Parodius (series)

Parodius
Genres Scrolling shooter, Turn-based strategy
Developers Konami
Publishers Konami
Platforms Arcade, MSX, X68000, PC Engine, Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Super Famicom, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Mobile Phone, PlayStation Portable, Virtual Console (Wii and Wii U), EGG Project (from Windows Store)
First release Parodius: The Octopus that Saves the Earth
April 28, 1988
Latest release Gokuraku Parodius A
November 2010
Spin-offs Otomedius

The Parodius (パロディウス Parodiusu) series is a series of horizontally scrolling shooters developed by Konami. The games are tongue-in-cheek parodies of Gradius, hence the name (Parodius is a portmanteau of Parody and Gradius). It also parodies many other Konami franchises, including Antarctic Adventure, Castlevania, Xexex, Axelay, Thunder Cross, Taisen Puzzle-Dama, Space Manbow, Ganbare Goemon, Lethal Enforcers, R-Type, Tokimeki Memorial and TwinBee.

Games

Paro Wars Sexy Parodius Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius Fantastic Parodius - Pursue the Glory of the Past Parodius! From Myth to Laughter Parodius: The Octopus Saves the Earth

There are Six games in the Parodius series (arranged by title, year of its debut and original platform) In addition, three Pachislot games based on the characters were released in 1998 and 2010.:

Numerous ports have been created. The Octopus Saves the Earth was converted to mobile phones, to Virtual Console of the Wii and Wii U and to EGG Project from Windows Store. Parodius Da! -Shinwa kara Owarai e- was ported to the Game Boy, Famicom (NES), Super Famicom (SNES), PC Engine, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Gokujō Parodius! was ported to the Super Famicom, PlayStation and Saturn. The PlayStation and Saturn versions were a combined release of Parodius Da! -Shinwa kara Owarai e- and Gokujō Parodius! called Gokujō Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack. The last two titles were also released on both the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

A compilation of all Parodius games (with the exception of Paro Wars) titled Parodius Portable have been released for the Sony PSP as a UMD release on January 2007 in Japan. A digital version for the PSP Go (a version of the PSP that lacks the UMD drive) was also made available worldwide for the PlayStation Network.

The first three episodes of the series were released in Japan for cell phones.

Only a few of the games were released outside Japan: Parodius Da! -Shinwa kara Owarai e- and Gokujō Parodius! were released in Europe (as Parodius and Fantastic Journey respectively), but none of the games were released in the United States.

There is also a spin-off named Paro Wars. This game is a turn-based strategy game based on Cosmic Wars, which plays similar to the Nintendo Wars series. Aside from Pentarou, only some of the Parodius-native characters (Octopus and the like) appear in this game.

In July 1998, it was released a Parodius themed pachislot machine named Little Pirates (リトルパイレーツ ritorupairētsu).

Finally, two pachislot machines, Gokuraku Parodius and Gokuraku Parodius A, were released in September 2010.

In addition, several pachinko machines based on Parodius universe were released in Japan, such as CR Parodius Da in 2000, CR Saikoro Tin Douty in 2004 and CR Gokujō Parodius in 2006.

Features

Characters

Some of the characters that appear in the various games in the series.

Original characters

From other Konami games

Notably, It is Winbee, as well as her pilot Pastel, rather than TwinBee, who is the major TwinBee character in Parodius.

Enemies

Gradius's mechanical and alien enemies have been almost completely removed from Parodius. There are several enemies that make it into every title. Some bosses in the Parodius games are parodies of Gradius bosses; the attacks and patterns remain the same, however the graphical look is usually changed to something more organic or cartoony.

Japanese Mythology and Culture: In almost all of the Parodius games, opponents and bosses based on Japanese mythology and the country's culture make appearances, such as the Tanuki, Geishas and various Yokai.

Penguins: The most common enemy faced in any Parodius game. Usually there is one level that is within a penguin building, with viewports showing penguins at work. The penguins are anthropomorphic; wielding weapons, operating machinery, and even listening to music. There are several penguin bosses as well.

Octopodes: Another common enemy faced in the Parodius series. In almost every Parodius game, an octopus serves as the final boss.

Large women as boss creatures: Every Parodius game features one or more bosses that consist of Giant, scantily clad women (or penguins, or octopuses). Sexy Parodius, as its name would imply, is composed of several such women as its bosses.

