Parodius! From Myth to Laughter
1990 · Horizontal Shooter · Arcade
Overview
Parodius (1990) is Konami's comic send-up of Gradius, flown as Vic Viper, an octopus, TwinBee or Pentarou to remixes of classical music.
Deep Dive
It plays like Gradius, but each of the four characters — Vic Viper, Octopus, TwinBee and Pentarou — has its own weapon set, and TwinBee's bells give one-off effects such as clearing the screen. The ten arcade stages range from a pirate planet to a pinball planet, with jokes including a neon "Viva Core" boss and a moai stage.
Developer Story
It followed the lesser-known MSX game Parodius (1988). Released in arcades in February 1990, it was one of Japan's five highest-grossing arcade games that year and won Gamest's Best Shooting Game award. Versions followed for the Famicom, Game Boy, PC Engine, SNES, PlayStation and Saturn.
Did You Know?
- The soundtrack remixes works by Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Rossini.
- Super Play described the SNES version as "Gradius on hallucinogens".
Sources & further reading
- Parodius! From Myth to Laughter — Wikipedia
