From Konami

This review originally was presented on lazy.GEEKS (5/29/03)

Ok...first off, this review will be short since I figure I have no reason to either sell this game to you or keep you from buying it, since you will not find it for sale and unless you do emulators (I am not saying I condone or condemn emulators), you will probably never see it.  Anyways, this is a game that came out for the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) way back in 1994.  It is simply put, a clone of games such as Gradius and R-Type...more important of the two is Gradius since that was also from Konami and uses the same general engine.  In fact, Ultimate Parodius and the original Parodius (another fun game) are parodies of Gradius.

In the game, you can choose from many unusual "ship" types.  You can be a standard Gradius style space ship, a flying pig, Goemon (or, as we in the U.S know him, the Star of Mystical Ninja), or even a stick figure riding a paper airplane.  You get the standard power-ups ala Gradius (bombs, speed up, shield, splitting your shots, or options), and each one depends on your ship type for the actual affect.  Needless to say, look at some of the pictures to the right to see what I mean.

A major part of this game, being a parody, is the humor.  By humor I don't mean slap stick and formal jokes but rather that wacky and often perverted method employed by some of the best animes (like Ping Pong Club).  This game is loaded with sexual connotations in almost everything from the condom shaped shield used by the stick figure man (look at the far right of the second picture) to the jiggly mermaid boss that attacks with her words (4th picture).

The graphics are nothing short of what you should have on a classic Super Famicom shooter and the sounds are as insane as the visuals.  This game has no cut scenes and no special features, just insanity.

Pretty much, if you enjoy silly Japanese culture and humor issues as you'd see in the recent release, Wario Ware, then you'd enjoy this.  Also, if you like good side scroller shooters, then this is definitely for you.  Even though the visuals are silly in the cat submarines, the mermaids, the penguins, the attacking with your words (that's what the third picture is about), at heart this is a solid game using the Gradius engine in all the right ways. I give this game a score of 8/10...a game needs not make sense to be fun and addictive.