Parodius/YMMV
- Anticlimax Boss: Of course, as this is a parody of Gradius, the final boss in most games is incredibly easy compared to the levels right before it.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: Despite the oddness of the series, Parodius has one of the greatest soundtracks ever made in videogame history, all of which are remixes of either classical music, folk songs, one or two once-popular songs and of course, music from other Konami games, especially Gradius.
- Memetic Mutation: One boss song is used in the "Mayim Mayim" meme.
- Older Than They Think / Sequel Displacement: Most people forget about the very first game in the series, titled simply Parodius, which came out for MSX in 1988, thinking instead that Parodius DA! (1990) from the arcades was the first game. Though when you see it, it doesn't exactly have as much widget value as the rest of the series does. It also isn't nearly as good and can be a bit more difficult than the rest of the series.
- Porting Disaster: Parodius Portable is this for some, mostly due to some the music being replaced due to copyrights or possibly offending people.
- Scrappy Mechanic: The powerup roulette mode, which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the existence of the !?/OH! "powerup" on the power meter, which nullifies every powerup you have. Woe the players who raged when they hit that so-called "powerup"...
- Serial Numbers Filed Off: The gameplay and design are almost exactly like Gradius. But both are made by Konami, so it's hardly a ripoff.
- Surprise Difficulty: Again, just because they are cute does not make them easy.
- What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: This series is weird even after the Cute'Em Up design.