Table of Contents:

Page 1 - 1979-1983 Arcade Shooters
Page 2 - 1983-1985 Arcade Shooters
Page 3 - 1987-1988 Arcade Shooters
Page 4 - 1990-1997 Arcade Shooters
Page 5 - 1979-1983 MSX Shooters
Page 6 - 1979-1983 Famicom/SNES Shooters
Page 7 - 1979-1983 Miscellaneous

Force Gear - hidden in Tokimeki Memorial - PC Engine Super CD (1993)

Force Gear

Force Gear

Force Gear

Konami's Tokimeki Memorial is largely recognized as popularizing the dating-sim genre, but it also had a number of cool mini-games, such as Final Fantasy-style RPG battles and a Twinbee Time Attack mode. Although the game was also released for the Super Famicom, Saturn and Playstation, the original PC Engine version has a bonus game not found in any other version - Force Gear. Force Gear is a short side-scrolling shooter that blends Hudson's Star Soldier with Konami's Gradius series. Many of the enemies are the same, including large versions of the Big Core and tiny versions of the spinning orb boss from Gradius II. The power-ups are the same orange orbs, giant-sized, and even the font is the same. However, the action is a bit different from standard Gradius games. You play as a transforming mech which can fire multi-directional shots when fully upgraded. After firing for a few seconds, you'll also unleash a powerful laser blast. Like Star Soldier, the backgrounds are filled with destructible tiles, which is important when playing for score. The action is fast paced, and your mech is technically invincible up until the final boss, where you can be killed if you're not careful. Although it's short, it's an extremely cool, well designed game. The stage starts with your mech fighting alongside several other ships, before transforming into a jet and jumping into hyperspace. The rest of your squadron is taken out, and you're left fighting the rest of the stage alone. When you reach the level boss, you fight it for a few seconds before a huge tentacle comes out of the side of the screen and skewers it, before jumping into view and commencing attack. The same device was used in the first level of Salamander 2, where you begin fighting the Golem (the one-eyed brain thing from the first level of Salamander/Life Force) before it's eaten by a huge snake thing. Konami obviously put a lot of effort into what's actually little more than a demo - one has to wonder if this was a larger product that was simply scaled back into a hidden mini-game, or simply something the programmers did in their free time. Info to unlock it can be found here.

Force Gear Force Gear

Other Konami Games with Shooting Segments

Konami also released tons of other games with shooting levels. Here are a few of the more notable ones. Wai Wai World, released in 1987 for the Famicom, is essentially a huge letter love letter to Konami, by Konami. It's largely a side-scrolling game, with some adventure elements, where you start playing as Konami Man or Konami Girl, but can eventually rescue (and play as) Simon Belmont from Castlevania, Goemon from Goemon, Fuu from Getsufuu Maden, Mikey from The Goonies, a walking Moai head from Gradius, and Kong from King Kong 2. However, near the end of the game, there's a big, long overhead shooting stage that starts out in Twinbee land before heading into space and defeating enemies out of Gradius and Life Force. It's a two player game, and in the shooting segments, players can either be the Vic Viper or Twinbee. The sequel, Wai Wai World 2, released in 1990, is a much better game. Characters this time include an original guy named Rickle, along with Simon, Goemon and Fuu, but also Upa from Bio-Miracle Bokutte Upa and Bill from Contra. Again, there are a number of shooting segments, including a few stages where you fly as Rickle on a jet. More interesting are two overhead Twinbee stages, which look like Twinbee 3 but plays like the first Twinbee, as well as a 3D bonus stage. Further to the end of the the game are three side-scrolling stages similar to Gradius. The goofy enemies - notably the silly Moai heads and super-deformed ships - ring a bit more closely to Parodius. The third stage is a an assault on a gigantic Big Core (the recurring boss in the first Gradius), similar to the third stage of R-Type. The password system is also based off of Quarth. In addition to the shooter mini-games, there's a sliding block puzzle, a racing game, and a segment based off of Frogger. Amusingly, the second player ship in the Gradius sections is actually the Metarion, the ship from Gradius 2 for the MSX. Yume Penguin Monogatari is a funny little Famicom game where you play as a fat little penguin who needs to lose weight to get back with his sweetheart. The enemies all toss food, which makes you fatter, while killing them yields diet drinks, which makes you leaner (and eventually, more powerful.) There are a few side-scrolling shooter segments where you ride in a pink little airplane. Rocket Knight Adventures was Konami's attempt to create a furry mascot via Sparkster, an armor-wearing opossum who wears a jet pack and wields a sword. Although the jet pack is usually activated to bounce around the stages, there are a few levels where you activate it for the whole level. The first game, Rocket Knight Adventures for the Genesis, features a couple side-scrolling levels, which even includes several mini-bosses which look like Gradius enemies. The SNES sequel, Sparkster, also features an overhead shooter level.

