Game: Flying Hamster

Parodying a game genre is nothing new. However, there are an awful lot of bad parodies out there - particularly those that try too hard. One of the best examples of a good parody was Parodius, a parody of a seminal space shooter called Gradius (parody + Gradius = Parodius). And while Flying Hamster isn't built directly on the backs of other games, it does beautifully parody Japanese shoot-em-ups. It also happens to be a blast to play.