The "Parodius Treatment"

[OpenVMS]

I was playing Parodius on the PC Engine today (emulated, of course), and I was reminded how awesome it is that this game even exists—basically a wacky, self-aware version of Gradius with penguins and cat-ships and all kinds of weirdness. It’s such a fun twist on the usual “serious space shooter” formula.

It got me thinking about other parody or spoof-style games from back in the day. A few that come to mind:

• Gradius → Parodius
• Myst → Pyst
• DOOM → Chex Quest (yes, the cereal-themed FPS where you fight gooey aliens with a spoon laser)

I love when developers (or fans) take something iconic and twist it into something absurd but still fun. So now I’m wondering...

What other games do you think deserve the “Parodius Treatment”? What big-name, serious, or overly dramatic game would be hilarious if it got a full-on spoof version?

Curious what ideas you all have!

 

[ATenderLad]

Madden! Start with a normal looking set of teams ready for a kickoff, but the kicker's leg hulks out and he knocks that thing out of Earth's orbit. The crowd cheers, and the receiving team reveal corporate branded jet packs and launch off into space, the player taking control as you guide them through an asteroid belt and an incoming alien armada to make the catch.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I posted a JRPG parody the other day, but there are many indie/rpg maker jrpg parody projects out there.

Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden - The wildest parody JRPG I've ever played.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley,_Shut_Up_and_Jam:_Gaiden When people ask me "Strategist, what's the weirdest JRPG game you've ever played?" I have a simple answer. Back in 2008 one of my college mates told me about this indie SNES JRPG style parody game based on Charles Barkley. He...

retrogametalk.com

Sports parody games are also a plenty. Arch Rivals was an NES game where one could punch players on the other team and pull down their shorts. The Mutant league sports series had a similar take on the sport and many of the names of the characters were references to real life players.

 

[stealthRUSH]

Another PC Engine spoof-style game that comes to mind is Star Parodier—a parody version of Star Soldier series.

 

[DeeboDeebo's icon]

I love parody RPGs! I feel like the Like a Dragon series is such a great example of this, it's so wacky I adore it

 

[Juiceala]

"Penguins"...

The kid inside me who grew up with Penta's Penguin Adventure is crying a river you'd refer to him as just a random "penguin"

Edit: to elaborate, for me this is the equivalent to saying "Sega Superstars Tennis is a game about hedgehogs, monkeys and a purple clown playing tennis" or "Super Smash Bros is a game about a gorilla, an elf in a green tunic, and a green dinosaur battling in an arena".

 

[Yousef]

I love parody RPGs! I feel like the Like a Dragon series is such a great example of this, it's so wacky I adore it

It’s basically what happens if SMT and FF decided to have an awkward drunken night out one day and decided to pin the blame on Dragon Quest. I love it.

 

[Matricks]

Twinbee, Cotton , Fantasy Zone shmups with cite gfx are kind of.

Play Harmful Park for suprizes:

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

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I was playing Parodius on the PC Engine today (emulated, of course), and I was reminded how awesome it is that this game even exists—basically a wacky, self-aware version of Gradius with penguins and cat-ships and all kinds of weirdness. It’s such a fun twist on the usual “serious space shooter” formula.

It got me thinking about other parody or spoof-style games from back in the day. A few that come to mind:

• Gradius → Parodius
• Myst → Pyst
• DOOM → Chex Quest (yes, the cereal-themed FPS where you fight gooey aliens with a spoon laser)

I love when developers (or fans) take something iconic and twist it into something absurd but still fun. So now I’m wondering...

What other games do you think deserve the “Parodius Treatment”? What big-name, serious, or overly dramatic game would be hilarious if it got a full-on spoof version?

Curious what ideas you all have!

From this

To this

Speaking of Compile, you could also argue Puyo Puyo is a spoof franchise of Madou Monogatari

 

[DeeboDeebo's icon]

Speaking of Compile, you could also argue Puyo Puyo is a spoof franchise of Madou Monogatari
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Yess I always thought the transition to puyo was so funny

 

[Yousef]

Yess I always thought the transition to puyo was so funny

The reason behind it is even funnier
Compile lost the rights to the characters, but not the name
Sega had the rights to the characters and the Puyo Puyo name, but not the MM name
Literally neither Compile nor Sega could re-release the old Madao Monogatari games unless they hug it out and kiss

 

[Juiceala]

From this
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To this
View attachment 59395


Speaking of Compile, you could also argue Puyo Puyo is a spoof franchise of Madou Monogatari
View attachment 59396View attachment 59397

True, but an even weirder yet similar argument is that Super Mario Bros is a spin off of Donkey Kong.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Wanpaku Graffiti
Technically great, snappy controls, zombies doingbthe thriller dance, fun bosses

 

[Jon-Patrick-S]

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard gameplay-wise was a pretty mediocre third person shooter with an entertaining premise parodying mainly the action/shooter genres and the game industry at large. Its about the protagonist of a 90s shooter series whose popularity faded out after his being milked for a bunch of crappy spin-offs tries trying to revive his franchise for modern systems while an evil video game publisher CEO is plotting to kill him off and replace him with a new character. At one point the CEO starts sending his employees into the game world to kill Matt and there's a pretty funny moment showing that the company's executives have no idea how to actually play video games.

 

[OpenVMS]

Literally neither Compile nor Sega could re-release the old Madao Monogatari games unless they hug it out and kiss

It's amusing and sad how many IPs are locked up like this in standoffs that will never be resolved.

 

[Ikagura]

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard gameplay-wise was a pretty mediocre third person shooter with an entertaining premise parodying mainly the action/shooter genres and the game industry at large. Its about the protagonist of a 90s shooter series whose popularity faded out after his being milked for a bunch of crappy spin-offs tries trying to revive his franchise for modern systems while an evil video game publisher CEO is plotting to kill him off and replace him with a new character. At one point the CEO starts sending his employees into the game world to kill Matt and there's a pretty funny moment showing that the company's executives have no idea how to actually play video games.

View attachment 59473