Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius

"An odd, fun game."

Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius (Known to English-speakers as The Real Condition Chat Parodius) is quite a fun game. Like all of the other Parodius games, it is crazy, nonsensical, insane at times, but oddly fun.

The plot of this installment in the Parodius series (as far as I can tell) is that the characters from the previous game (Gokukyou, or Ultimate Parodius) have just valiantly defeated the Giant Evil Octopus (Which is always the final boss in the Parodius games), but the Giant Moai Head crashes into Earth (or whatever the world of Parodius is called). Then, our valiant heroes fly off to do something!!!!

Plot: Err, lacking. 3/10

The gameplay, however, makes up for the typical bad plot of shooters. You select a character, complete with a unique Gradius style power-up bar (Well, in all cases except for Sue’s). After selecting your character, you fly through Jikkyo Oshaberi’s funky stages that look like a drugged-up rat thought up the concept of. You go through a disco palace, a school, a Rainbow Bell Adventure Twinbee stage (complete with CREEPY looking breasted Twinbee boss), A Japanese Goemon stage, a stage from Xexex (NOTE: In case you don’t know why all of these stages have stuff from other games, it’s because Parodius is a cameo/variety game), some odd shoot-em-up stage, the typical Gradius Boss Barrage and a Circus, ending with the spoof of the typical Gradius final boss.

In one final word, CRAZY. Just CRAZY.

Gameplay: 10/10

Now, you can’t have crazy and bad looking, can you? Well, the crazy artists at Konami obviously didn’t think so, because they really improved upon the graphics in this game. Well, compared to the other Parodius games, anyway. But, the final boss is totally good looking, shaded, and very detailed. An excellent step over Parodius Da! (The NES Parodius).

Graphics: 10/10

Now, with good graphics, awesome gameplay, and almost no plot, what’s the music going to be? Will it be Typical Parodius spoofs of classical music? Err, yes. That’s pretty much all of it, but those crazy composers at Konami REALLY know how to polish up old songs. The first stage (The Disco Palace) is playing that one song whose title I cannot remember, but has that one line “That’s the way, uh huh uh huh I like it” (YES, THAT ONE!) Crazy.

Music: 9/10

Now, you probably think this game has an odd title. I mean, what kind of shooter has chatting? This one! If you don’t turn off the Oshaberi option in the game, an old man will constantly shout at you in Japanese! Very, very odd. But, otherwise, he game has good sound.

Sound: 8/10

So, how could such an odd game be so addicting? Well, after you beat the game once, there are fairies to find! During the game, there are certain places that if you shoot, will just magically absorb shots. Now, if you fire enough times, it will materialize into a fairy! Grab it! Yay! Only 74 more to go now!

Replay: 6/10

Buy or Rent? That’s the question that’s on all our minds right now. The answer is buy, if you can. Otherwise, you’re out of luck. Then you have to rent. Of course, what kind of store rents or sells old Super Famicom games? Not many in America.

Buy or Rent: Buy, if you can.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/03, Updated 02/19/03