Pop'n TwinBee is very cute. Unlike Parodius, Harmful Park and all that ilk, the priority seems to be on bright, appealing presentation over filling a shooter with a bunch of mad shit. It's a really pretty little game, and a very fitting mid-transition point in Konami's history between their cartoon licences and Tokimeki Memorial. It's from the era when 2-player co-ops were really targetted at couples, and they wanted to make something that would appeal to girls more than Contra and Commando.
I'm not a big vertical shooter guy, but there's a lot of shared lineage with personal favourite, Parodius. The series staple of juggling bells until they turn the desired colour is straight out of TwinBee. TwinBee's much more restrained and less funny, though. There's not a lot to laugh at, though shooting a procession of parading babies is pretty good. Cuteness is the focus, and the little animated interstitials between levels are especially nice. Like the animations they'd play at either side of the ads in early 90s anime. The vintage is definitely part of the charm.
The game plays a little like Xevious, with the ability to both shoot in front of you, and bomb targets on the ground. Pop'n seems to forget about this for long stretches, though charitable players might suggest this adds to the game's sense of variety. There's stackable power-ups, including clones of your ship, much like the "Option" from Gradius. It's got enough going on to keep you interested.
The biggest knock against the game are the few duff levels. One has you flying over an airship, targetting turrets with bombs. It seems to go on forever, as you fly aside it, without much change to the background. There's no real checkpoint system either, and if you die on the boss after a level that might have gone on for ten minutes, you'll have to go right back to the start to try it again. I didn't actually finish the game, because I died twice on the last boss, so I just turned my SNES off and watched the explosion on YouTube.
Pop'n TwinBee is available on Nintendo Switch Online, and I'd recommend that anyone interested try it there, as the ability to make your own saves could really be a godsend for some of the longer levels. It is a game that looks really great on a CRT, though. There's some really nice waving and transparency effects on the underwater level that I don't think can be captured nearly as well on a modern display. That old Konami vibrance really shines here. A nice summer evening, drinking beer and playing the SNES.
I'm not a big vertical shooter guy, but there's a lot of shared lineage with personal favourite, Parodius. The series staple of juggling bells until they turn the desired colour is straight out of TwinBee. TwinBee's much more restrained and less funny, though. There's not a lot to laugh at, though shooting a procession of parading babies is pretty good. Cuteness is the focus, and the little animated interstitials between levels are especially nice. Like the animations they'd play at either side of the ads in early 90s anime. The vintage is definitely part of the charm.
The game plays a little like Xevious, with the ability to both shoot in front of you, and bomb targets on the ground. Pop'n seems to forget about this for long stretches, though charitable players might suggest this adds to the game's sense of variety. There's stackable power-ups, including clones of your ship, much like the "Option" from Gradius. It's got enough going on to keep you interested.
The biggest knock against the game are the few duff levels. One has you flying over an airship, targetting turrets with bombs. It seems to go on forever, as you fly aside it, without much change to the background. There's no real checkpoint system either, and if you die on the boss after a level that might have gone on for ten minutes, you'll have to go right back to the start to try it again. I didn't actually finish the game, because I died twice on the last boss, so I just turned my SNES off and watched the explosion on YouTube.
Pop'n TwinBee is available on Nintendo Switch Online, and I'd recommend that anyone interested try it there, as the ability to make your own saves could really be a godsend for some of the longer levels. It is a game that looks really great on a CRT, though. There's some really nice waving and transparency effects on the underwater level that I don't think can be captured nearly as well on a modern display. That old Konami vibrance really shines here. A nice summer evening, drinking beer and playing the SNES.