Star Parodier

Cover

***Star Parodier*** (スターパロジャー lit. *Sutā Parojā*) is a vertical-scrolling shooter developed by Kaneko and published by Hudson Soft, released on April 24, 1992 for the PC-Engine Super CD2. It is a parody-based spin-off of the *Star Soldier* series in the vein of Konami's *Parodius* games, and is the second spin-off title in the series after *Hector '87*. The player takes control of one of three characters - the “Paro Caesar”, Bomberman and an anthropomorphic PC Engine console - and must make it to the end of each stage while destroying enemies and collecting items.

The Japanese title is known as *Star Paroja*, a play on the pronunciation of *Soldier* ("Soruja") in Japanese - online sources would retitle it as *Star Parodier* to match the ending of “Soldier”. An English version of the game, titled *Fantasy Star Soldier*, was planned for released on the TurboGrafx-16 CD, but these plans were soon cancelled. A PSP port of the game, included in the compilation title *Soldier Collection*, was released in 2008, as was a Wii Virtual Console port - however this port would be delisted in March 2014. The game was also included in the list of games available for the PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini in March 19, 2020, available in all regions.

## Story

A vast, infinite universe.

A world full of silence.

On it, a full variety of life.

A dying star, a coming star. The breath of the universe that is received from life to life never ends forever. The battle between Mother Brain and Neo Caesar was nothing more than a chaos in the expanse of the infinite space.

And time has flowed...

"Emergency occurrence, emergency occurrence!"

A communication about the crisis on the planet Paroson reaches the Earth Guard Corps's Kagura Saka branch. Tension runs on Bomberman's face.

"Everybody is ready to be dispatched!"

Three aircraft are deployed by the Kagura Saka Branch of the Earth Guard Corps. When the guns are attached to the Paro Caesar, the Bomberman is equipped with the Crash Bomb, and the PC Engine is equipped with the Hu-Card, the mission preparation is completed. The three planes that hold the key to the fate of the planet Paroson finally take off.

## Gameplay

*Star Parodier* is a vertical-scrolling shooter and a parody of the *Star Soldier* series. The player can select one of three different characters - the “Paro Caesar”, based on the ship from *Super Star Soldier*, a Bomberman mecha, and an anthropomorphic PC-Engine system - and must make it to the end of the game’s six stages while defeating enemies and avoiding projectiles. Each character has different weapon loadouts that will alter both the difficulty and strength of the player’s shots, as well as having different cosmetic changes - the Paro Caesar will fire basic shots, the Bomberman will fire large explosives, and the PC-Engine will fire PC-Engine controllers and CDs. These characters will also affect the sprites of items - the Paro Caesar will have standard *Super Star Soldier*-esc item icons, the Bomberman will have power-ups emblems from his respective series, and the PC-Engine will have colored Hu-Cards.

## Development

*Star Parodier* was released on April 24, 1992 for the PC-Engine Super CD-ROM2. It was outsourced to Japanese developer Kaneko, known for games such as *Air Buster* and the *Gals Panic* series, instead of being developed in-house by Hudson - although they would still publish the game. The actual title for the game is *Star Paroja*, which is based on the pronunciation of *Star Soldier* in Japanese - known as “Suta Soruja”. Online English databases would refer to the game as *Star Parodier* in order to mimic the ending verb for *Soldier* games - these would also lead to a number of sources referring the game to just *Star Parody*.

An English-translated version of the game, known as *Fantasy Star Soldier*, was intended to be released in 1992 for the TurboGrafx-16 CD in North America; likely due to the commercial failure of the add-on and the system itself outside Japan, this was never released, however a ROM for the game has since been found and uploaded online.

## Legacy

*Star Parodier* was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2008, included in the Japan-only compilation *Soldier Collection*, alongside *Super Star Soldier*, *Final Soldier* and *Soldier Blade*. That same year, a Wii Virtual Console version was released worldwide, being the first official release for the game outside Japan. Alongside other Hudson games, *Star Parodier* was soon delisted from the store in March 2014.

## Stages and Bosses

***Note:** Names in italics are unofficial.*

### Enemies

* Dharma
* Trump
* Mummy
* Skeleton
* Chicken

## References

1. ↑ http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HTML\_Games/Star\_Parodier.htm
2. ↑ http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HTML\_Games/Star\_Parodier.htm
3. ↑ http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HTML\_Games/Star\_Parodier.htm
4. ↑ http://hiddenpalace.org/Fantasy\_Star\_Soldier\_(Localization\_prototype)
5. ↑ http://www.racketboy.com/retro/the-psp-retro-compilation-library
6. ↑ http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/star\_parodier\_removed\_from\_the\_wii\_virtual\_console\_in\_north\_america