Gradius Salamander or Parodius? Twinbee?

[hokutoshinken]

I have been getting my Deluxe Pack on this morning and playing all of the Gradius, Parodius and Salamander games. I like them all but they are pretty close to being the same game. Parodius has all of those big, bright characters and graphics and the option to use different ships. Salamander has the variety of horizontal and vertical, also, I like how the power ups are specific and you don't have to save power ups to get the one you want. Gradius set the standard and is the all around classic. Twinbee too? Thoughts?

 

[subcons]

Over the past couple of years I've grown an appreciation for Gradius and all the spin-off games it produced. I didn't really dig Gradius until I played Gradius V. Now in the past months I'm all over trying to 1CC the first Gradius and loving it. Parodius is just like Gradius on laughing gas for me--good times. Salamnder feels like the hardest out of all of them... like a more serious and creepy gradius. I honestly haven't been able to spend much time with them, but it's on my list of game to play via Salamander Portable on the PSP.

I've never been very fond of Twinbee. I like the style of it and it's definitely unique (the bosses are awesome), but I absolutely hate the power-up system.

 

[radiantsvgun]

Salamander 2> all konami shooters.

 

[LoneSage]

The only worthwhile Twinbee was Yahho!, and even then you can see why in the first few seconds of the game -- it was developed by Team Parodius.

Gradius is my favorite Konami shooting series, hell, probably my favorite shooting series period. Salamander 2 was great, but the only version of Salamander 1 I enjoyed was actually the NES version of Life Force. All the Parodii I've played were great, although I've never played Sexy or Chatting.

So, to me, from best to worst:
1. Gradius
2. Parodius
3. Salamander
4. Twinbee

(ps gradius iv deserves more love)

 

[Electric Grave]

Konami is the balls! Gradius to this day holds strong like a freaking tower!