Popular games for franchise Parodius

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A turn-based strategy game produced by Konami in 1997 in Japan only. It features characters and conflicts based upon the popular Parodius series of video games which in turn is a parody of the long running Gradius series. It is the sixth installment of the Parodius series and is the Parodius equivalent to Cosmic Wars, a turn-based strategy game set in the Gradius universe, or R-Type Tactics, set in the R-Type universe.

Parodius, also known as Parodius: The Octopus Saves the Earth, is the first title in the Parodius series. 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. 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 player can play as either Tako (father of Takosuke), an octopus, the Penguin (father of Pentarou) 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 obstacles 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.

Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius (Chatty Parodius), is the fourth game in a series of parody shooters produced by Konami. The gameplay is stylistically very similar to the Gradius series, but the graphics and music are intentionally absurd. The game, as its name would suggest, contains a large amount of Japanese voice samples shouted out in a style similar to that of a game show host. Unlike the previous two titles, Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius was not created as an arcade game. It was first released on the Super Famicom in 1995 and then ported and updated for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996.

Overall, the gameplay is identical to that of its predecessor, Parodius! From Myth to Laughter, with several new characters to choose from. Also new, if you play a two-player game, the second player will have a different set of characters to select. They are clones of the first player characters, except with different names and slightly altered sprites or changed color palettes. These characters include: Vic Viper/Lord British, Pentaro/Hanako, Twinbee/Winbee, Takosuke/Belial, Hikaru/Akane, Mambo/Samba, Michael/Gabriel and Koitsu/Aitsu.

The gameplay in Sexy Parodius is similar to the rest of the series, but with a new catch. Instead of just playing through each level and destroying enemies while avoiding getting hit, the player must also complete a special mission for each stage as well. Some of these missions range from collecting a certain amount of coins in a stage to destroying a certain object or enemies. Depending whether or not the player completes the mission will determine whether the player can continue to the next stage or what the next stage will be. Unlike the past versions, home ports of the game (exception of the PSP version) has cooperative multiplayer intact (where both players play simultaneously). It's also improved in that the game continues to play even when one player is choosing a character upon continuing. In a 2-player game, when certain characters are near enough, a third-shot appears between them which can be purple shots that swirl all-over the screen, hearts that home in on enemies, or rockets that shoot straight ahead. This feature was first seen on Konami's arcade game Trigon. The playable characters in this game are: Vic Viper/Lord British Michael/Gabriel Hikaru/Akane Ivan/Toby Mambo/Samba Koitsu/Aitsu Option/Multiple Shooting Star/Black Viper

A shoot'em up arcade game and the second title in the Parodius series. Similar to the first game the player has a choice of characters to play as: Tako the Octopus (aka Mr. Parodius), Pentarou (son of the penguin from Antarctic Adventure), Twin Bee (main character of TwinBee) and the Vic Viper spaceship from Gradius. However in this game they each have unique weapons and upgrades. The game has ten stages and like the first game it features a mix of characters and enemies from different Konami series as well as absurd fantasy elements.