10 Video Games That Owned Themselves

In the mid-'80s, Konami, much like the rest of the video game industry, were sick as a whole potato farm of chips of space shooters, having released a slew of sci-fi shmops across the past decade, from Space Invaders clone Space King and Gyruss, to the scrolling Scramble and its defining sequel, Gradius. It was during the development of the latter title that Konami learned the background of every game needn't be black, leading to the release of the first so-called 'cute 'em up', TwinBee (adorably titled 'RainbowBell' in North America').

1988's Parodius - or, to give it its full title, Parodius: The Octopus Saves the Earth - was the next logical step. As the name suggests, Parodius was a direct parody of Gradius, and instead of tedious ships, the player commands characters from other Konami games, including Goemon and Knightmare's Popolon Knight. Bosses include a janken hand, a ghost with a drawn-on face, and a giant penguin. Meanwhile, instead of pulsating chiptunes, each stage is scored by musical masters comprising Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Bizet.

Sadly, Parodius never left Japanese shores, though that's understandable given it was crammed full of utterly incomprehensible, untranslatable cultural references.