Excessive amounts of moai: Making light of the famous Easter Island statues that appear in almost every Gradius game, the Parodius games often have a comical moai boss, which may be presented wearing lipstick or given other anthropomorphic features. Parodius Da! -Shinwa kara Owarai e- and Gokujō Parodius! ~Kako no Eikō o Motomete~ have an entire stage featuring moai; including a large moai ship, a moai boss that shoots moai out of her mouth, little moai cannons, and moai obstacles. Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius also features a moai stage parodying Tokimeki Memorial.

Music

Main article: Parodius music

One of the more distinctive features about the series is the extensive use of classical music and other well known music, in what could be termed as wacky remixes. There are also a number of rehashes of in game music from Gradius and other Konami games—very little of the series' music was newly composed.

Bell Power-ups

Originally from the TwinBee games, these typically give temporary power-ups that have varied throughout the series. True to their origin, the bells' colors can be cycled by shooting them. The new bell colors have remained somewhat constant in meaning throughout latter games in the series.

Yellow Bell 
Gives points. Subsequent yellow bells increase in point value from 500 points up to 10,000 points. Missing a bell will cause the bonus to revert to 500 points, which will then increase with each yellow bell again.
White Bell 
Gives your character a megaphone for a short period of time. Out of the megaphone is placed a sentence in Japanese (or English in the European version), the text of which can be collided into bullets and enemies to damage them. When this bell is collected, the effects of previous bells and defense power-ups are cancelled. In Sexy Parodius, this instead summons Alex, a Pac-Man-like helper character that eats enemies. However, Alex will not harm "female" enemies. Alex has an HP counter that can be refilled with yellow bells and increased with more white bells.
Green Bell 
Enlarges your character 400%. While your character is in this enlarged state, they cannot fire any weapons, but is also invulnerable to all damage; this allows your character to collide into walls and enemies (thus killing them) without taking damage. However, no bells can be collected or defense power-ups activated until the effect expires. This also cancels stored weapons from other bells as well as any shields present on activation.
Purple Bell 
Converts all weak enemies into power-up pods and/or bells. This was first available in Gokujō Parodius!.
Red Bell 
Provides three rounds of the Kiku Beam. A miniature version of your character flies ahead of your character and spreads a long vertical beam that can act as a barrier that damages enemies and destroys enemy bullets. It scrolls with the screen.
Blue Bell 
Provides one Super Bomb. A large explosion floods the screen and destroys all enemies within. Up to three blue bells can be collected in sequence and saved for later use.

Roulette / Blizzard

When enabled, some power-up pods start a roulette on the power-up bar. The player then presses the power-up button to stop the roulette and get whatever power-up the roulette stops on. The player must be careful not to get the "Oh!" power-up ("!?" in Parodius Da! -Shinwa kara Owarai e-) between the last two power-ups, for this will remove all power-ups from the player and reset movement speed to minimum. This cancels any prior progress made on the bar. In European versions of the game, this feature was renamed Blizzard.

Power-ups

The Parodius series borrows the power-up bar system from the Gradius series. However, the order and types of power-ups are somewhat inconsistent between characters; some characters have more than one missile or may not have a laser-type weapon, for example. True to the game series' theme, many of the weapon sets are actually either direct weapons or borrowed parodies of the weapons used in other Konami's shoot-em ups- even expanding to poke fun at the other game industries' famous shooters, such as Taito's Darius and Irem's R-Type. Some power-ups exclusive to Parodius include:

Parodius in other media

Manga

Gokujō Parodius
Manga
Written by Namie Iwao
Published by Shinseisha
Magazine Gamest Comics 049
Published June 24, 1995
Volumes 1

Drama CD

Kyukyoku Parodius
Studio album / Audio drama
Released May 3, 1997
Genre Audio drama
Length 63:20
Label King

a CD drama named Kyukyoku Parodius was released on May 3, 1997.

Anime

References

  1. "New International Track and Field | Press Release". MCV. Retrieved January 25, 2011. delete character in |title= at position 35 (help)
  2. いもほりペン太 - UCO
  3. "Arcade Game Flyers: Tsurikko-Penta, Konami". The Arcade Flyer Archive. Retrieved January 25, 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  4. "Super Fisherman Penta (redemption game), Konami (1995)". Arcade-History. Retrieved February 8, 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  5. "Balloon Penta (redemption game), Konami (1996)". Arcade-History. Retrieved February 8, 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  6. "Hie Hie Penta: Ice Cream Catcher (prize game)". GOYO Corporation. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  7. "Penta no Tsuri Bōken DX Page". Konami Japan Official Web Site (in Japanese). Konami. Retrieved January 25, 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  8. コナミ、iアプリ対応の通信型対戦ゲーム配信サイトオープン
  9. Snatcher Da! - A Parody Comic in Hardcore Gaming 101 Blog

External links

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