Checkpoints ON or OFF
8 Difficulty levels
7 Stages (+1)
Ship speed by icons
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Developed by Konami
Published by Konami in 1996
As long as you choose a completely different character, it's true that revisiting games that have multiple characters is almost like learning it all over over again. I wasn't expecting or anticipating to replay Sexy Parodius so soon after beating the Saturn version a while ago, but thanks to a few fine folks who also share this undying passion for shmups it was chosen as game of the week around here. So I dug out the Playstation disc and off I went in testing all those crazy characters to see which one would be a nice diversion for a few evenings of nonsensical fun.
Of course saying "nice diversion" is a relative statement when we speak about Sexy Parodius, the 5th chapter in the cute'em up series originally created as a spin-off of Gradius. By no means "diversion" is supposed to indicate that the game is an easy ride, because it certainly isn't. As the final arcade entry of the franchise, it actually takes dynamic difficulty to the limit while still allowing some degree of flexibility for all types of players. All things considered, the elusive nature of this game is definitely not to be taken for granted.
Wait, who's that doing some kata over that green roof?
Let's not get ahead of ourselves though. The very basics of Sexy Parodius are still based on the same old orange capsules that cycle the weapon array for the player to activate the desired upgrades, in an assortment that includes speed-up, missiles, two kinds of shot patterns, power-up, Oh! (all upgrades are gone) and shield (note that the blue/gray capsule clears the screen of enemies). And then there are the colored bells for you to collect. Yellow is used to get higher scores since it successively gives out 500, 1K, 2.5K, 5K and 10K points if no bells are lost and if you don't die. Other colors result in special powers: blue (screen clearing bomb), green (temporary inflate + invincibility + not possible to collect more bells), white (sidekick Alex appears to damage enemies + collect coins), brown (3 laser barriers) and purple (turns all enemies into items).
Bell juggling is the bane of scoring and the culprit of regret due to greed, simply because you need to keep shooting bells for colors to be cycled – hitting a yellow one five times makes it advance to the next different color in the queue. How many times have we ruined a great run because we went after that certain bell and got shot in the face? Besides upgrade capsules and bells, Sexy Parodius also adds a third element to the gameplay: specific missions for each stage, normally by destroying a predetermined amount of enemies or collecting a certain number of coins. Fulfill all missions and you'll have the right to play the special stage after the credits roll (previous chapter Gokujyou Parodius also had such a special stage, only with no unlocking criteria). There's a catch though. The more missions you fulfill the harder the game gets, to the point of becoming truly overwhelming in the final level. The ultimate carrot on a stick is the one million bonus for each remaining life in reserve if you manage to beat the special stage. I for one did not commit to that. At all.
For the selection you need to make after choosing the character, once again I went with Auto power-up mode. In Auto the game performs all the upgrades for you, with the advantage of fully eliminating checkpoints, granting a bell shower upon death and getting rid of the dangers related to the roulette capsule (a contaminated capsule that makes the weapon array cycle really fast and demands quick choices from the player). In Semi-auto the game automatically applies some upgrades but you can also make yours when desired, whereas in Manual the player has full control of how upgrades are activated. Semi-auto and Manual have mandatory checkpoints. Manual is the only mode that allows activating bell powers with a separate button, in the other two modes powers are triggered with the regular shot button.
The only disadvantage of choosing Auto power-up mode is that the game will favor one of the two shot patterns of the chosen character, which means there are weapons you just won't see if you play in Auto. It's impossible to have Michael's wave shot when playing in full Auto, for example, as he'll always use the spread pattern no matter what. Likewise, Auto will always favor the laser charge shot for Shooting Star instead of the charged spread bomb, which is a much more useful resource for crowd control.
First stage of the Plastation port of Sexy Parodius with Koitsu
(courtesy of YouTube user The VideoGames Museum)
(courtesy of YouTube user The VideoGames Museum)
It's clear that flexibility is one of the strongest assets of the gameplay in Sexy Parodius, as is the risqué design that's more comical than actually daring. As mentioned above, it's possible to reduce rank by failing to complete your missions. Just note that by doing so in stages 2 and 3 you'll play alternate levels right after (3 and 4). Fortunately they are just as cool and detailed as the others, and I would even say their bosses are some of the most creative in the game. And then there's the random bonus stage that must appear between stages 2 and 6, which brings back a few bosses from previous chapters. By timing out this level you'll fail the mission, so take that in consideration if you want to avoid a certain stage when playing it after stages 2 and 3. There are only two extends in the game, granted with 200 and 700 thousand points.
I really liked the revolving bullet sprites of Shooting Star. After a brief while it became my character of choice for the Playstation version. Speaking of which, this port just as good as the Saturn version, with absolutely no slowdown and extremely fast loading times. Shooting Star starts out with little in the way of firepower, but when maxed out its side cannons will chase everything even from behind the ship. As far as I could tell it's the only character that has a charge shot, hence the ability to actually use two buttons instead of only one in Auto mode (one for shot and another for rapid shot). I played in full defaults at difficulty 4 and got the 1CC result below, with the strategy to always fail the missions of the 3rd and 5th levels.
Now for the spiritual sequel Otomedius Gorgeous!
