Parodius

This article concerns the first Parodius game. For a general overview of the series, see Parodius series.

or just Parodius, is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Konami for the MSX computer and was released in Japan. The game is notable for being the first title in the Parodius series, although it is often confused with Parodius Da! in that respect. The name itself is a portmanteau of "Gradius" and "Parody" and, eponymously, the game is a parody of the Gradius series of space-based horizontally-scrolling shooters. Many of the characters and enemies are derived from that famous shooter series, while other elements are extracted from other Konami titles, such as Antarctic Adventure and Twinbee. This game is of particular note in the series as being heavily infused with Japanese culture and folklore.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to the Gradius games, with other aspects from games such as Twinbee. However, the characters are replaced with silly characters taken from either these or other Konami games as well as Japanese culture. The music is mostly taken from classical music pieces.

The player can play as either Takosuke, an octopus, Pentarou, the Penguin from Antarctic Adventure and the exclusive MSX game Penguin Adventure, Goemon from the Ganbare Goemon series, the Popolon knight from the MSX game Knightmare or the Vic Viper spaceship from Gradius. The game is composed of six stages consisting of various obsticles and enemies such as penguins and bees, as well as more traditional Gradius enemies such as moai. As with Gradius, the game utilizes a similar selection-bar based power-up system.

Bell Power-ups

The gameplay of Parodius, as with the rest of the games in the series, can be altered significantly by collecting bell powerups (from the Twinbee game). The powerups, however, are only similar in appearance, with the function being altered:

Yellow Bell: Causes all minor enemies on the screen to die instantly. (Smart Bomb)

White Bell: Wrap around horizontally. The player can fly off the left or right of the screen and appear at the other side.

Green Bell: Wrap around vertically. The player can fly off the top or bottom of the screen and appear at the other end.

Cyan Bell: Time Freeze. Stops scrolling & enemies for a few seconds.

Purple Bell: Mine. Destroys all enemies on the same height.

Blue Bell: Rotary drill. Makes the player immune to most enemies for some time.

Dark Green Bell: Up Laser. Grants the player the Up Laser for some time, which fires a laser beam upward from the top of the player's character.

Red Bell: Vector Laser. Grants the player the Vector Laser for some time, which destroys any enemy in one shot.

Stages and bosses

Stage 1: Ulst-ar – Big Penguin

The mid-boss of this level is a large moai, an indiciative enemy of the Gradius series

Stage 2: WonOrLos-tar – Three Choice Hand

To defeat the boss, the player has to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. If the player loses, he must play the stage again; if it is a draw he has to fight a Rock Paper Scissors boss; if the player wins, he doesn't have to fight the boss.

Stage 3: Molest-ar – Scribble Boy Who Prays Weather

The boss is a Teru teru bozu (rain doll) and its face is a Henohenomoheji, a common drawing made by Japanese schoolchildren.

Stage 4: Maize Cake Star – Plump Maid

Stage 5: Ghost-ar – One-eyed Banshee (Ge Ge Ge Aunt)

It is a parody of Medama Oyaji, one of the characters in Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro series. In fact the boss is named, as indicated in the manual, as "Ge Ge Ge Aunt."

Stage 6: Fortres-star – Dream Eating Mystic Beast

The final boss on is a Tapir, which, in Japan, is believed to eat human dreams.

Bonus stages

Stage 1 – When the moai has been defeated, the player must fly under its neck.
Stage 4 – At a certain point, the player has to fly up out of the screen or else encounter a dead end. Venturing into this dead end sends the player to the far upper right corner.
Stage 5 – the player must fly under all the jumping gravestones.

Screenshot gallery

Image:Parodius_04.gif|Stage 3 boss Image:Parodius_03.gif|Moai mid-boss Image:Parodius_05.gif|Falling Jizo statues Image:Parodius_02.gif|Stage 6 boss

Ports

This games was later included in Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol.3 for PlayStation, and Konami Antiques MSX Collection Ultra Pack for Sega Saturn.

Trivia

On the player selection screen, the icon used is a washing machine. The washing machine ("sentakuki") icon is actually a take on "sentaku", a homonym that can mean both "wash" and "select".

External links

Parodius | Parodius | パロディウス | Parodius

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