Parodius Da!

Parodius Da!

Title screen

Developer:	Konami
Music:	Muraoka Kazuki
Program:	Tokuda Tsukasa
Art:	Gakincho, Touyou Syoutarou, Miyoshi Takemasa, Mory-Wandayu, Mikachan
Release date:	Arcade: April 25, 1990 Famicom: November 30, 1990 Gameboy: April 5, 1991 PC Engine: February 21, 1992 Super Famicom: July 3, 1992 PlayStation: December 3, 1994 Sega Saturn: May 19, 1995
Previous game:	Trigon
Next game:	Thunder Cross II

Parodius Da! (Japanese: Parodiusu Da! パロディウスだ！) is a shmup developed and published by Konami in 1990. It is the second installment in the Parodius series succeeding the less popular Parodius (Konami 1988) released on the MSX. It is the first of the three arcade games from the series followed by Gokujou Parodius (Konami 1994) and Sexy Parodius (Konami 1996).

Parodius Da! has received several console ports over the years, e.g. for the Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn or PlayStation - all of which differ significantly from the arcade original as well as from each other.

Gameplay Overview

Controls

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The game offers two different control styles which can be selected at the start of the game: Auto Power-Up (uses one button) and Manual Power-Up (uses three buttons).

	Auto Power-Up	Manual Power-Up
A button		Select Power-Up
B button	Primary weapon (shot/double/laser) Secondary weapon (missile) Bell power	Primary weapon (shot/double/laser)
C button		Secondary weapon (missile) Bell power

When Auto Power-Up is selected, the game will automatically power up the ship when enough capsules are collected.

Characters

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There are four characters to choose from: Vic Viper, Octopus, Twin Bee and Pentarou. While the basic controls are the same, each of the characters have individual strengths and weaknesses due to the different Power Meters. Although preferences may vary, the difficulty ranking for the characters from easiest to hardest may be Twin Bee > Octopus > Vic Viper > Pentarou.

Power Meter

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The Power Meter system in Parodius Da! is directly inherited from the Gradius series. When the game begins, the Power Meter starts at position 0, i.e. no box of the Power Meter is highlighted. When the player picks up a red capsule, the Power Meter position is advanced by +1 and the next box in the Power Meter sequence will be highlighted. Upon pressing A, the ship receives the currently highlighted ability. Once an upgrade is activated, the Power Meter jumps back to position 0 again and the sequence starts anew.

When a red capsule is picked up when the Power Meter is at position 7 it will jump back to position 1.

The effects of the seven positions of the Power Meter are as follows.

Position	Effect
Speed Up	Increases the speed of the character. This position can be selected up to 5 times to gradually increase the speed further.
Missile	Activates the secondary weapon which in most cases is useful against ground targets. The shot frequency is lower than Double or Laser.
Double	Activates the first of the two primary weapons. Depending on the character it gives greater coverage diagonally up or to the back.
Laser	Activates the second of the two primary weapons. Usually gives much greater screen coverage to the front and deals more damage than Double.
Option	Adds an option to the character. Vic Viper & Octopus can carry 4, Twin Bee and Pentarou can carry 3 options.
!?	The character is set back to the default state. All speed ups, weapons, options and the shield are removed immediately.
Shield	A shield is added which can protect against a number of hits from bullets or enemies/terrain. The shield has its own hitbox that is larger than the character itself.

While Missile can be equipped in conjunction with Double or Laser, only one of the primary weapon (Double or Laser) can be selected at a time. Therefore, the player has to decide when to use Double and when Laser might be the better choice.

Items

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There are two types of items: power capsules and bells. An item will pop up either if the player destroys certain waves of enemies fully or when a red enemy is destroyed.

