Hope people here have heard about the
Parodius games?
Parodius is a shoot'em up game and a parody of a classical game called Gradius, plus other games made by the Konami company. You'll play as a character (such as the Vic Viper, an octopus or a penguin) and play through various strange with weird characters (such as penguins, chickens, moais) and hilarious bosses (such as a giant women, Uncle Sam eagle and big lips. Like the Gradius games, the final bosses are embarassely simple to defeat (there are brains in Gradius games, while there are giant Octopuses in some Parodius games).
There are five Parodius games that were created. All were relased in Japan, two were released in Europe, none were released in America.
Parodius (only released in Japan, but there is a game rom with an English translation is available in the internet)
-only available in a computer machine called
MSX. Though an improved version is included in the PSP's Parodius Collection disk.
Parodius Da! (title changed into Parodius or Parodius - Non-Sense Fantasy in Europe)
- available in Arcade, Snes, Nes, Game Boy, PC-Engine, Sharp X68000. It's also available in Playstation and Saturn together with Gokujou Parodius. And the game has a few differences in different console. Also included in the PSP's Parodius Collection disk.
Gokujou Parodius (title changed into Fantastic Journey in Europe)
- available for Arcade and Snes. It's also available in Playstation and Saturn together with Parodius Da!. Will also be included in the PSP's Parodius Collection disk.
Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius (only released in Japan)
- available for Snes, while an improved version with the subtitle "Forever With Me" is available for Playstation and Saturn. The improved version is also included in the PSP's Parodius Collection disk.
Sexy Parodius (only released in Japan, plus does include soft-erotic contents)
- available for Arcade, Playstation and Saturn. Also included in the PSP's Parodius Collection disk.
There is also a Japanese-released game called
Paro Wars for Playstation, but it's a strategic game based on Cosmic Wars.
I really like how the games are fully parodized, hilarious and fun to play. But I especially like the
music in the games, since most of them are wacky remixes of classical songs and symphonies.
If you haven't played it, I suggest you'd get an emulator and try at least one of them via roms (or get them via import if possible).
You can get alot more info about the Parodius games and look at some screenshots
here.
Linear Mode
