Sexy Parodius

Game Overview

As we noted in our discussion of Jikkyō Oshaberi ParodiusA home console exclusive edition of the Parodius series, this fourth entry came out just a year after the arcade-ready Fantastic Journey, and featured much of the same gameplay and style of its predecessor., the fourth entry in the ever increasing Parodius series, that game felt like a stop-gap measure to mark time between bigger arcade entries. The third game, Gokujō Parodius!The second game in the Parodius series to hit arcades (and third overall), this title was designed from the ground up to be the most difficult and most engaging of the games, elevating the exerpience to the next level for players., was a massive effort, adding in more characters, more levels, higher difficulty… anything to get players pumping more coins into the arcade machines. The fourth title, though, felt like much more of the same. You get the feeling like the developers had big ideas they wanted to follow but they had to meet deadlines and get a game cranked out in 1995 to meet studio mandates, so they cranked out a middling title between two bigger ventures.

Middling it was, too, so the hope would be that with the fifth game in the Parodius series would find a return to form. For this entry, Sexy Parodius, it's a mixed bag as to whether the designers really hit that mark or not. The game does change up a lot of the basic material, throwing out most of the playable heroes from the previous games for a (somewhat) new crop of shooting warriors. That alone meant a whole host of different ships to get used to with all their special powers and abilities. These included the returning Vic Viper and Lord British joined by penguins Ivan and Toby, reintroduced bunny-girls Hikaru and Akane, fishes Mambo and Samba, pigs Michael and Gabriel, stickmen Koitsu and Aitsu, blobs Option and Multiple, and ships Shooting Star and Black Viper.

More important was the new setup for the flow of levels. Instead of a simple, linear structure, Sexy Parodius shifts to a mission-based structure. As the player goes through stages they'll be given goals to meet. Completely those goals (ranging from shooting specific characters or objects as they pop up) and you'll move on to one mission. Fail, though, and you'll get a different mission as a follow-up. It's a neat idea in theory and, for those that enjoy the gameplay of this fifth title, does add some needed variety and replay value.

With that being said, you have to really be into this series to care about the changes and feel like they were "enough". As casual players of the series, and shoot 'em ups in general, we (at the Inverted Dungeon) found that the basic gameplay of the series hadn't changed enough in this title to feel fresh or interesting. The game did give you more to do but it was more of the same, another staid entry that didn't do quite enough to innovate. It was fun for what it was, but “what it was” ended up being more or less the same as Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius which itself was a lot like Gokujo Parodius. The series was getting a bit stale.

Clearly we aren't the only ones to think that as this was the last mainline Parodius game released. After this Konami would only put out one more, very different game in the series, the tactical strategy sim Paro WarsA tactical sim spin-off of the Parodius series, and spiritual sequel to the Gradius spin-off Cosmic Wars, this game pits the various factions and characters of the Parodius universe in cute battle against each other for the fate of the Parodius universe. It functions as the last official release for the series., a year later. Then the series would lay dormant before getting a reboot into the Otomedius franchise, featuring even more sexy girls than were included in the Sexy game of the series. We suppose that’s what fans wanted.