Star Parodier (スターパロジャー, Sutā Parojā) is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by Kaneko and published by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in 1992. It is a spin-off of the Star Soldier series and was localized for North America as Fantasy Star Soldier, but this version was never released.[1] The game was released for the Wii Virtual Console on March 7, 2008 in Japan, March 16 in Europe and later in North America on August 11.[2] The title is also playable on the Turbografx-16/PC Engine Mini Console.
| Star Parodier | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Kaneko |
| Publisher(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Composer(s) | Hiroshi Saito Jin Watanabe Shinichi Sakamoto (PSG) |
| Platform(s) | PC Engine CD |
| Release | PC Engine CD
Wii Virtual Console |
| Genre(s) | Shoot 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Star Parodier is a vertical scrolling shooter, much like the Star Soldier games, and features many of the same conventions, such as collecting power-ups to upgrade the player's weapons, and facing several bosses and minibosses as they progress through the game. The game also features the 2- and 5-minute high score time attack modes seen in previous games.
In parodying the hard sci-fi atmosphere of the Star Soldier games, Star Parodier takes a lighthearted approach by featuring cute, cartoonish graphics and toning down the violence (for example, defeated enemies wave white flags in surrender).[3] The players choose from three craft to play as in the game: the Paro Ceaser from Star Soldier, a giant flying Bomberman or an anthropomorphic PC Engine console that shoots HuCards and CD-ROMs at enemies.[4]