An appealing, sharp, and cute shoot em up that still holds up.
(also known as Fantasy Star Soldier)
Actual score: 8.7 (9.4, if you can read Japanese)
Those familiar with Konami's Parodius series, TwinBee and other "Cute em' ups", shoot em' ups with a humorous twist, will get a kick out of this one, as well as Shoot em' up fans as a whole. This game is generally the same concept, except doing to Star Soldier what Parodius did to Gradius. The only real game play change is that this a top down shooter rather than a side to side scrolling shooter.
Developed by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine CD-Rom (aka the TurboGrafx-CD), unfortunately the PC Engine CD-Rom did not sell as much as NEC hoped, and Hudson made the unfortunate decision not to ship it to NA or Europe. That is, until it arrived and made a comeback on the VC back in '08.
Story and Gameplay: The game opens with a groundbreaking, huge cinematic cutscene.... narrated entirely in Japanese. Yep, the biggest force of evil you will be facing will be Hudson's lazy job of translating the game. Well, at least the main menu is in English, but sadly you will have to be reaching for the virtual instruction manual to find a translated options menu. Anyway, back to the story.
From what I can tell, rescue team Star Parodier is sent back to their home planet on a distress call to fight a misfit army of evil. The team consists of the giant, lazy but playful PC-Engine (literally, a flying TG-16 console), the trusty Paroceaser (from Star Soldier), and last but not least, a giant Bomberman mech piloted by an army of Bombermen. They do battle against a multitude of villains, including guest nemesis Black Bomberman, who plays a match against the team on familiar territory.....
Star Parodier has a few nice twists on the shoot em' up genre, there are 3 playable characters, each with their own power ups. Difficulty can be changed on the fly, a tutorial (in Japanese), a multiplayer high scores battle, a forever mode, time attack, and a sound test that's fully unlocked at start. The power-ups work in a chain pattern, the more of one power up you collect, the more elaborate the power-up becomes, and it also acts as health. Other power-ups include Health protects, Random, and of course, the dreaded Dud.
The infamous Cute em' up humour that many find is too weird for their tastes is less prevalent in Star Parodier then Parodius. Thus, Star Parodier seems more down to earth for western audiences while still being a funny send up to the serious Star Soldier.
Graphics/FX: While understandable, it's disappointing that the PC-Engine CD Rom (aka TurboGrafx CD) didn't make a big splash, because the machine actually had a lot of power under its hood, this can be really seen in the opening, which will come to a shock to those who thought the TG-16 was down and out graphics wise during the 16-bit era, while it doesn't entirely beat the Mega Drive or the SNES, it still gives them a run for their money! The early levels of the game don't really show it off as much as the later levels though.
Music/SFX: As with Star Soldier, the music is very atmospheric, however the music here sounds more akin to Kirby's Adventure. The tunes are still electric and fast, and very catchy. Sensing this, Hudson Soft had all the music unlocked in the Sound test from the beginning, a kind gesture.
End Note: If you're a person who is just getting into the Shoot em up genre and want a game that isn't too hard but doesn't hold back, or a veteran Star Soldier player looking for something completely different, then Star Parodier might be the game for you.