Gokujō Parodius

About Gokujō Parodius

Gokujō Parodius (1994), Fantastic Journey in Europe, is Konami's third Parodius game, a Gradius parody with eight absurd characters from a penguin to a stickman on a paper plane, made to bring shooters back to arcades full of fighting games.

Gokujō Parodius in Depth

Players choose from eight characters, each with weapons adapted from the standard Gradius arsenal: the Vic Viper, TwinBee, the penguin Pentarou, the hat-wearing octopus Takosuke, Hikaru, a bunny girl riding a rocket, Mambo the sunfish, Michael the stern angel pig and Koitsu, a stickman on a paper aeroplane. As in Gradius, power capsules highlight options on the power meter, and TwinBee's bells add more abilities, chosen by shooting them to change their colour. Seven stages grow harder through a UFO catcher machine, cookie castles and Las Vegas-style casinos, with bosses parodying Gradius, R-Type, Xevious, Galaga and Thunder Force, including a Big Core tribute whose core is a giant traffic light firing road signs. The soundtrack remixes classical music and Konami tunes.

The heroes fly through absurd places to grab a treasure and regain their past glory, only to find in a dance hall that the treasure is a talking bomb, "Mr. Past Glory", who apologises for not being treasure and blows the place up. It is harder than earlier Parodius games, with a "YOU LOSE" game over screen added just before the deadline to frustrate players, as in fighting games, and a "Semi-Auto" mode for newcomers.

Making Gokujō Parodius

Programmer and planner Tsukasa Tokuda, returning to Konami's arcade division after Parodius Da!, was asked to make an "anniversary" Parodius, and wanted a shooter to stand out in arcades crowded with fighting games; its subtitle, "Pursuing the Past Glory", expressed his wish for the industry to go back to its roots. Designer Shūjirō Hamakawa, a former anime character designer who had worked on Detana!! TwinBee, designed most bosses, and Kazuhiro Senoo, on his first game, gave the music the feel of an American variety show, choosing classical pieces with JASRAC. Tokuda planned six characters, but his boss pushed for eight, like fighting games' large rosters. It was a commercial success, Japan's fourth most successful arcade game of June 1994 according to Game Machine. A Super Famicom version in November 1994 added characters from Ganbare Goemon, Kid Dracula and Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, and the Gokujō Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack came to PlayStation and Saturn. Maniac and Hardcore Gaming 101 praised its humour, variety and music.