Play Parodius Online

Konami released Parodius for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, a time when the console was packed with straightforward shooters and platformers. It stood out immediately not for its difficulty or innovation, but for its sheer absurdity; it was a deliberate, playful send-up of the company's own Gradius series, and it didn't care who knew it.

You pilot a selection of oddball ships, including a penguin and a squid, navigating horizontally scrolling levels filled with nonsensical enemies like giant cats and walking sushi. Your main goal is simply to survive the seven stages, each capped with a bizarre boss fight. The core mechanics are pure Gradius: you collect power-up capsules to build a custom weapon array, including options, lasers, and shields. The pacing is frantic, the enemy patterns are unpredictable, and the sheer visual noise makes it a challenging, often chaotic experience. It feels like playing a cartoon where the rules are made up and the points do not matter.