Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy

A port of the extremely loony arcade Gradius spin off, featuring a brand new stage exclusive to this version. Poor America missed out on the fun once again, unfortunately.

Level Select#

On the options screen, press Up, Right, Down, Left, X, A, B, Y.

Debug Menu#

On the player select screen, highlight Octopus and hold X, L, Up (thereby now highlighting Vic Viper). After about 30 seconds, the debug menu will appear.

Stage and Scene allow you to, obviously, select the stage and scene to start at. Setting Mutek to 01 makes your ship invincible and fully powered up.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan	Europe

Octopus and the English "Parodius" logo were redrawn to be larger in the European version. The subtitle was changed from "神話からお笑いへ" ("From Myth to Laughter", a play on Gradius III's Japanese subtitle "伝説から神話へ", "From Legend to Myth") to "Non-Sense Fantasy", using a slightly larger and blockier font. Because of the the obligatory "Licensed by Nintendo" text, the subtitle and menu were pushed up slightly.

The extra "Omake!" (approx. translating to "Bonus!") stage was renamed "Lollipop"(?!) in the European version.

Intro#

Japan	Europe

• One of the Moai heads in the background is smoking a cigarette in the Japanese version. He dropped the habit for the European version.

Stage 2#

Japan	Europe

• When defeated, the giant clowns found throughout the stage collapse to reveal a tombstone with the word "OUT" on it. In the Japanese version, there's a Christian cross above these letters. For the European version, the cross was swapped with a windup-key, representing the clowns as windup-toys.

Stage 3#

Japan	Europe

• In the middle part of the third level, there is a mural of Venus, as seen in Botticelli's famous painting "The Birth of Venus". This was removed from the European version due to its depiction of female frontal nudity. Instead, you only see the naked wall in the background.

Japan	Europe

• The Hot Lips bosses' "licking lips" animation was redrawn in the European version to remove the tongue, leaving it rather undistinguished. A drop of saliva was inexplicably left in the final frame, though.

Stage 7#

Japan	Europe

• The bubbled bunny girls (and pig) are missing their ears and tail in the European version, either because the outfit was too suggestive or because the "Playboy Bunny" outfit is actually copyrighted.