Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius – Forever with Me is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up in Konami’s Parodius series, a comedic spin-off of the studio’s own Gradius shooters. It began life on the Super Famicom in 1995 as Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius, then was ported and expanded for the PlayStation (and Sega Saturn) in 1996 under this “Forever with Me” subtitle, released only in Japan. As its name suggests, its trademark is the “oshaberi” (chatty) commentary: a barrage of shouted Japanese voice samples, delivered like a game-show host’s play-by-play, layered over the usual Parodius mix of absurd enemies and colorful, parody-filled stages.
How to Play
The goal is to fly through each stage, dodging enemy fire and blasting waves of bizarre enemies and bosses. Defeated enemies drop capsules that fill a power-up gauge at the bottom of the screen; activating it lets you pick upgrades such as speed, missiles, lasers, and Options. Shooting the series’ signature floating bells changes their color, and grabbing one grants a temporary special effect. This PlayStation port also adds extra “Omake” bonus stages not found in the original Super Famicom release, plus an unlockable Dracula-kun (Kid Dracula) as a playable character. In the browser, the PlayStation controls map the D-pad to the arrow keys for movement, with Z and X used to shoot and activate power-ups. Enter acts as Start and Shift as Select.
Tips
- Each playable character has its own distinct power-up gauge layout, so switching characters changes which upgrade appears at which gauge stage.
- Don’t collect power-up capsules blindly â pause to activate the gauge at a stage that actually helps your current situation, rather than always rushing for max speed.
- Watch the color of a bell before grabbing it; shooting it first cycles its effect, so you can choose the temporary bonus you want instead of taking whatever color it spawned as.
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