Parodius series

Parodius is a series of horizontally-scrolling shooters developed by Konami. The games are tongue-in-cheek parodies of Gradius, hence the name (Parodius is combination of "parody" and Gradius).

The series also parodies many other Konami franchises, including Castlevania, Goemon (known as "Mystical Ninja" in the U.S.), Lethal Enforcers and Tokimeki Memorial, Taisen Puzzle Dama, Axelay, TwinBee, Xexex, Space Manbow and Thunder Cross.

Games
There are five games in the Parodius series:


 * Parodius - Tako wa Chikyuu o Sukuu (Parodius: The Octopus Saves the Earth) (1988, MSX2)
 * Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－ (It's Parodius! From Myth to Laughter) (1990, arcade)
 * Parodius Deluxe Edition (2004, Mobile as Konami NET DX)
 * Gokujō Parodius! ～Kako no Eikō o Motomete～ (Ultimate Parodius - Pursue the Glory of the Past) (1994, arcade)
 * Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius (Chatting Parodius) (1995, Super Famicom)
 * Sexy Parodius (1996, arcade, Sony PlayStation)
 * Paro Wars (1997, Sony PlayStation)
 * Gokuraku Parodius (2010, Pachislot)

Numerous ports have been created. Parodius - Tako wa Chikyū o Sukū was converted to mobile phones, to Virtual Console of the Wii and Wii U and to the Project EGG for the Windows Store. ''Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－'' was ported to the Game Boy, Famicom (NES), Super Famicom (SNES), PC Engine, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Gokujō Parodius! was ported to the Super Famicom, PlayStation and Saturn. The PlayStation and Saturn versions were a combined release of ''Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－ and Gokujō Parodius! called Gokujō Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack''. The last two titles were also released on both the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

A compilation of all Parodius games (with the exception of Paro Wars) have been released for the Sony PSP as a UMD release on January 2007 in Japan. A digital version for the PSP Go (a version of the PSP that lacks the UMD drive) was also made available for the PlayStation Network.

The first three episodes of the series were released in Japan for cell phones.

Only a few of the games were released outside Japan: ''Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－ and Gokujō Parodius! were released in Europe (as Parodius and Fantastic Journey'' respectively), but none of the games were released in the United States.

There is also a spin-off named Paro Wars. This game is a turn-based strategy game based on Cosmic Wars, which plays similar to the Nintendo Wars series. Aside from Pentarou, only some of the Parodius-native characters (Octopus and the like) appear in this game.

In July 1998, it was released a Parodius themed pachislot machine named Little Pirates (リトルパイレーツ).

Finally, two pachislot machines, Gokuraku Parodius and Gokuraku Parodius A, were released in 2010.

In addition, several pachinkomachines based on Parodius universe were released in Japan, such as CR Parodius Da in 2000 and CR Gokujō Parodius in 2006.