After taking a break from the series for quite some time, I had made my return to TwinBee through the second game, Stinger, and as a whole, I thought it was good, but nothing more than that. Since I was so new to shmups back when I reviewed the original TwinBee, I ended up liking that game a whole lot, but now that this genre is part of my DNA, I could see that this game, while still being solid enough for shmup fanatics to have a good time with, isn’t really doing anything too new or crazy not just for the genre, but also for the TwinBee series, aside from turning the screen to a different angle for some stages. Despite that though, I guess the game was successful enough to where it would see a sequel after a 2-year hiatus, and unlike the last two, we wouldn’t end up getting this game over in Western territories, which means they can get as weird as they want to with this next entry, which is perfect for this series. Japan would eventually get this next entry in the form of TwinBee 3: Poko Poko Daimao, or as the English translation calls it, TwinBee 3: The Terror Trunk.

I wasn’t expecting too much when I went into this game, as based on what I was seeing, I had a good feeling about what I was getting into. Since this was released exclusively for the Famicom once again (and I guess for the I-revo too, but let’s be real, what the fuck is an I-revo), it probably wasn’t gonna do that much to change up the gameplay, and was just gonna be another good round of TwinBee goodness for big fans of the franchise. One quick playthrough later, my theory was then proved correct, as the game does make some slight changes to the formula that had been established before in the first game and Stinger, but for the most part, what you see is what you get here. Nevertheless, it was still another solid entry in the TwinBee series, and ones that fans of the series and shmup fanatics in general could get enough out of for how short it is.

The story is very simple here, where one day, GwinBee was out running an errand and presumably enjoying life, when suddenly, he is kidnapped by the evil Poko Poko, and imprisoned in a far away land, so it is up to GwinBee’s older siblings, TwinBee and WinBee, to step up to the plate and take down Poko Poko once and for all, which is not only a very relatable plot (don’t ask), but it is one that is likable enough to get you out there shooting down ships….. even if the plot is never explained in the actual game, but eh, who cares. The graphics are pretty much the same as Stinger for the most part, although the sprites for TwinBee and the others have seen some improvements, and the bosses in particular have fantastically weird designs, so it all looks pretty good, the music is good, having plenty of standard sounding tunes that you would typically find in any NES/Famicom game, but none of the tracks stand out as memorable, and the gameplay/control is pretty much unchanged from that of the previous games, which makes sense given what kind of series this is, and it still ends up being fun enough regardless.

The game is a vertical shmup, where you take control of either TwinBee or WinBee, go through a set of five stages that take you through many fantastical generic worlds, shoot down everything that you see using either your standard shot or by throwing bombs onto the ground, gather plenty of different power-ups by gathering bells and shooting them up to get the specific power-up that you oh so desire, and take on several bosses that will definitely weird you out way more than any of the standard enemies will, but will also be fairly easy if you have the right tools in order to take them on with. It is a third serving of good ol’ TwinBee goodness, taking what had been done in previous games and slightly enhancing them to where I would say this is the best in the series, if not by that much at all.

Unfortunately, this game returns to the strictly vertical style that it had in the original TwinBee, getting rid of the horizontal stages that were seen in Stinger, which I would be more upset about, but given how there were barely any stages like that in the previous game, I didn’t mind it all too much. What you need to be focusing on instead is the main gameplay, which, while remaining mostly the same as the previous two games, does add some new features that hadn’t been seen previously. The game as a whole is still a good amount of fun, shooting down plenty of these bad guys in the air and on the ground, doing your best to avoid any projectile coming towards you, and trying to get as many great power-ups as you can, such as the returning options and LASER that I love so much, and even new additions like the shield that will protect you from quite a few hits, which is REALLY helpful, especially against bosses. Additionally, there is also an options menu that you can check out before the main game, where you can adjust your difficulty, who you play as, how many lives you have, and even what stages you wanna tackle first. It doesn’t change the gameplay up too much as far as I know, but these options are very much appreciated, especially for newcomers who may not be so used to TwinBee or the shmup genre as a whole.

Aside from all that though, again, what you see is what you get with this game. Ya fly around, ya shoot and bomb stuff, ya get bells that will make you more powerful, ya combine power-ups together, and ya get terrified by this abomination that you have to fight at the end of the game. It is a very standard shmup experience, one that doesn’t offer too much change or variety throughout its stages, which I’m perfectly fine with, but others probably would get bored pretty quickly. What I am not fine with, on the other hand, is how short this game is as a whole, with there being only five stages as opposed to the previous two games, which had ten and seven stages respectively. Sure, neither of those games were that long either, but I just wonder why the number of stages keeps decreasing the further and further we go, giving us less game to enjoy here. Don’t worry though, because from what I’ve researched here, the next game in the series does make up for this by increasing the number of stages from five to……… six. Hey, better that then nothing, I guess.

Overall, despite a major lack of change and the shortened length compared to previous titles, TwinBee 3 is still yet another solid entry in this niche series of shmups that we have here, keeping the gameplay as solid and fun as before, giving you plenty of sweet power-ups to try out and keep ahold of, and plenty of weird things to see before you eventually beat the game. I would recommend it for those who were big fans of the previous two games, as well as those who are big shmup fanatics in general, because it is a decent way to kill a half-hour or so, and you will most likely have a good amount of fun doing it. So now, if you excuse me, I am gonna go try to find out how the hell TwinBee and his siblings are living creatures, and how ship people can have siblings and families. See you all next time!

Game #621