Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius - Boss Run - Recovery Run - Part 1

Surprise! Boss Run, and a Gradius one at that! Back off holiday, and I thought I'd upload this video I recorded a few months back. As an aside, don't take this video series as me going back into Shoot Em Ups... at least not at the pace I used to do them. Most of the increased difficulty does come to having to restart at boss checkpoints and getting to re-power up. This is only really a major issue with Stage 4... but my god, that stage is NOT designed for characters without power-ups. Difficulty Ratings: Stage 1: For the first level, the checkpoint's fairly tough! The fact you have that huge sign taking up half your screen space doesn't help matters. Thankfully, the bosses here are very predictable and pattern based, and thus don't cause any issues. Checkpoint: 3/10 Boss 1: 1/10 Boss 2: 1/10 Stage 2: Relatively few issues with the boss. The cramped checkpoint caught me off-guard for a while. In the end, I ended up getting used to this enough to play it reckless. Checkpoint: 4/10 Boss: 2/10 Stage 3: The Mid-Boss causes more issues than the main boss. He dies quickly, but his firepower is extreme for such a short burst. Checkpoint: 2/10 Boss 1: 4/10 Boss 2: 1/10 Stage 4: This checkpoint was the point of failure for so many years. Even the Shogun took far fewer attempts than this checkpoint. This checkpoint is the very definition of cheap and poor game design. And unfortunately - the boss takes so long to kill, your fingers sort of die at the end of the fight and you end up having to take a break. This spot is what i'd like to call a "Game Ender" - die here, and you are NOT continuing. I'm only glad I'm playing this on emulator and can take a break for a few days when I'm done with this boss. All my hate goes to this. Checkpoint: 10/10 Boss: 7/10 Stage 5: This boss was fun. :D Checkpoint: 4/10 Boss: 3/10 Stage 6: Well what's not fun about dodging a crap-ton of projectiles in incredibly cramped spaces? Cheap-ass boss that got replaced in every single port of the game after the SNES release. Checkpoint: 1/10 Boss: 10/10 Part 2 will come halfway through next week, want to give myself more time to record Sonic 2.