Parodius Da! (SNES, 1992)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-7 Challenge-8.5 Story-?
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
+
Comical tone (silly, bizarre, perverted)
Four different setups/characters (same endings only with a different character sprite)
Good bosses overall (last boss is pathetic as well as the gradius 1 first boss rehash)
Timed invincibility
Smart bombs
Projectile walls (sort of like laying mines which soak up fire)
2-player coop
Difficulty (7 levels, lives per continue - up to 9) and control options
Can toggle the roulette/one armed bandit feature in the options menu
+/-
11 stages long (gets pretty repetitive since they all start out the same and the layouts aren't changed around that much for the 'inside base' parts)
Hard to focus on juggling the bells (see Twinbee) for special weapons while dodging hazards
Unlimited continues
-
Slowdown
Trial & error (cheap traps such as the shinobi-like dancing enemy walls in a split path, enemies attacking from the back (or from the front while you're forced towards the edge of the screen), boss patterns, one armed bandit power up - extremely hard to focus on picking the right one)
Negative power up (reduces you to being completely un-upgraded)
Same old rigid Gradius weapon system (can't downgrade your speed manually, need to plan weapon usage)
Using special attacks/colored bells makes it impossible to activate the rightmost power up (the shield) for the duration of the special used and even picking one up cancels a currently used shield
Uneven difficulty (need a specific weapon for some situations, hard to recover after death or bad power up, upwards stairs in ice level, penguin shower boss), some hard to see enemy projectiles, options/gun drones automatically move towards the same position as your ship instead of being controllable like in Gradius - makes it harder to juggle the bells
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
+
Comical tone (silly, bizarre, perverted)
Four different setups/characters (same endings only with a different character sprite)
Good bosses overall (last boss is pathetic as well as the gradius 1 first boss rehash)
Timed invincibility
Smart bombs
Projectile walls (sort of like laying mines which soak up fire)
2-player coop
Difficulty (7 levels, lives per continue - up to 9) and control options
Can toggle the roulette/one armed bandit feature in the options menu
+/-
11 stages long (gets pretty repetitive since they all start out the same and the layouts aren't changed around that much for the 'inside base' parts)
Hard to focus on juggling the bells (see Twinbee) for special weapons while dodging hazards
Unlimited continues
-
Slowdown
Trial & error (cheap traps such as the shinobi-like dancing enemy walls in a split path, enemies attacking from the back (or from the front while you're forced towards the edge of the screen), boss patterns, one armed bandit power up - extremely hard to focus on picking the right one)
Negative power up (reduces you to being completely un-upgraded)
Same old rigid Gradius weapon system (can't downgrade your speed manually, need to plan weapon usage)
Using special attacks/colored bells makes it impossible to activate the rightmost power up (the shield) for the duration of the special used and even picking one up cancels a currently used shield
Uneven difficulty (need a specific weapon for some situations, hard to recover after death or bad power up, upwards stairs in ice level, penguin shower boss), some hard to see enemy projectiles, options/gun drones automatically move towards the same position as your ship instead of being controllable like in Gradius - makes it harder to juggle the bells