Gokujō Parodius! ~Kako no Eikō o Motomete~

Gokujō Parodius! ~Kako no Eikō o Motomete~

Gokujō Parodius! ~ Kako no Eikō o Motomete ~ (lit. Fantastic Parodius! ~ Pursue the Glory of the Past ~), released in Europe as Fantastic Journey, is a side-scrolling shooter arcade game and the third title in the Parodius series produced by Konami. Like the rest of the series, it is a parody of the Gradius series and other Konami games.

Gameplay

Main article: Parodius

Overall, the gameplay is identical to that of its predecessor, Parodius Da!, with several new characters to choose from. Also new is that if you play a two-player game, the second player will have a different set of characters to select. They are clones of the first player characters, except with different names and slightly altered sprites or changed color palettes.

The characters are:

• Vic Viper and Lord British
• Pentarou and Hanako
• TwinBee and Winbee
• Takosuke and Belial
• Hikaru and Akane
• Mambo and Samba
• Michael and Gabriel
• Koitsu and Aitsu
• Goemon and Ebisumaru
• Dracula-kun and Kid Dracula
• Upa and Rupa

When playing a two player game, shooting the other character enough times will cause it to get angry and fire shots in all directions for a short time. In the updated ports of Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius, this can be turned on or off in the options screen. Also, when a player has pressed continue, the game stops as the player chooses his/her character and the game type.

Manuals

• Main Article: Instruction Gokujō Parodius! Manual Arcade
• Main Article: Instruction Gokujō Parodius! Manual Super Famicom

Stages

• Stage 1: Circo Porto Harborland
• Stage 2: Cat Battleship Forever
• Stage 3: Candy Land
• Stage 4: High Speed City
• Stage 5: Core Ship Parade
• Stage X: Moai Battleship
• Stage 6: Rabbit Moon
• Stage 7: Penguin Disco
• Special Stage: Shooting Memories

Bosses

• Stage 1: Anna Baburowa and Meroowa
• Stage 2: Cat Submarine MK II, Eliza and Neil
• Stage 3: Decoration Core MK I (Big Core MK III Parody)
• Stage 4: Crazy Core (Demos Parody)
• Stage 5: Capsule Monster Cappuccino
• Stage X: Yoshiko
• Stage 6: Kaguya Princess
• Stage 7: Chichibinta Rika, Big Octopus
• Special Stage: Pentaro X

Ports

Gokujō Parodius! was ported to the Super Famicom in 1994. The only significant difference between the console and arcade version was added characters: Goemon/Ebisumaru from Ganbare Goemon, Dracula-kun/Kid-D from Kid Dracula and Upa/Rupa from Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa.

Weapon differences in the SNES release

Hikaru and Akane get the Tailgun, the Boomerang Shot from Thunder Cross, another shooter game by Konami, and a Shield instead of the Spread Bomb, the Carrot Shot and a force field called Star that they get in the arcade version as well as on the Deluxe Pack released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Similarly, Mambo and Samba are given Homing Missiles, the Reflect Shot (which gives them two options when chosen), Grade Up and a Shield instead of the Bubble Missile, the Control Laser, Search Laser and a force field known as Barrier.

Other releases

Gokujō Parodius! was also ported along with Parodius Da! in the Gokujō Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack for PlayStation in 1994 and Sega Saturn in 1995. This compilation was released in Japan and Europe as Ultimate Parodius, with Parodius Da! simply titled Parodius and Gokujō Parodius as Fantastic Journey. The European release had English text when the Megaphone is used and re-colored the mini Eagle Sabu enemies to green (as opposed to Brown in the Japanese version).

It was also released on mobile phones and included in Parodius Portable (although in the latter release some of the songs were removed due to copyright issues).

Gallery

Gokujō Parodius! ~ Kako no Eikō o Motomete ~

Title screen logo

Trivia

• Inside the arcade ROM, there are two additional pieces of music that went unused. Both a stage and boss theme are listed, and are repeated multiple times within the ROM, suggesting they were possibly placeholder pieces. The two music tracks are Je Te Veux and "Habanera" from Carmen.