hate the bells from Twin Bee they are present. Since this is a horizontal shooter they are easier to manage and provide a different set of power-ups. The list of effects are smaller than its arcade big brother but are practically game breaking here. The red bell creates a laser wall that blocks everything, including projectiles. It is incredibly useful although hard to time. The Flashing bell turns you into an invincible giant for an extended period of time. Seriously, I’ve cruised through a quarter of a level using this and destroyed bosses in seconds. The bells aren’t too common which makes up for it somewhat. I’m still surprised this made it in as is.
Parodius is a slower paced game than its brethren and this version might be even slower. That doesn’t mean this is an easy game. Its tight corridors are densely packed, meaning it is easy to get hit by stray bullets. The lighthearted tone is at odds with the at times vicious difficulty which is pretty funny. The levels are massive, often offering more than one path to the exit. The only knock I have is that some of the boss “battles” are little more than a gauntlet to see how long you can survive. The difficulty spikes significantly toward the end, enough that I even contemplated punching a wall. Be warned.
In the arcade Parodius had ten levels, making it one of the longer shooters around. The Famicom version tops out at seven but makes up for it in a few ways. One new level, Duck’s Theme Park takes place in an amusement park, complete with carousel and swimming pool (!). It fits the game’s tone perfectly as well as offers new art and bosses. There are two hidden levels for the more skilled gamers out there. One actually takes place inside a Moai head if you can believe it! On top of the better than average length these stages give Parodius replay value as well.
It can’t be stated enough how incredible Parodius looks on the NES. Konami did an incredible job and it is up there with Crisis Force in my opinion. Most of the absurd enemies and wacky art direction have made the trip to the NES. Everything has been suitably scaled down and redesigned in some creative ways. The scantily clad Vegas dancer is instead replaced by a fully clothed Galactic dancer. It is silly in concept but still pretty awesome that they went the extra mile. Background detail all around is exceptionally high and the only area the game is let down in is its color palette.
The graphics do come with a heavy price however and that is egregiously bad slowdown. Similar to Gradius II once you have a full set of options the game slows to a crawl. Gradius focused on wide open spaces so it wasn’t as bad and even beneficial. Here the narrow passages combined with the slowdown leads to many cheap deaths. What is possibly even worse is the flickering. Sprites straight up disappear for seconds at a time which is a detriment in this genre. The fourth stage is the absolute worst performing and a real knock on the presentation. Honestly this is the game’s only flaw; it isn’t game breaking but should have been better.
In Closing
Parodius is a fantastic addition to the NES library and one of its best shooters. I would even say it is worth playing next to the superior 16-bit ports. The US missed out on an amazing game that is well worth tracking down.
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