YOOOOOOOOO THIS IS WHERE TWINBEE TRULY STARTS! I played both the Arcade original and the PC engine port, and both are great. This game marks the debut of Light and Pastel, and while they do nothing in a gameplay sense, it's cool to finally see them after playing like 4 games where the ships are piloted by random space people. The visuals are the most colorful they have ever been and the gameplay is at its most polished. The difficulty is at a good level, as it's no longer an easy snoozefest like twinbee 3 and twinbee da were, yet also not so crushingly difficult that it's overwhelming. Though I will say the arcade version is noticeably harder than the PC engine version, which I felt had the best balance of difficulty. The games that preceded this are solid enough shmups, but this game really is the product of all those years of polish.

DETANA!!!!! twin bee is a very adorable arcade shoot-em-up. One which you could, perhaps, refer to as a "cute-em-up." You should not though. It's illegal. I will call the police on you and they will put you on a list of... undesirables.

I digress. DETANA!!!!! twin bee is pretty straight-forward as far as overhead shoot-em-ups go, but it's damn nice to look at. Another review compared the game to an OVA and honestly, I think that's a very appropriate comparison. The game really tries to maintain that sort of a style throughout and it does a damn good job of it. TwinBee is also top tier character design. A goofy looking bulbous ship with gigantic hands and a dang gun, what's not to love?

The power-up system is something you'll either love or hate. Shooting at bells changes their color which then corresponds to different power-ups. The only problem is this is a shoot-em-up and you should be shooting at all times, so you're bound to screw up and run right into power-ups you don't want at the least optimal time.

But the undeniable charm of this game makes it easy to look past things like that, and if you have access to a TurboGrafx (or more likely, an emulator) you should definitely give this game a shot. It's a fun little time waster.

I want to love it... It has great artwork, fun music, and some really creative boss battles. I just can't stand the power up system. Holding your fire to get the colored bell that you want feels shitty--often, you'll have to shoot anyway to avoid dying to an enemy, and then accidentally shoot the bell(s) and lose your power up, which is just soooo aggravating.

Additionally, It has pretty horrible Gradius syndrome (recovery after a death is far too difficult), ridiculous enemy behaviors that essentially require memorization or luck, and a hitbox that feels like it takes up a quarter of the screen.

And the bell dinging sounds, my god. For the love of all that is holy, enough with the dinging sounds.