Angel_Arle Twinbee reviews
Bonus: Twinbee for Famicom
Part 2: Moero TwinBee: Cinnamon Hakase o Sukue! for FDS
Part 3: TwinBee 3: Poko Poko Daimaō for Famicom
Part 4: TwinBee Da!! for GB
It’s the start of another series of reviews (along with a couple of others you’ll see this month). Here’s the Twinbee series, an iconic series by Konami but was mostly only known in Japan due to most of the games never getting a US release. Known for its cutesy art style and plenty of memorable characters in the later entries. Twinbee is one of those shmup series I wish got more recognition over here and while it’s gotten more over the years, I thought to play most of the games in the series to give it some love. So it’s about time I start and talk about the first game made for Arcades!
Twinbee doesn’t really have much of a plot here, not even an intro so I’m just going to have to follow the most trustworthy site ever made, the Twinbee Wiki! Hmm so this game has a villain named King Spice as he travels through a vast array of space, he finds a place called Donburi Island and invades it. The land was then divided into 5 and were shared by his generals to make sure no one could defeat them. Unbeknownst to the King, a Doctor by the name of Doctor Cinnamon was building two airship fighters named Twinbee and Winbee. They would be piloted by his two sons, Annamon and Donnamon as it’s up to them to save the Island. Now despite what I just said, this seems to have never been what the plot was in the first place. In fact those pilots I named off weren’t even mentioned to have existed until a radio drama called Twinbee Paradise. Back then it was basically two ships named Twinbee and Winbee so I will just be using those names for now.
So, have you ever played Xevious? It was a popular Arcade game by Namco. Many games at the time tried to be like it and to no surprise Twinbee does borrow ideas from it. It’s a vertical shmup as you go through 5 stages (though technically 10). You can shoot with one button and throw bombs down to the ground below you with the other. You want to shoot the enemies flying around while bombing enemies at the ground. Bombing them also can give out bonus points from apples and peaches. They can also drop a star that destroys any enemy on screen. There’s also a bell item that can give you a multi shot but god I could not find this thing ever in my playthrough. I even tried looking at longplays and I saw one get it after a full loop of the game. Apparently if you get another you’re supposed to get a baseball but I surely won’t ever get it which is a shame. If there’s an easier way to get it then I don’t know how.
What makes Twinbee popular outside of its presentation is the co-op! You see, I mentioned two airship fighters and they don’t take turns playing. Co-op is what you want to do if you have the chance to do so as you not only fight on each level together to defeat enemies and bosses but you even have an exclusive attack. Join together by touching each other's ships to perform powerful attacks that Twinbee/Winbee could never do alone! Just be careful as this can make you an easy target so try to keep in mind your safety as staying alive is more important. Though don’t feel too sad if you can’t play with a friend as being alone won’t make the game not fun for you. Please keep in mind that despite the different appearances, Twinbee and Winbee play identical so no fighting over who gets who you got that?
Well with a fun shmup, obviously you’ll need some power ups right? Well Twinbee has you covered, albeit in a very controversial mechanic. Here we have bells! Hit a cloud and a bell could pop out that is yellow. Collecting it will get you points which may not seem anything special outside of getting you bonus lives for getting enough points. Try hitting the bell and it’ll bounce up and eventually it’ll change color. Collect it and you’ll get a power up! The blue bell gives you a speed boost and goes up to 5 different levels of speed. Try not to collect too many as you’ll lose control like crazy if you grab too many. The white bell will upgrade your shot to a twin cannon giving you more firepower. The green bell will add shadow versions of Twinbee/Winbee that will let you throw even more bombs and shots at a time. They also drag a little behind you though they’ll stay in the same place you are if you stand still. The red bell gives you a barrier that protects you from many hits and is good if you aren’t too good at dodging yet but it is the hardest one to obtain. Keep in mind you can’t grab a green bell and then a red bell probably for balance reasons. If you’re skilled though, try to spawn a red and green bell and collect them both before they go off screen and you get the benefit of both. I’m not sure if it was ever intentional though.
So just because the stages are colorful and nice and even enemies with a food theme, the game won’t let you win so easily. Twinbee/Winbee can only take one hit before death like many shmups. You can take two hits but it comes at a cost, you’ll lose your arms meaning you lose the ability to bomb. Even losing one arm can be bad as it worsens your rate of fire for bombs. Don’t fret though because if you lose both, the ambulance will come in to repair your arms but just don’t hope for more medical insurance because it’ll come once per life. This game also suffers from what many other shmups have where if you die late in the game, you might as well just give up because it’s very hard to recover. You start off very slow and have very poor shots and considering how powerups work, you will not get them fast enough.
