Unlike most penguins he is capable of space travel. Pentarou: The son of Penta, the heroic Penguin from MSX game Antartic Adventure.Though, uh, isn't he supposed to be blue? Twin Bee: A bumblebee android from the TwinBee series of shoot 'em ups.Octopus: Tentacle death monster from the original MSX Parodius game.Looks a bit like a Viper from Battlestar Galactica, but I'm sure that's just a complete coincidence. Vic Viper: The player one starfighter from the Gradius series.They've called this a power meter select, but it sure looks like a character select screen to me. So if you've ever wanted to see the smoking remains of a giant cat being carried on a plate by five bunny girls and a pig. The PC Engine version of the game has its own intro, with the characters from the game coming on screen in groups to show off for the camera. There's some good art in there I reckon, though I was disappointed when I learned that it's missing a realistic airbrushed painting of the pants-on-head octopus at the end. In fact why don't I just show the Gradius III intro so you can see what it's referencing, that'd make more sense. (1985: Gradius, 1986: Salamander/Life Force, 1988: Gradius II, 1989: Gradius III, 1990: Parodius, in case you were wondering.) This intro is actually a reference to the start of Gradius III, showing the history of the arcade Gradius series so far and Parodius' place in that illustrious line up. I guess I can forgive Konami acting like 12 year olds though, seeing as they really had only been making games for 12 years at this point. I was going to joke about the octopus at the end looking like he's got a pair of underpants on his head, but then I realised that he really does have a pair of panties on his head. Well if you ever wanted to see Moai statues smoking in a light hearted comedy arcade shooter, it's your lucky day! I cut this down to a slideshow for reasons of size, but it's properly animated in game. Well they were released in Europe anyway poor America was left out entirely for whatever reason. The game originally hit Japanese arcades in April 1990 and was happy enough to stay there for whatever reason, though most of its various console ports eventually made it over to the West. Because Parodius is a parody of Gradius you see! You'd think it'd be impossible to make a comedy spoof of a side scrolling shoot 'em up, but they went and did it anyway. They call it パロディウスだ! -神話からお笑いへ- in Japan, which translates to It's Parodius! From Myth to Laughter, a play on Gradius III's subtitle ' F rom Legend To Myth'. Today I'm taking a short look at Parodius, the second game in the Parodius series, confusingly.
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