Parodius^{[lower-alpha 1]} is a series of cute 'em ups developed and published by Konami. The games are tongue-in-cheek parodies of Gradius, and also feature characters from many other Konami franchises.^[1]

There are six games in the Parodius series. The last of them, Paro Wars, is a spin-off strategy game.^[2]

The only games released outside Japan are From Myth to Laughter and Fantastic Journey, which received European localizations. None of them were released in the Americas.^[3]

Parodius games have been ported to several different platforms, including arcade machines, mobile phones, and home consoles.

During the Konami Action & Shooting Contest hosted by the Shueisha Game Creator’s Camp and Tokyo Game Show 2022, Ooeshin Nichiro won the rights from Konami to develop the game through the competition, a game titled Parodius Reiwa Edition is in development.^[4]

In addition to the video games, a number of Parodius-themed pachinko mechanical games have been released in Japan:

• Little Pirates (1998)
• CR Parodius Da! EX (2000)
• CR Parodius Da! ZE (2000)
• CR Parodius Da! 2 (2000)
• CR Saikoro Chindōchū (2004)
• CR Gokujō Parodius! (2006)
• Gokuraku Parodius (2010)
• Gokuraku Parodius A (2010)

• Air Zonk and Super Air Zonk, colorful shooter games by Hudson Soft starring its mascot character
• Harmful Park, a PlayStation game inspired by Parodius
• Otomedius, another series of parody shooters by Konami
• Space Invaders '95, a cartoonish parody of Space Invaders
• Star Parodier, a game by Hudson Soft that follows a similar concept
• TwinBee, a cartoon-themed series of shooters by Konami