shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...
PC Engine CD-ROM²
The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thou ...
in 1992. It is a spin-off of the ''
Star Soldier
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...
'' series and was localized for North America as ''Fantasy Star Soldier''. However, this version was never released. The game was released for the Wii Virtual Console on March 7, 2008 in Japan, March 16, 2008 in Europe and later in North America on August 11, 2008. The title is also playable on the Turbografx-16/PC Engine Mini Console.
''Star Parodier'' is a vertical scrolling shooter, much like the ''Star Soldier'' games, and features many of the same conventions, such as collecting power-ups to upgrade the player's weapons, and facing several bosses and minibosses as they progress through the game. The game also features the 2- and 5-minute high score
time attack
Time attack is a type of motorsport in which the racers compete for the best lap time. Each vehicle is timed through numerous circuits of the track. The racers make a preliminary circuit, then run the timed laps, and then finish with a cool-dow ...
modes seen in previous games.
However, in parodying the hard sci-fi atmosphere of the ''Star Soldier'' games, ''Star Parodier'' takes a lighthearted approach by featuring cute, cartoonish graphics and toning down the violence (for example, defeated enemies wave
white flag
White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.
Contemporary use
The white flag is an internationally recognized protective sign of truce or ceasefire, and for negotiation. It is also used to symbolize ...
s in surrender). The players choose from three craft to play as in the game: the Paro Ceaser from ''Star Soldier'', a giant flying
Bomberman
is a video game franchise originally developed by Hudson Soft and currently owned by Konami. The original game, also known as ''Bakudan Otoko'' (''爆弾男''), was released in Japan in July 1983 and has since spawned multiple sequels and sp ...
HuCard
The is a ROM cartridge in the form of a card, designed by Hudson Soft for NEC's PC Engine and PC Engine SuperGrafx video game consoles, which were originally released in 1987 and 1989, respectively. In the United States, where the PC Engine w ...
Parodius
is a series of cute 'em ups developed and published by Konami. The games are tongue-in-cheek parodies of ''Gradius'', and also feature characters from many other Konami franchises.
Video games
There are six games in the Parodius series. The last ...