Parodius (MSX original)

Imagine Gradius as drawn by someone after a sleepless night and a gallon of coffee with a sense of humour — that is exactly Parodius. Konami took its prestigious space shooter and turned it inside out: instead of a cold arsenal of war, flying penguins, giant pandas, dancing girls and a duck named... well, just a duck, come hurtling at you. And yet beneath all that lunacy beats the heart of an honest, tough shmup.

The very first Parodius was born on the MSX, before it became the much more famous arcade and console series. This original MSX version is largely a parody of Gradius — it adopts its iconic upgrade system, where you collect capsules and choose from a bar at the bottom whether to invest in speed, missiles, double fire or a force field. That rhythm of deciding „now, or do I wait for a better upgrade?“ is fundamental to the entire school of Konami shooters, and Parodius honours it despite its clown costume.

What makes the game so fresh is the contrast. Visually it is a carnival of colours and witty ideas, musically the creators reached for playful reworkings of classic melodies, but in terms of gameplay the title does not spare you. Enemy formations, narrow flythroughs and bosses demand the same dose of memorisation and precision as any serious shooter of the era. That is precisely the charm: the game pretends to be joking, but in reality it expects full commitment from you.

For the European player, the MSX was a home computer tied mainly to Konami's Japanese output, and Parodius is a beautiful example of why this platform earned its cult status. It was a brand that later grew into a whole line of sequels on arcades, the SNES, the PlayStation and handhelds, and the roots of it all lie right here, in this modest but inventive little MSX gem.

Today the original Parodius is more of a collector's and historical delicacy than an easily accessible title, but for fans of retro shooters it remains a fascinating testament that even the most serious genre can bear a hearty dose of self-irony. It is a love letter to Gradius, written with a smile on its lips and a finger firmly on the trigger.

Why play it: If you love classic Konami shooters and want to taste them in their most playful, self-ironic form, here is the start of the entire legendary series.