Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius (SNES)

Horizontal
Checkpoints ON
7 Difficulty levels
8 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed by icons
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Developed by Konami
Published by Konami in 1995

And here we come to the 4th chapter in the Parodius saga, the spin-off series that at this point mocks much, much more than its original inspiration Gradius. Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius continues one of the longest lived dinasties of video game wack and brings the franchise back to its living room roots, after all the series was born on the MSX and continued in the arcades for two chapters before this comeback developed exclusively for video game consoles; since it was released in the end of the Super Famicom's lifespan, one year later Konami was kind enough to also deliver enhanced ports for the Playstation and the Sega Saturn. How interesting, huh?

Jikkyou (or Jikkyō) succeeds Gokujyou Parodius and keeps the great quality standard that's so typical of 16-bit Konami, only with a defining difference: the abundance of comical voice snippets provided by a famous Japanese narrator, which was made possible by a special chip included in the cartridge (the "super accelerator" SA-1 chip). That's where the title of the game comes from, after all Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius translates to something like Chatting Parodius Live!. Another important feature is that now players can choose any of the 16 available characters instead of being restricted to the ones associated to the player sides. In addition to that, this time many sibling characters received completely different powers, such as babies Upa/Rupa and matchstick men Soitsu/Doitsu. The latter, for example, has a Vic Viper-like behavior that's quite distinct from original Koitsu/Aitsu. Once again there's no co-op available, only an alternating 2-player mode.

Many people have told me they were upset by the constant babbling of the narrator during gameplay, but it didn't bother me at all. It's possible to shut him up in the options by switching "oshaberi" to OFF though. The options screen is the second-to-last after you press START, and fortunately everything in it is in English. The main game is started in the first option, and despite the Japanese description all other options can be easily figured out. It's kinda puzzling that the main game hub was left in Japanese while almost everything else is in English.

Choose your might!

Nothing has changed in the basic way characters play in this new episode of the franchise. It's all Gradius gameplay 101 again: collect colored capsules to light up the slots in a weapon array and activate the desired slot to obtain the respective upgrade. Speed-up and missiles are the only untouched staples, along with the default power trap that's a Parodius trademark (a.k.a. one of the worst "upgrades" ever in shmup history). Following the trend started in Gokujou, Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius deviates from the norm in the other available upgrades, namely two types of firepower (originally double and laser in pure Gradius moniker), power enhancer (originally options/multiples) and shield, which for some characters was turned into a smart bomb.

Controls are fully customizable, and my setup of choice was Y for shot and missile, R for power-up and L for bell power. Oh yes, bells, you can't talk about Parodius without juggling some! They are as much a link to the TwinBee games as a full-on passport to survival refreshments and higher scores. Once released you can shoot them to change their colors and get blue (powerful bomb), green (inflate + invincibility), white (straight shot made of random messages in kanji, blocks bullets) brown (three vertical energy bars) and yellow. Yellow bells increase in value as long as you don't lose any of them, maxing out at 10.000 points each. Since the purple bell introduced in Gokujyou Parodius is gone, Konami came up with a new extra gimmick in Jikkyou, the hidden fairies worth 10.000 points each. They are freed for immediate pick-up if you shoot at their secret spots, which are often located in unsuspected corners as the stages unfold.

Checkpoints are mandatory regardless of your selection of the upgrade scheme, whether it's auto or manual power-up mode (upper/lower options after you choose the character). Since the differences in character behavior are more pronounced this time around, trusting the auto power-up mode might be a good idea to get to know all of them faster. A very welcome addition to the general power-up scheme is the giant capsule that performs the same function of the roulette. They are often strategically positioned so that you can cut corners when upgrading the character.

That's the way I like it!?
(courtesy of YouTube user Salvatore Forenza)

Even though I liked the stage themes chosen by Konami in Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius, I couldn't help but feel that the company didn't really push the series into new grounds as they did with the previous chapters. Was it the console format, I wonder? Of course there's still the customary abundance of colors and throwbacks to other Konami titles with cute and nonsensical details everywhere. However, the reappearance of many enemy designs from Gokujou (most apparent in the pre-stage sections and in a few boss choices) lowered the bar a little in my opinion. The new level layouts mocking games like Tokimeki Memorial, Xexex, Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Lethal Enforcers are welcome additions for variety but come on, did we really need another dancing panda as the first level boss?

I read everywhere that the SA-1 accelerator chip was responsible for special feats in this game, such as the /enhanced/ graphics of the stage based on the bubble area of Xexex. Perhaps they're referring to the occasional spinning blocks, but quite frankly I didn't see anything there that couldn't be achieved in a regular cartridge. Much more impressive and useful is the ability to save high scores by character and difficulty, as well as "save" the game to start it again later (pause and press SELECT). Granted, it resets the score as you "load" the saved stage, but it's a nice resource nonetheless. Loop + stage select is also available but must be unlocked first by performing a few achievements such as beating the game or collecting all fairies.

By the time Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius reaches the end it returns to its roots by mimicking none other than arcade Gradius III, complete with a short boss rush level prior to a multistructured final stage that mirrors some of the sections of that game's final area. Since it was developed specifically for the Super Famicom, Jikkyou does not pack the same difficulty of its predecessors (even Super Famicom Gokujyou), mainly due to the amount of slowdown and the kind extend scheme that grants an extra life with 20.000 points and further ones for every 100.000 points scored. Fortunately extra lives stop coming once you reach one million points, which leaves the player with the challenge of making the best out of them as the second loop starts with more bullets and even more slowdown, depending on the chosen character of course.

Thanks to my baby girl handing me the cartridge the day I took it off the package, Rupa was my character of choice during most of the time I spent with the game. A very powerful character, Rupa creates an all-around wall when her powers are maxed out, the only downside is that she lacks a shield. Once I looped the game with her a couple of times I switched to Soitsu, admittedly the best character to uncover fairies and juggle them bells for higher scores. The final score below was achieved with Soitsu on default settings (diff. 4, auto shot ON, roulette ON, oshaberi ON) and manual power-up mode, reaching stage 2-5. Next time I'll try one of the 32-bit ports (Playstation or Saturn) to check the improvements made by Konami.