Nice creativity and gorgeous graphics but not much easier than the game it parodies. It can be quite frustrating actually with many cheap traps.
Almost beaten it but there is a point at the last stage which respawns you with no powerups and the barrage of enemies are quite hard to deal with (those damn bees). I just said f it at that point.
Parodius overall is still a good game but has too many frustrating elements which are keeping it down for me.