	Red Capsule Advances the Power Meter by 1.
	Roulette Capsule Starts roulette mode in the Power Meter. Visually indistinguishable from regular Red Capsules. Found in fixed locations.
	Blue Capsule Clears the screen from all enemies (no points are awarded for these).
	Yellow Bell Score item. Value increases with subsequent collection: 500 > 1000 > 2,500 > 5,000 > 10,000. Value resets when a Yellow Bell goes off screen or upon death.
	Blue Bell Adds a screen clearing bomb to the player's inventory.
	White Bell When picked up, all regular weapons are disabled for a certain amount of time and a megaphone shouts out text that has great coverage and also cancels all bullets.
	Green Bell When picked up, all regular weapons are disabled for a certain amount of time and the player sprite increases in size granting invincibility and extra speed.
	Red Bell Adds 3 laser barriers to the player's inventory. These barriers cover almost the whole screen vertically and destroy all enemies and bullets touching them.

All regular items except Roulette Capsules appear in the following item cycle. Missing an enemy that holds an item does not advance the item cycle. Once the item cycle has reached the end it starts all over again. Roulette Capsules are fixed and always found inside the same enemies. They have no effect on the regular item cycle.

Item Cycle

The bell cycle starts at yellow. Hitting a Yellow Bell five times will make it advance to the next color. Every other color just takes a single hit to make the bell cycle go to the next yellow again. All bells share the same cycle over the course of the entire game. For example, when the player picks up a White Bell, the next bell that appears is a yellow one and hitting it five times will make it switch to green. This cycle is not affected by missing bells or picking them up. Once the bell cycle has reached the end it starts all over again. If an individual bell goes through the full bell cycle twice (or is hit with the equivalent number of shots if the bell cycle extends over 2+ bells simultaneously), it blows up.

Bell Cycle

Rank

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Parodius Da! has an incredibly unforgiving rank system. Due to the few lives the game grants to the player it is paramount to control it and keep it low as much as possible. Generally speaking, there are two main rank counters at play: the Base Rank and the Frame Rank.

The Base Rank is affected by the following four factors:

Base Rank
Minimum Rank (difficulty 0 to 6 + stage 0 to 15) + Power Ups (0 to 5) + Bell Stock (0 to 3) + Frame Rank (0 to n)

How these factors conbtribute to the Base Rank is explained in the following four sections.

1. Minimum Rank

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The Minimum Rank is calculated by the difficulty (as set in the dip switch settings) and the current stage number. Per stage, rank never falls below this minimum rank number.

Easy	0
Normal	2
Hard	4
Very Hard	6

	Loop 1	Loop 2
Stage 1	0	8
Stage 2	1	9
Stage 3	2	10
Stage 4	3	11
Stage 5	1	9
Stage 6	3	11
Stage 7	4	12
Stage 8	5	13
Stage 9	6	14
Stage 10	7	15

2. Power Ups

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	No Shield						Shield
	Shot	Double	Laser	Missile			Shot	Double	Laser	Missile
				Shot	Double	Laser				Shot	Double	Laser
No Options	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
1 Option	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2
2 Options	0	1	1	1	1	2	1	2	2	2	2	3
3 Options	1	1	2	2	2	3	2	2	3	3	3	4
4 Options	1	1	2	2	3	3	2	2	3	3	4	5

3. Bell Stock

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	Bomb (Blue Bell)	Laser Beam (Red Bell)
Empty Stock	0	0
Stock 1	1	1
Stock 2	2	2
Stock 3	3	3

4. Frame Rank

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The Frame Rank consists of a main counter and an incremental counter. The incremental counter goes +1 for every 32 frames passed. When the incremental counter surpasses 255, the main counter and thereby the Frame Rank increases by +1. Only this number of the main counter has then an effect on the calculation of the Base Rank.

The incremental counter can increase at a higher rate and is affected by the number of speed ups equipped and likewise by an active shield and active bell power. The incremental counter is not affected by the bell stock as such but only during the duration of the bell power itself. If the player loses a speed up/shield or the duration of a bell power wears off, the incremental counter is increasing at a slower rate again.

Speed Ups	No active Shield or Bell Power	Active Shield or Bell Power
0 to 1	x1 (32f)	x2 (16f)
2	x2 (16f)	x4 (8f)
3 to 5	x4 (8f)	x8 (4f)

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Video References

Video index for Parodius Da!