Parodius - the penguin loving PAROdy of graDIUS (geddit?) which has by now spawned several sequels. It's in the same spirit as Twinbee, only rather more anarchic and interested in poking fun at Konami's other franchises. Parodius has also got quite a bit of Twinbee content, which is of course what we're interested in, so here's the rundown.

Parodius: Nonsense Fantasy - the original game sets the template for the rest of the series, so these comments apply equally to its sequel Parodius 2: Fantastic Journey. Most importantly, Twinbee is one of the several characters you can choose to play as. In the first game, he's a kind of odd purple colour, which isn't quite right, but later he regains his natural blue. Lots of traditional power-ups are on offer - 3 way shot, wingbees, a bubble forcefield and big punching gloves. To be honest Twinbee probably gets a more comprehensive set of weapons here than in any of his own games. There are also coloured bells kicking around which change type when you shoot them, and give out different enhancements - sound familiar? In Fantastic Journey, he gets his own Twinbee-esque theme tune which plays at the start of each level. For the first two games though, that's probably about it...I think I saw Cinnamon on the SNES version of Parodius (at the end of the Omake / Lollipop bonus stage), but I may have been mistaken.

Parodius 3 - aka Chatting Parodius (because of a loud Japanese man who shouts throughout the game), aka Parodius: Forever with You - this is the supreme Twinbee cameo experience of all time! Both Twinbee and Winbee are playable, as you'd expect. But better still, there's an entire Twinbee themed level...it's kind of got a Yahho! feel to it as well, with all the castles and playing cards. There's plenty of familiar stuff to see, especially if you're playing the Saturn version (the SNES has stuff cut out, unfortunately). Rasberries, evil bees, Mardock & Madoka, and rock carvings of the three pilots. At the end, Warumon's battleship turns up (though on the SNES, he's been replaced by penguins) and you have to fight the Evil Clone - survive that and you'll face the ultimate nightmare...(see for yourself). The Evil Bee clone also makes a comeback on level 7 of the SNES version, but not on the Saturn port which opts for a Taisen Puzzle Dama stage instead.

And that's pretty much it, unfortunately. The fourth installment, Sexy Parodius drops Twinbee & Winbee altogether - fortunately Ace and his red ship from Twinbee Yahho! are playable instead, which is almost as good. He gets a nice Yahho! backing tune as well. Whether there'll be any more Parodius games, and whether Twinbee would appear in them anyway, I don't know.

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