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Sexy Parodius is the fourth
and last (so far) of the Parodius series of games - so
named because they are parody of the famous 2D shooter
Gradius also developed by Konami. Basically Parodius
features the same gameplay as Gradius which more or less
set the template for horizontal shooters and powerups
for quite some time, but the whole look and sound has
been replaced with whacked out cartoon-ish visuals and
tunes.
By the third entry in this
series this formula was starting to run out of ideas and
it is to Konami's credit that they changed the style of
gameplay insofar as level progression at any rate.
Basically they created (in my humble opinion) one of the
most finely crafted 2D shooters ever.
This game has a smaller than
normal roster of 8 characters (some new ones in there
though) , but the level structure has changed. After
playing through a typical 1st level (if a level with a
giant corn-cob that hurls masses of popcorn at you as
its boss is normal) , the second level (and all
subsequent levels) have a mission. The mission is
usually to collect a number of objects or shoot a
certain number of enemies. There is a branch after each
level (as in the Darius games) - but the level you go to
depends on success or failure of the mission. There's a
weird story too - the characters all work in an odd job
agency who are given assignments in small cut scenes at
the start of each level linking up with the missions.
Apart from the 1st level
which to be honest is a bit run-of-the-mill and becomes
a minor chore after repeated play, the levels are
beautifully crafted with that Parodius trademark
attention to detail.
The 2nd level in the game
requires you to collect 300 golden coins while fending
off enemies and navigating through a set of twisting
passages which is no mean feat. If you fail this task
you go level 3b which features my favourite Parodius
soundtrack. It starts off sounding like a tribute to the
Castlevania series - indeed the level is a flight
through a gothic style castle, but the music soon
changes into some sort of crazy polka. By this time the
tradition with remixing popular tunes was gone and many
levels feature music composed specially for this game
and this upbeat tune has to heard to be believed.
No matter what route you
take through the game you get to the same final level
which sees Mr Parodius (the red octopus character) doing
a runner with the company's money and you have to get to
the end of the level before he does – it’s a race
against time. You see him scuttling along the bottom of
the Taj Mahal inspired final level with a huge bag of
coins slung over his octopus shoulder...and there is a
timer on the screen counting down. The ending you get
will depend on whether you catch the octopus or not (and
also what path you took through the earlier levels).
There are a few more minor
changes such as a new bell which gives you a Pacman
lookalike buddy who moves around the screen clearing
enemies for you for a while and the bosses now have a
life bar so that you can see how well you're doing in
the boss battles.
This change to the gameplay
formula was a shot in the arm for the series and leaves
me wanting more. The sexy theme isn't really all that
sexy..some of the bizarre (and in some cases slightly
disturbing) cut scenes between levels advance what
passes for a story and they show half naked anime
lovelies and others in bunny costumes etc. The boss of
level 4b is a giant racoon with enormous testicles, who
understandably gets pretty annoyed if you shoot them. I
leave it to the reader to decide if that is sexy or not.
Compared to Oshaberi
Parodius, there seem to be lower production values in
some ways - the title screen feels unfinished and the
option mode is spartan. I haven't yet unlocked any
special score challenge level, although I'm led to
believe a bonus level is unlocked if you have success in
all missions. This is slightly disappointing given the
masses of things you had to do in the previous game but
the very high quality of the levels (apart from the 1st
one) and the fact that there are multiple paths through
the game go some way toward redressing this.
The core game itself is of
the highest quality both content and presentation-wise
and it is well worth hunting down. It’s a shame the
series ended with this game but then it did end on a
high note.
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