Gokujou Parodius (SNES) - 1-ALL Clear (+Special Stage), 2,045,400
2Gokujou Parodius
極上パロディウス
Fantastic Parodius (SNES version)
©1994 Konami
When it comes to console ports of arcade games, I'm not always a fan. Sometimes you get some nice hitters, but most of the time I'd rather play the arcade versions. Home console ports don't always seem to capture the same feel for me, whether it be due to reduced quality in graphics, sound, changed mechanics, added/removed features, or different pacing.
The SNES Parodius titles, for me, have a negative trend among them. The SNES port of Da! was fantastic--almost perfectly captured the original arcade feel, but toned down just enough to make it a more enjoyable experience. This, on the other hand... definitely a step in the opposite direction. Somehow, it just doesn't feel like as fantastic of a port as the one for Da! was.
For starters, the music. I always have a problem when home console ports of arcade games have songs in the wrong key, and over half the songs in this game have that issue. You could argue that since many of them are based on classical music, they probably went with that to avoid copyright, but they didn't do that at all for Da! on the SNES. On top of that, while the SNES' sound hardware works well for Da!, it doesn't for this game. So many songs just feel choppy, full of weird noises that seem out of place, and the lower quality instrumentation significantly lessens the epicness of the soundtrack overall. Some songs are fine, but none of them are better than the arcade versions. A few songs are even shortened, usually those with repetitive parts, which also bothers me, and every portion of the Special Stage track is split up (likely to account for lag).
For actual gameplay, it has its ups and downs. Like Da!, the stages are recreated mostly faithfully, though there a few more brief periods of dead air than in the arcade version. Graphics are fine with sprite flicker only being a minor problem, and framerate... well, this game gets laggy often. It's not so much like Gradius III SNES, where parts of it seemed to be designed around the slowdown, here it just makes everything feel more like a drag. It's helpful in some sections, sure, and it's not like it runs at half speed the whole time, but it is present. Bosses also take a bit longer, usually due to longer periods of invincibility frames after taking damage. Koitsu's K-Way doesn't seem to be as affective as in the arcade version, though it is still a powerful weapon.
Overall, this game is much, much easier than the arcade version. Like with Da! SNES, the rank was toned down by a large amount, so the game doesn't become a bullet hell by stage 7. Though, it doesn't seem to be completely nerfed, as I still get suicide bullets late into the game, which doesn't happen at all in arcade Gokujou until the special stage. Roulettes move slower and it's also a bit easier to hit the tight windows for selecting power-ups thanks to the lag. Instead of checkpoints and instant respawns being tied to which power-up mode you select, it's toggleable in the Options menu. I left checkpoints on for the true experience. Also, Koitsu's shield has WAY too big a hitbox, there are multiple times in this run where a bullet definitely hit Koitsu but it just depleted my shield. Also, while you still have limited extends, this time you can get up to 10 instead of just 2.
There are some sections that are different, though, such as Decoration Core, whose pattern is random instead of being on a cycle. Oh, and those damn circles of orbs during the Skywalker section in the special stage were made HARDER: they move way faster, all fire suicide bullets, and you pretty much have to be stocked on bell powers to survive. Sadly, there's not as many good places to use purple bells.
I'm pretty happy with how this run turned out. The two deaths on the Special Stage were kinda dumb, but they helped boost my score by quite a bit. Theoretically, I could've died even more times there to push it further, but I didn't want to bother with that. Having had the chance to replay this port, I will say it's not quite as bad as I said it was when I ranked the Gradius and Parodius games a year ago. I still prefer the arcade version over this, though (mostly for the music, more consistent framerate, and even though it is harder, that makes it more satisfying to play properly for me), but if you dislike the arcade version for being too ridiculous, this is probably your best bet. Just don't try to tell me it has better music, because it doesn't.
Also, that time-out on Yoshiko was clutch.
Played using Snes9x.
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