Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－

Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－ (パロディウスだ! －神話からお笑いへ－) is a shoot'em up arcade game and is the second title in the Parodius series produced by Konami. The gameplay is stylistically very similar to the Gradius series, but the graphics and music are intentionally absurd.

This game is often mistaken as the original game of the series. The lesser known original game, Parodius, was released for the MSX2 computer in Japan.

Gameplay
As stated above, gameplay is very similar to the Gradius series, with a few differences. Parodius Da! retains the selectability of different weapons configurations but implements via four different characters: Vic Viper (from Gradius), Octopus, TwinBee, and Pentarou. The second main difference is the addition of bell power-ups, from the Twinbee series. These bells act as one-time power-ups, allowing you to destroy every enemy on screen, fire huge beams of energy, etc. Enemies and environments from the Gradius games and Twinbee are mixed in along, with a host of anime-style opponents, which include scantily-clad women. All of the Gradius elements are integrated in a very light-hearted fashion. The Big Core, a regular boss within the Gradius series, is given a neon-look and is called "Viva Core". Moreover, there is a moai (Easter Island head statues) level, but all of the statues are given a much more animated look. The boss of that level, the Moai Head, fires other moai at the player by spitting them out of her mouth. The final boss, in typical Gradius fashion, is an unarmed enemy that once defeated, results in a destruction/escape sequence.

Characters and weapons
Vic Viper – Traditional Gradius configuration

The missile will fall to the ground, and then move along until it encounters an enemy. The Double mode will fire two blasts, one forward, and one incline forty-five degrees above. The Laser mode is a thin blue laser, identical from Gradius.

Octopus – Salamander configuration

This configuration is identical to the weapons presented in the Salamander arcade game. The missile is '2-way' that yields two bomb-like explosives that fall both up and down. The Double is the tail gun present in the second configuration. And the laser is the ripple laser, which fires expanding concentric circles at the front of the craft/person.

TwinBee (Colored as WinBee) – TwinBee configuration

This set is the weapons from the vertically-scrolling TwinBee, applied to horizontal gameplay. The missile is now the rocket punch, which has a larger impact area than the standard missile. The double is the same tail gun from the Octopus/Salamander configuration. The laser is a 3-way gun which fires shots the same size as the Double and standard weapons.
 * Due to the color bug, it could be considered that WinBee, rather than Twinbee, has the most appearances in video games, however this Twinbee doesn't have the same cockpit windshield design as either TwinBee, WinBee or GwinBee.

Pentarou – Gradius III configuration

This set mostly the weapons available in one of the configurations in Gradius III. The missile is the photon torpedo (spelled here Poton) that fires one missile that travels along the bottom ground and penetrates multiple enemies. The Double mode will fire two blasts, one forward, and one incline forty-five degrees above. The laser mode is a spread gun, which fires a small circle that gradually spreads concentrically outward.

Ports
Parodius Da! has been ported to a number of platforms, most notably the Super Famicom (which was also released in Europe) and the PC Engine. The game was also ported on the Family Computer (also released in Europe) with several stages omitted but with a new amusement park stage as well as several hidden bonus stages. Most recently the game, along with several other Gradius titles, has been ported to Java-based cell phones in Japan.

The Game Boy version (which was also released in Europe) shows the ages of the playable characters, and only has 8 stages, which include stages 1–6, and 10 from the arcade game. Stage 3 was replaced with a different one. Game Boy version of stage 3 also has a hidden stage. This version was also re-released in color as part of the Konami GB Collection Vol. 2

The PC Engine version does not have the arcade Stages 5 and 8, but features a stage titled SPECIAL and a new introduction that features several strange-looking Japanese characters. This is in contrast to the arcade intro, which chronicles the Gradius legacy up until the time of release.

The SFC/SNES version added the bath house and "Omake" stages over the arcade version. In the "Omake" stage, the player immediately continues after dying, instead of at a checkpoint. The PAL version of the SNES port was titled Parodius Non-Sense Fantasy.

Parodius Da! was also ported along with Gokujō Parodius! ～Kako no Eikō o Motomete～ on Gokujō Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack for PlayStation, Sega Saturn in 1996 (which were released in Europe as well) and in Parodius Portable for PlayStation Portable in 2007.

The Mobile phone version titled Parodius! Deluxe Edition (パロディウスだ! 豪華版) was released on 2003 in Japan, and does not have the arcade Stage 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9.

Other Appearances

 * Captain Penguinovsky the 3rd, Hot Lips and Chichibinta Rika from Parodius Da! appears in the puzzle game Pixel Puzzle Collection to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Parodius series.