Players select one of eight playable characters to progress through the game with; these include: the Vic Viper, the starship from Gradius; TwinBee, the protagonist of his self-titled series; Pentarou, son of the penguin from Antarctic Adventure; Takosuke, a hat-wearing octopus and the son of Tako; Hikaru, a Playboy bunny girl riding a rocket; Mambo, a mute sunfish; Michael, a stern angel pig; and Koitsu, a stickman riding a paper airplane.

[2] These stages feature strange, often humorous themes to them, such as a UFO catcher machine, giant cookie-like castles, and Las Vegas-esc casino parlors.

After completing work on Parodius Da, Tsukasa turned to producing games for home consoles, namely the PC Engine and Sharp X68000.

[4] He was eventually offered a chance to return to Konami's arcade division, to where he began thinking of ideas for what kind of game he wanted to make next;[4] he worked almost exclusively on the Parodius series, and after noticing that employees were interested in a new game in the series, Tsukasa's boss requested that he work on another Parodius as an "anniversary" title, as a way to announce his return to the arcade industry.

[4] Mambo, the ocean sunfish, was based on the MSX2 game Space Manbow, while the rocket-riding bunny girl Hikaru was added to please otakus.

[4] The team also experimented with modifying the characters themselves, such as giving them fewer Options or increasing the hitboxes of projectiles;[4] the Vic Viper, for instance, originally would have a strong hatch shield that could withstand multiple bullets without breaking, but be instantly shattered by a single laser.

[4] The "Semi-Auto" playmode was added to make players mostly unfamiliar with shooters able to play it more easily; Tsukasa had previously used this concept in the Super Famicom conversion of Gradius III.

[4] The development team worked with the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) organization to select pieces of classical music they felt were suitable for the game.

This version adds the characters Goemon/Ebisumaru from Ganbare Goemon, Dracula-Kun/Kid-D from Kid Dracula and Upa/Rupa from Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, and an alternating two player mode.

[8] GameFan recommended the compilation to Gradius and shooter fans for its gameplay, multiplayer mode and humor, expressing hope of it being released in North America.

[16] Maximum said that it is virtually identical to the arcade and PlayStation versions and has very pleasing gameplay, visuals, and music, but is outdated compared to contemporary Saturn games.

They summarized, "Konami's first effort [at a Saturn game] has a lot to commend it, but when there are epics such as Panzer Dragoon stretching the shooting genre, it's clear that Parodius is not in the same league.

"[12] In a 2015 retrospective review of the Parodius series, Hardcore Gaming 101 commended Gokujō for its humor, multiplayer, soundtrack and interesting level designs.