Wai Wai World Wai Wai World 2 Rocket Knight Adventures

Wai Wai World	Wai Wai World	Wai Wai World
Wai Wai World 2	Wai Wai World 2	Wai Wai World 2
Wai Wai World 2	Wai Wai World 2	Wai Wai World 2
Yume Penguin Monogatari	Yume Penguin Monogatari	Yume Penguin Monogatari
Rocket Knight Adventures	Sparkster (SNES)

Airforce Delta Strike

Airforce Delta (known as Deadly Skies in Europe) is a jet combat simulator very similar to Namco's Ace Combat series. They've appeared on several platforms, but the most notable is Airforce Delta Strike for the Playstation 2. Even though they're completely different from normal shooters, someone on the development team must've had huge amounts of love for the old classics, because there are over a dozen different classic ships hidden in the game, each rendered in full 3D. It takes a lot of effort to unlock them (or, alternatively, download a save game) but they do look really cool.

Vic Viper (Gradius)

Twinbee (Twinbee)	MX5000 (MX5000)	Falsion (Falsion)
Blue Thunder M-45 (Thunder Cross)	Sunfish / MANBOU-2 (Space Manbow)	Super Fighter (Trigon)
Flintlock (Xexex)	Penta (Yume Penguin Monogatari)	Quarth (Quarth)
AuraWing (Crisis Force)	D-117B Axelay Stratafighter (Axelay)	Poly (Tobe! Polystars)
Jerry Mouse (Ajax)

Music

Parodius The Parodius series parodies many other Konami games, particularly Gradius and Twinbee. The second and fourth games, Gokujou Parodius and Sexy Parodius, each have a special stage at the end, with music cobbled together from various shooters. Some of them are well known, like Gradius and Life Force, but a few songs are taken from some of their more obscure games. A full tracklist: Gokujou Parodius Gradius, Stage 1, "Challenger 1985" Twinbee, Stage 2 BGM, "Fantastic Powers" Salamander (Life Force), Stage 1, "Power of Anger" A-Jax, Stage 1, "Command 770" Gradius III, Stage 2, "Aqua Illusion" Thunder Cross, "Sky Walker" Gradius II, Fire Stage, "Burning Heat" Sexy Parodius Gradius, Stage 1, "Challenger 1985" Thunder Cross II, "Air Battle" Flak Attack, Stage 1, "Counter Attack" Gradius II, Stage 3, "Crystal World" Lightning Fighters, "Sturdy Wings" Gradius III, Stage 10-1, "Mechanical Base" MP3s Download here Shooting Memories Maniac Shooting Konami Battle Konami published a ton of game music CDs in the 90s. In addition to original soundtracks, there were plenty arranged albums, usually featuring renditions from their inhouse band, the Konami Kukeiha Club. At one point, these guys were really into hair metal, and released a series of six rock albums as part of the "Battle" series. These include Dracula Battle 1 and 2 (both Castlevania), Snatcher Battle (both the original game and SD Snatcher), Konami Shooting Battle 1 and 2, and Konami Battle the Best, a compilation with a few extra tracks. Fans of blazing guitar music will find these albums indispensible, although legitimate copies are quite pricey. The tracklist for both Konami Shooting Battle CDs featuring a lot of tunes from lesser known games. The original versions (except for the Gradius games) are featured in the site's MP3 pack for comparison purposes. Konami Shooting Battle 1. Boost Up!/Boss Up! (Xexex) 2. Machine Graveyard (Thunder Cross) 3. Nostalgic (Trigon) 4. Gradius Boss - Salamandar Boss - Fire Dragon (Gradius II ~Gofer's Ambition~) 5. Maximum Speed (Gradius II) 6. Departure Again (Salamander -MSX-) 7. A-Jax (A-Jax) 8. Dog Fight III (Thunder Cross II) 9. Out of the Blue from Hyperspace (Xexex) 10. Battles of Battleship (Thunder Cross II) Konami Shooting Battle 2 1. Prelude of Legend (Gradius III) 2. Cross Point (A-Jax) 3. Look For a Fortress (A-Jax) 4. Try to Star (Gradius III) 5. Colony (Axelay) 6. Crystal Clear (Xexex) 7. First Attack (Thunder Cross) 8. Give My Heart to You (Gradius II) 9. Kidney Stage (Life Force) 10. Faraway (Trigon)

Gokujou Parodius Sexy Parodius Sexy Parodius Konami Shooting Battle Konami Shooting Battle

Yu-Gi-Oh

Konami also snuck a few shooter references into its Yu-Gi-Oh card game. In addition to the Vic Viper (the card is simply called "Gradius") and its options, additional cards including the Blue Thunder T-45 from Thunder Cross, the Flintlock (and its attachment) from XEXEX, and a Space Mambo.

Blue Thunder T-45

Thanks to ZZZ for compiling the exhausive list of shooters that Konami worked on, ReyVGM for getting Space Manbow for the DS up and working, Rob Strangman for getting me into Konami shooters in the first place, Acidonia for bringing up the Yu-Gi-Oh cards, Asch The Hated for uploading the save game for Airforce Delta Strike so I didn't actually have to unlock all of those ships...AND YOU. THANK YOU FOR PLAYING. WE LOVE SHOOTING GAMES! Links Gradius Home World Mostly a Gradius fan site, but lots of bits on other Konami shooters too. tsr's NES Archive A look at Falsion.

Sexy Parodius