Sexy Parodius (Arcade) Clear (including Special Stage)

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• published: 10 Apr 2017
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Original title: セクシーパロディウス. Lost two lives and didn't do much in the way of scoring, I'm very pleased with the result nonetheless - I would advise reading the description first for some illuminations/explanations! There will hopefully be a better run in the future, I have to ruminate how I wish to approach that, however. Sexy Parodius is the fifth and final installment in Konami's excellent series of cute 'em ups. Just like the predecessors, it mildly satirizes many themes and references ranging from other Konami games (from something as iconic as Gradius to obscure titles such as Yie Ar Kung-Fu or Flak Attack) to world-renowned music like Jacques Offenbach's Cancan and Händel's Der Messias. It also borrows the bell system that originated in TwinBee, yet with a much less frustrating execution. There is one aspect that is unique about Sexy Parodius in particular, though. Sexy Parodius is a non-linear game in a certain sense; depending on whether you manage to fulfil the mission directive in a stage you will proceed to another stage than you would if you were to fail it. If you can meet every goal (which also means that you're not allowed to let one of the bosses in the boss rush time out, I believe) you're allowed to play the so-called Special Stage after beating the sixth stage. And if you succeed there, too, you'll be rewarded one million points per remaining life after the first one, thus boosting your score by a substantial amount. My strategy for this run was to keep the adaptive difficulty (rank) as low as possible while having a realistic chance at accomplishing every guideline. The easiest way to do so is to select the auto mode which a priori tremendously lowers the increase in challenge over time. I originally planned to tackle the game with Hikaru; she's unfortunately rather weak in conjunction with the auto mode since you cannot assign power-ups on your own (hence the name), limiting her abilities. Mambo on the other hand is ideal under those circumstances for his search lasers are not only extremely powerful, but also allow you to multi-task without having to go in harm's way. One of the trickier goals is surprisingly the one in the second stage, I'd advise working on a consistent route. There's a devious trick where you kill yourself right as the boss times out, allowing you to lower the rank without losing a life (the game doesn't have enough time to substract it), I find that a bit cheap and don't resort to it. I was almost certain to lose at least one life in the run (the rank becomes remarkably belligerent if you don't die), the second death on the fifth boss was probably not necessary at all, nonetheless. Picking up a green bell makes you invincible for a long period of time, using a blue bell confers invincibility within the radius of the blast, the red bell's character icon as well as the extended beams also turn you impervious during its duration. Knowing and using these is crucial in the special stage, the crystal maze in particular is very dangerous without a red bell in stock. Since I'm playing with auto I can't just fire with the main weapon and hold back my stored bells, that's why I dodge the first syringe instead of killing it right away. I suppose it should be obvious, but the fins of our swashbuckling sunfish are not part of its hitbox.