"Take a bunch of Konami franchises, stick them in a blender, and you get this."

A long long long time ago, before Konami flooded the arcades with BeatMania games, they were the kings of the Famicom / NES. They made many games, from Contra to Castlevania. From TwinBee to Quarth.

And then, there's this.

Wai Wai World was an early attempt at making an ''omake'' game - something that made little sense, but that included the characters from many different franchises, Simon Belmont, from Castlevania and Mikey from The Goonies to name a few. The game wasn't very good, but the idea was excellent.

Three years later, Konami followed up with this sequel, titled Wai Wai World 2: SOS Paseri Jou!!, or SOS from Parsley Castle. They changed the roster, and turned the game into a mixture of different game modes. But let's start at the beginning, with the story.

Wai Wai World had remained in peace after the defeat of the villains in the past. Everything returned to normal. Or so it seemed. One day, Wai Wai World was attacked by a magician named Waruumon, who kidnapped Princess Herb, and revived the enemies defeated by the Konami heroes in the past! But luckily, Dr. Cinnamon was not in town when this happened, so he unleashed something he had created in case evil returned to Wai Wai World again: the Super Robot known as Rikkuru!

Rikkuru is the hero that Konami worked up for this sequel. So what does he do? Well, his arm shoots a small attack, he can do double jumps, and he can transform into one of five Konami heroes! You can turn into Goemon, from Ganbare Goemon; Upa, a baby from Bio Miracle Boku-tte Upa!; Fuuma, a samurai from Getsu Fuuma Den; Bill Raiza, from Contra; and Simon Belmont, from Castlevania. Each different hero has different attacks, strengths and abilities. For instance, Upa is the weakest character but can swim pretty well, however Fuuma has the strongest attack but the worst range. Wait, Upa has even worse range. Never mind, heh.

So to beat the game, you have to go through many of the different areas that make up Wai Wai World, each representing the game that each character comes from. Stage one is Rikkuru’s stage, the city where Parsley Castle was. Stage two is Goemon’s stage, Edo; Stage three are Twinbee’s stages. Why the plural? There are two paths that Twinbee can take, one is through a modern city and one is through an RPG world. Then on Stage four, you play through Bill’s area, the Jungle from Contra. Stage five is Upa’s stage, a world made out of pastries and candy; Stage six has two paths once again, you can choose a racing game or a puzzle game. Stage seven is Fuuma’s area: Hell. Stage eight is a shooting area where you can use Vic Viper or Metalion, the ships from Gradius and Salamander; there are two paths to take here as well. Stage nine, the final level, is Parsley Ca-, er, I mean, Simon’s area, Castlevania. And from then on, Waruumon awaits.

So how does this game play? Very, very well. You can only transform into one of three heroes at a time [said heroes can be chosen when you start the game], and only for sixty seconds, though you can extend that time by grabbing first aid kits. The characters move a bit slowly, and some of them are limited by their own attacks. Upa is the weakest character in the game, since he has very little range. On the contrary, Bill has the best range in the game. He does have a machine gun, ya know. And the game has various mini-games within, which can keep you busy for a while. Even Frogger’s in there!

The graphics are good for the NES. Nothing too fancy, but you’re not getting early graphics either. Everything’s done in Super-Deformed Japanese style [big heads, small bodies], so everyone looks funny on purpose. There are few special effects, but they’re done well. Character design is… well… weird. Considering that one of the enemies is a sumo wrestler that dances ballet, well… heh. As is normal in the Parodius games, the graphics have a lot of touches that will be noticed by those that are Konami fans.

And the music… what can I say about the music? It’s a mixture of many songs from the games that are mentioned in this game. Every single song got remixed for this game. If you’re a fan of Konami [like me], you’ll like the tunes. And the game includes a sound test, so you can listen to all songs without having to deal with those pesky enemies. Some of it is just plain silly.

Now comes the difficulty. The game is not that hard. Really, I beat it my first time through. You gain lives rather easily, and there are first aid boxes all over the stages. And the last boss was pretty easy! A disappointment in that regard.

So, should you buy it or rent it? Well, buy it if you can. The game is Japanese, and over ten years old, so it’s quite rare by now. It’s a fun game, hilarious at times. But it’s way too easy, and that’s why it didn’t get a 10. Konami’s made harder games than this.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/02, Updated 08/04/02