Collection essentials #324: Sexy Parodius (Saturn)

And here we have the fifth and final game in Konami’s shoot ‘em up series “Parodius” which I’m so fond of. The previous game, Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius, had been made specifically for home consoles and never even had an arcade release in any form. However, Konami decided to go the arcade route again for the following entry, and so this home console port of the game is not so feature-rich.

Story is not terribly important in Parodius games, but this game’s story is slightly amusing. It features Takosuke, the playable octopus character in previous Parodius games, who founds an agency which employs various playable Parodius characters (including a few new faces). This agency aims to provide a diverse array of services to whatever clients come to them with any sort of problem. This seems great…but it turns out that Takosuke is only in it for the money and the babes. Speaking of babes, the “Sexy” in the title may clue you in to the fact that is a slightly more risqué Parodius, but the game’s vibe is far more goofy than sexy and most of the game’s content wouldn’t seem out of place in any other Parodius game. It doesn’t really get any more risqué than occasional girls in bunny outfits.

In light of the story, progression in this game does something a little different from the norm. At the start of a level, a client comes to the agency asking for help with something, such as eliminating certain foes or collecting certain things. And so, you’re given a goal to reach as you play through the level. You don’t need to reach the goal to progress, but aside from the predictable reward of more points, it will determine which level you play next. The third and fourth stages can each be one of two different levels, with one that is accessed when you clear the previous level’s mission and one you’ll get if you didn’t clear it. So it’s actually not possible to see all of the game’s levels in one session. If you clear all the game’s missions, you’ll get to play an extremely hard bonus level at the end of the game.

There’s some fun new stuff in Sexy Parodius. For example, by collecting a white bell can summon a helper character named “Alex” who will attack enemies and has her own HP pool which she can increase by eating more bells. A particularly amusing new playable character is “Option”, a sentient version of those little blobs that originated in Gradius that fly around in your ship’s wake to provide additional fire. 

And of course, Sexy Parodius carries on the tradition of having a great soundtrack with remixes of public domain songs and songs from other Konami games. You’ll hear famous songs like “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Hungarian Dance No. 5”, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “Habanera”, and more. It’s a real treat to the ears.

I feel that the quality of the level design is just a little below that of Gokujou Parodius and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius. The game’s also pretty tough even on the easiest difficulty, unlike the previous game. And so, Sexy Parodius isn’t one of my absolute favorites, but it’s still undoubtedly prime old-school Konami, which you should know by now that I’m a sucker for. And like all Parodius, it’s a definite collection essential.