In fact let’s just get this over with, this game is hard as hell. I think I’d have an easier time playing Gradius, that’s how hard this feels to me. Enemies and bullets get insane by the 2nd half of the game. Which is crazy considering none of the bosses are even close to being challenging. You don’t even have continues though with how it feels impossible to recover anyway, it’s probably for the better. You’d think they would be hard considering the little wait with the music or siren playing before the boss shows up but they go down very quickly making me wonder how any of them got anywhere in life. Though to be fair, they do feel almost impossible if you don’t have power ups but that’s like everything in this game. Even King Spice himself isn’t too hard.
So once you beat him you think the game is over but you do technically have another 5 stages that are similar but focus on a different set of enemies and are very challenging. The bosses however will stay the same. Personally, by this point it does get a bit tiring for me despite Twinbee’s low playtime. In fact I think Twinbee, while a good game in many ways even from a historical standpoint, just isn’t all that fun for me. It’s a weird feeling as I like it, I think it has good ideas but maybe it’s just because of later games in the series but I just can’t see myself ever wanting to go back to this one. Even the aesthetic of it, while pretty for 1985, can be a bit samey feeling at times and there isn’t much music to enjoy either but what it is here is pretty nice. It’s hard to explain but I really like how the music sounds in this, I’m not sure what Konami was using but I like it a lot! There’s even some voice but not very much of it.
Twinbee is a good start to a series that would do so much more after this title, while my score might be a bit harsh, it’s impressive something like this still is fun and packs charm. It’s a shame Twinbee never made it to the states because I could have seen it being successful but maybe America was too boring for fun colorful shmups. Though it should be noted it would eventually see a port on the DS in a collection called Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits by M2. Oddly though it’s called Rainbow Bell in that collection which confuses me. Why even bother with a name change? Though nowadays you can play it on Switch and PS4 and as for most Arcade Archives releases, it’s perfect for anyone wanting to play Twinbee. If you want to see how the series started off then give the first game a try, you might like it!
Bonus: Twinbee for Famicom
Part 2: Moero TwinBee: Cinnamon Hakase o Sukue! for FDS
Part 3: TwinBee 3: Poko Poko Daimaō for Famicom
Part 4: TwinBee Da!! for GB
It’s the start of another series of reviews (along with a couple of others you’ll see this month). Here’s the Twinbee series, an iconic series by Konami but was mostly only known in Japan due to most of the games never getting a US release. Known for its cutesy art style and plenty of memorable characters in the later entries. Twinbee is one of those shmup series I wish got more recognition over here and while it’s gotten more over the years, I thought to play most of the games in the series to give it some love. So it’s about time I start and talk about the first game made for Arcades!
Twinbee doesn’t really have much of a plot here, not even an intro so I’m just going to have to follow the most trustworthy site ever made, the Twinbee Wiki! Hmm so this game has a villain named King Spice as he travels through a vast array of space, he finds a place called Donburi Island and invades it. The land was then divided into 5 and were shared by his generals to make sure no one could defeat them. Unbeknownst to the King, a Doctor by the name of Doctor Cinnamon was building two airship fighters named Twinbee and Winbee. They would be piloted by his two sons, Annamon and Donnamon as it’s up to them to save the Island. Now despite what I just said, this seems to have never been what the plot was in the first place. In fact those pilots I named off weren’t even mentioned to have existed until a radio drama called Twinbee Paradise. Back then it was basically two ships named Twinbee and Winbee so I will just be using those names for now.
So, have you ever played Xevious? It was a popular Arcade game by Namco. Many games at the time tried to be like it and to no surprise Twinbee does borrow ideas from it. It’s a vertical shmup as you go through 5 stages (though technically 10). You can shoot with one button and throw bombs down to the ground below you with the other. You want to shoot the enemies flying around while bombing enemies at the ground. Bombing them also can give out bonus points from apples and peaches. They can also drop a star that destroys any enemy on screen. There’s also a bell item that can give you a multi shot but god I could not find this thing ever in my playthrough. I even tried looking at longplays and I saw one get it after a full loop of the game. Apparently if you get another you’re supposed to get a baseball but I surely won’t ever get it which is a shame. If there’s an easier way to get it then I don’t know how.
