It seems like any game that has the suffix “ius” has only one connotation: it’s going to be a shooter. Parodius Portable, for those of you completely unfamiliar with the Parodius series, is a compilation of 5 individual entires into the Parodius series, a series that’s been in existence since 1988 infact. Created by Konami (in part as a spoof on thier own Shooter series: Gradius), The Gradius series takes the core gameplay from the Gradius series and turns it into something much stranger.

Each Game has it’s own unique appeal, the Original Parodius is the most derivitive of it’s source material whereas Sexy parodius introduces an actual mission structure. It should be noted that, where Gradius was very geared towards the hardcore gamer, the Parodius games have much less of a steep dificulty curve, and as such tends to be a much more pick up and play casual experience. In addition to the Gradius style power up’s, the Parodius series introduces bells of different colors which impart different abilities, for instance, green bells makes your ship Invincible and larger in size for a short period of time.

One cannot play these games and not notice the twisted sense of humor involved, One boss does nothing but feed you power-ups as you shoot it, where another is a scantly clad women trying to step on you, and when you die the game has a tendency to laugh at you. I would honestly say this collection is worth owning if not even for it’s bizzaro factor, and the fact that you can take it on the go makes it all that much more appealing.

The Parodius has always had some memorable music, and unfortunately this is where the compilation falls short a little, some of the original soundtrack in a couple of the titles have been altered or changed entirely, changing the beginning track of Forever With you to DDR’s B4U, or removing entirely Mambo No. 5.

Still, the fact that this compilation has all of the Parodius title’s makes it very dificult to pass up, this is a pick up and play funfest that even someone with absolutely no Japanese Knowledge can pick up and play.

Bottom Line:

Graphics: Large colorful sprites in each title make you realize that even though it is a spoof title of Gradius, that it’s much more than that. Environments are highly detailed, and Bosses tend to be impressive.

Gameplay: Simplistic, realistically all you’ll ever do is hold down the shoot button and move, it has a very “pick up and play” type feel.

Sound: Although some classic tracks have essentially been nuetered, this collection holds up rather well in the sound department.

Import Friendliness: This is about as import friendly as you can get, and the fact that since it’s a PSP game region coding has no effect on what systems you can play it on, this is one title that is affordable, easy to play, and overall a blast.