Fantastic Parodius Pursue the Glory of the Past

Gameplay

Overall, the gameplay is identical to that of its predecessor, Parodius! From Myth to Laughter, with several new characters to choose from. Also new, 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. These characters include: Vic Viper/Lord British, Pentaro/Hanako, Twinbee/Winbee, Takosuke/Belial, Hikaru/Akane, Mambo/Samba, Michael/Gabriel and Koitsu/Aitsu.

In the Parodius series, starting with Gokujō Parodius, the Power Meter was changed from a bar with the weapon names as text to a bar with pictures indicating the powerups. The borders of each icon determine the gameplay type chosen, red for auto, yellow for semi-auto and blue for manual. As this kind of power meter is shorter, two separate power meters appear on screen on a two player game.

Ports

Fantastic Parodius was ported to the Super Famicom months after its arcade release. Two significant differences between the console and arcade version were added characters: Goemon/Ebisumaru from Ganbare Goemon, Dracula-Kun/Kid-D from Kid Dracula and Upa/Rupa from Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa and the alternating two player mode.

In addition, Hikaru and Akane gets a Tailgun, 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 (named "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 (named "Barrier").

Fantastic Parodius! was also ported along with Parodius! From Myth to Laughter on Gokujō Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack for PlayStation in 1994 and Sega Saturn in 1995. This compilation was released in Japan and Europe. The European release was released as Parodius, with Parodius Da! simply titled Parodius and Gokujō Parodius as Fantastic Journey. In addition, it 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 for mobile phones and included in Parodius Portable on the PlayStation Portable, with some songs replaced by classical/folk songs.

Reception

On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the PlayStation version's Deluxe Pack a 32 out of 40, and the Sega Saturn's Deluxe Pack a 31 out of 40. Maximum gave the Saturn Deluxe Pack three out of five stars, saying that it is virtually identical to the arcade and PlayStation versions and has very pleasing gameplay, visuals, and music, but is outdated compared to contemporary Saturn games. They summarized, "Konami's first effort [at a Saturn game] has a lot to commend it, but when there are epics such as Panzer Dragoon stretching the shooting genre, it's clear that Parodius is not in the same league."

Soundtrack

The Gokujō Parodius ~Original Game Sound Track~ was produced by Konami Kukeiha Club and released by King Records on July 2, 1994 in Japan by Konami Music Entertainment, Inc.

In 2005, Three Gokujo Parodius like, Run Run Run, Monster of Cappuccino and Paro Paro Dancing was added titled Classic in Game Music - Legend Compilation Series.