And for those of you not in the knowā¦
Gradius, right? Konamiās many-sequeled, side scrolling shoot-'em-up game? They made a spin off series called Parodius (parody + Gradius, geddit?) and it was utterly bizarre.
Iāll just leave this here as an example:
This is the 2nd level boss from JikkyÅ Oshaberi Parodius, one of the SNES incarnations. You are a cat wielding a loaf of bread as a shield, fighting not just a kaiju sized schoolgirl wearing bunny ears, but two of them, one standing on the otherās shoulders. Who attack you by throwing angry Moai heads at you riding on paper airplanes and stuff. This is after you fought your way through a shmup stage thatās a Japanese high school based on Konamiās visual novel property, Tokimeki Memorial.
In the first level you ultimately fight your way through a disco, blasting at, among other things, multicolored penguins who are wearing afro wigs. While a SNES chiptune rendition of KC & The Sunshine Bandās āThatās The Way I Like Itā plays in the background. The boss of that stage is an opera singing panda. I promise you I am not making this up.
Justā¦ Just look at this.
It is also the origin of the anime āwowā sound effect. https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Anime_Wow_Sound
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I used to own this game as a kid! It was a lot of fun, especially when you first meet a new boss and itās the most bizarre, out of place character. I have so many fond memories of it. Itās strange to think the only reason I had it was because the box art looked really interesting. I guess that was also the case for most games at the time. I never knew until years later that it was a parody of gradius.