Star Parodier (Turbografx-CD) review "A Parodius for a different series of shooters. "

One of those interesting things that apparently was big (to some degree) in Japan, but never caught on — or received the opportunity to do so, at least when first released — in American was the “parody” brand of shooter. Where a company would make a light-hearted alternative to a money-making series as a way of saying, “Look, guys; we’re not just evil intergalactic empires and grotesque monstrosities…we can have fun, too!”

Due to being a pretty big fan of shooters, I’ve obtained some knowledge of these game due to playing a Parodius or three and getting to experience what a Gradius game would be like if the designers were on way too many psychedelics to take things remotely seriously and just threw in whatever their drug-addled minds could imagine. Disco music! A circus! A pirate penguin! Wait a minute…did I just shoot the hell out a very patriotic American bald eagle??? Crap, in today’s environment, I’m just asking for a one-way trip to some third-world prison!

But Konami wasn’t the only company on board with this sort of thing. Hudson Soft also got in on the act in 1992 when they released Star Parodier for the PC Engine CD as a light-hearted take on their Star Soldier series. I’m not going to pretend it’s the best shooter or even the best Star Soldier I’ve played, but it was a generally fun and breezy time that definitely kept my attention and wanting to see what sights I would see next.

When you start, you’ll get the choice of three different ships possessing different weapon load-outs. There’s the basic Star Soldier vessel, as well as a Bomberman to capitalize on another big Hudson Soft series and, of course, a flying PC Engine that can fire vast quantities of CD-ROM discs at foes if you snag the proper power-up. As a perceptive reader might guess, I chose that ship and tended to rely on that power-up, as it covered a lot of the screen, could hit enemies from angles and, if boosted enough, could even assault foes coming up from behind.

It was easy to enjoy myself with this game due to its whimsical nature. Even a guy like me, who is beyond tired of how nearly every shooter wastes a boss fight on some form of snake that blends together with every other generic snake boss, had trouble getting too miffed when said “snake” is actually a train scooting around the screen. That’s part of the appeal of a game like this: They tend to take familiar staples of these titles and dress them up enough to at least make them feel somewhat new.

And they often have the sort of creativity in their designs to make one want to keep playing in order to see what’s coming up next. You’ll fight a creation made of paper that uses origami skills to transform into a variety of forms. You’ll take on a snake charmer and have to beat down his three “pets” — each popping out of pots with their own projectiles to spit at you. You’ll even take on an evil Bomberman in an arena designed to look like a screen in one fo those games, forcing you to navigate around blocks serving as obstacles in order to both land attacks on him, as well as avoid the inevitable explosions from all the bombs he’s dropping.

You’ll see new takes on familiar levels. Play enough shooters and you’ll be very familiar with those intestinal stages where you fly through the claustrophobic corridors of red-hued guts while blasting pulsating cells and the like. Now, imagine if one of those stages was bright green and color and those cells resembled balloons, giving it a more “party” vibe that only increases later on when the level opens up and there are plenty of faces on the screen holding mugs of frothy beverages. And there are nice details in these levels. I liked how, in the desert-themed world, there were dudes walking with camels across the ground, seemingly oblivious to all the carnage taking place in the sky.



Star Parodier is a charming and fun game, but it is a bit schizophrenic as far as its challenge. For virtually all of the first four of its eight stages, I was wondering if it was actually made for small children because I wasn’t getting much of anything resembling a challenge, with only the third stage’s boss proving to be somewhat tough due to only being vulnerable when it’s attacking.

Afterwards, things gradually ramp up until this game gets to the same level of hectic, fast-paced gameplay that one expects from the average 1990s console shooter. And perhaps beyond. To beat the final level, a player must survive a tricky high-speed section made even tougher due to how there are “power-down” icons strewn through it capable of weakening your attack. And, eventually, tackle a final boss that constitutes four separate battles, each possessing an array of attacks far tougher to evade than what early-game enemies could dream of mustering.

It ended up as a situation where I can’t even say how tough the game winds up getting because, for all I know, I was so lulled into complacency by that toothless early action that those late-game challenges felt more difficult because I wasn’t expecting them to be tough. Regardless, there’s a huge difference between how the game starts and how it ends — almost making it feel like I was playing two completely different games.

But Star Parodier still was fun. There’s something enjoyable about seeing a company take a series and alter its enemies and levels to look completely different. I don’t know that this game ever hits the pure whimsy that the best parts of the Parodius games could reach with some of their levels and enemies, but I still had fun going through its levels and was consistently excited about what creation would show up next, so Hudson Soft must have done a good job.

Staff review by Rob Hamilton (May 23, 2025) Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.