This short article is in need of work. You can help Sega Retro by adding to it.
Parodius, known in Japan as Gokujou Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack (極上パロディウスだ！DELUXE PACK) is a compilation for the Sega Saturn containing the first two arcade Parodius games. It was released for the console in 1995 in Japan and Europe. A North American release was also announced by Konami, but cancelled for unknown reasons.
Developed and published by Konami, the Parodius franchise is a parody of Konami's successful Gradius fanchise, as well as other Konami-made franchises such as Antarctic Adventure and Twinbee. Both are side-scrolling shoot-'em-ups in which the player pilots various characters with their own set of weapons.
Parodius or, more accurately, Parodius Da!: Shinwa kara Owarai e (パロディウスだ! －神話からお笑いへ－) is an arcade game released in 1990 and a "sequel" to the original Parodius game released for the MSX in 1988. It is the simpler game of the two, featuring only four characters (Vic Viper (Gradius), Octopus, Twinbee (Twinbee) and Pentarou (Antarctic Adventure)).
This game is the most widely ported Parodius game, having been subsequently brought to the NES, Game Boy, Super Nintendo, and in Japan, the PC Engine and X68000. No versions were released in North America, although the arcade release and Nintendo ports saw a release in Europe, as was this compilation.
Fantastic Journey
Fantastic Journey, known as Gokujou Parodius!: Kako no Eikou o Motomete (極上パロディウス ～過去の栄光を求めて～) in Japan is the direct sequel to Parodius and was released in 1994. It features twice as many playable characters (technically four times, as the two-player characters use different sprites), bigger stages and is the more forgiving of the two.
Though the arcade release of Fantastic Journey and this compilation were released in Europe, the only standalone home port, one for the Super Famicom, remained in Japan.
Gameplay
Both Parodius and Fantastic Journey share some same basic gameplay elements, though Fantastic Journey has a number of additions to the formula. Both play extremely similarly to Gradius; players scroll from left to right, shooting enemies and avoiding obstacles and projectiles. A collision is usually instant death, and players have a limited number of lives until they are given a game over.
The power-up system from Gradius returns in Parodius, in which players collect power-up capsules to advance the power gauge at the bottom of the screen. Pressing upgrades the player with whatever is highlighted on the gauge (returning the selector back to the original position), meaning the player can choose which order they get their upgrades. The "roulette" option ("!?" or "OH") will select an upgrade at random, but can also remove upgrades, however both games also offer an "auto" mode to both avoid this and make any power-up selections for you.
Like Gradius, blue capsules can also be collected from destroyed enemies, which will eliminate any smaller enemies currently on-screen. The games also borrow from Twinbee by including power-up "bells" of varying colours, each with different effects. Bells move more quickly to the left making them harder to obtain; shooting a bell changes its colour and knocks it forward, but there is a limit to how often you can do this before it just awards points.
As the player obtains more power-ups, enemy projectiles become more common, to the point where they will be launched when an enemy is destroyed. Bosses will also adjust their attacks to counteract the player extended arsenal.
.svg){kind=small}
upgrades the player with whatever is highlighted on the gauge (returning the selector back to the original position), meaning the player can choose which order they get their upgrades. The "roulette" option ("!?" or "OH") will select an upgrade at random, but can also remove upgrades, however both games also offer an "auto" mode to both avoid this and make any power-up selections for you.