What makes Twinbee popular outside of its presentation is the co-op! You see, I mentioned two airship fighters and they don’t take turns playing. Co-op is what you want to do if you have the chance to do so as you not only fight on each level together to defeat enemies and bosses but you even have an exclusive attack. Join together by touching each other's ships to perform powerful attacks that Twinbee/Winbee could never do alone! Just be careful as this can make you an easy target so try to keep in mind your safety as staying alive is more important. Though don’t feel too sad if you can’t play with a friend as being alone won’t make the game not fun for you. Please keep in mind that despite the different appearances, Twinbee and Winbee play identical so no fighting over who gets who you got that?
Well with a fun shmup, obviously you’ll need some power ups right? Well Twinbee has you covered, albeit in a very controversial mechanic. Here we have bells! Hit a cloud and a bell could pop out that is yellow. Collecting it will get you points which may not seem anything special outside of getting you bonus lives for getting enough points. Try hitting the bell and it’ll bounce up and eventually it’ll change color. Collect it and you’ll get a power up! The blue bell gives you a speed boost and goes up to 5 different levels of speed. Try not to collect too many as you’ll lose control like crazy if you grab too many. The white bell will upgrade your shot to a twin cannon giving you more firepower. The green bell will add shadow versions of Twinbee/Winbee that will let you throw even more bombs and shots at a time. They also drag a little behind you though they’ll stay in the same place you are if you stand still. The red bell gives you a barrier that protects you from many hits and is good if you aren’t too good at dodging yet but it is the hardest one to obtain. Keep in mind you can’t grab a green bell and then a red bell probably for balance reasons. If you’re skilled though, try to spawn a red and green bell and collect them both before they go off screen and you get the benefit of both. I’m not sure if it was ever intentional though.
So just because the stages are colorful and nice and even enemies with a food theme, the game won’t let you win so easily. Twinbee/Winbee can only take one hit before death like many shmups. You can take two hits but it comes at a cost, you’ll lose your arms meaning you lose the ability to bomb. Even losing one arm can be bad as it worsens your rate of fire for bombs. Don’t fret though because if you lose both, the ambulance will come in to repair your arms but just don’t hope for more medical insurance because it’ll come once per life. This game also suffers from what many other shmups have where if you die late in the game, you might as well just give up because it’s very hard to recover. You start off very slow and have very poor shots and considering how powerups work, you will not get them fast enough.
In fact let’s just get this over with, this game is hard as hell. I think I’d have an easier time playing Gradius, that’s how hard this feels to me. Enemies and bullets get insane by the 2nd half of the game. Which is crazy considering none of the bosses are even close to being challenging. You don’t even have continues though with how it feels impossible to recover anyway, it’s probably for the better. You’d think they would be hard considering the little wait with the music or siren playing before the boss shows up but they go down very quickly making me wonder how any of them got anywhere in life. Though to be fair, they do feel almost impossible if you don’t have power ups but that’s like everything in this game. Even King Spice himself isn’t too hard.
So once you beat him you think the game is over but you do technically have another 5 stages that are similar but focus on a different set of enemies and are very challenging. The bosses however will stay the same. Personally, by this point it does get a bit tiring for me despite Twinbee’s low playtime. In fact I think Twinbee, while a good game in many ways even from a historical standpoint, just isn’t all that fun for me. It’s a weird feeling as I like it, I think it has good ideas but maybe it’s just because of later games in the series but I just can’t see myself ever wanting to go back to this one. Even the aesthetic of it, while pretty for 1985, can be a bit samey feeling at times and there isn’t much music to enjoy either but what it is here is pretty nice. It’s hard to explain but I really like how the music sounds in this, I’m not sure what Konami was using but I like it a lot! There’s even some voice but not very much of it.
Twinbee is a good start to a series that would do so much more after this title, while my score might be a bit harsh, it’s impressive something like this still is fun and packs charm. It’s a shame Twinbee never made it to the states because I could have seen it being successful but maybe America was too boring for fun colorful shmups. Though it should be noted it would eventually see a port on the DS in a collection called Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits by M2. Oddly though it’s called Rainbow Bell in that collection which confuses me. Why even bother with a name change? Though nowadays you can play it on Switch and PS4 and as for most Arcade Archives releases, it’s perfect for anyone wanting to play Twinbee. If you want to see how the series started off then give the first game a try, you might like it!