This week at the final boss were gonna talk about a game with box art that made me both pass-on it and want to play it, confused ? Well good ! As a kid I was ...
TwinBee is a vertical shooter or SHMUP as you should now be used to me saying. It was released in to the arcades by KONAMI in 1985 and shortly after it was ported to the Famicom. Unlike other SHMUPS of the Twinbee takes a humorous approach to the genre. The shortened version of the storyline is as follows...
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| Look at that art, odd no ? |
In 2081 the peaceful Island of Donburi (Japanese for rice bowl) is suddenly attacked by The Spice King and his vast Army. While in control of the island the Spice King takes five special objects from the realm and distributes them between his four generals and then splits the land into 5 portions controlled by him and the generals. All the while a strange scientist named Dr. Cinnamon who lives on the edge of the island is developing 2 Fighter Planes "Twinbee" and "Winbee". The Dr 's pupils Annamon and Donnamon bravely volunteer to pilot the ships and take on the the Spice Army. Got that ? Ok good!
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| Twin and Winbee |
So first off the ships are space jets with arms and boxing gloves on.... Yup I said boxing gloves. See this game was not released in the US but the sequel was and renamed Stinger and the box art always made me interested in it but scared to trust that such a silly looking game could be cool...kids... what did we know ? Now looking back I would tell my childhood self that you always trust the silver KONAMI box, its true this was a distinct sign of quality on the NES. Id like to mention the game has sound effects found in several other KONAMI games like GooniesII. Back to the game as you navigate the Twinbee through the stages "bells" will fall on screen and give you points when collected but if you shoot item a certain number of times then the bell gives certain power ups when collected. For instance shooting it 3 times turns it silver giving double shot, shooting till its blue gives a speed increase, several more makes it green which gives the Jet fighters a trailing mirror image with more shots, continuing shooting till its red bestows a barrier of protection around you. Keeping track of the number of times you shot them and where the bells are on screen is a good distraction to the swarms of enemy ships... did I say ships well not quite ships. The enemies in Twinbee are as unique as the rest of the game, ships are made up of food such as carrots strawberries and snow peas, on other levels its silverware and place settings seafood after that and more. You start with 3 lives but there are NO continues so after a few restarts you learn to live with out the finer things in life like Power Ups. The Jet Fighters also carry unlimited bombs which are require for a small portion of a stages inhabitants. The game is generous with its hit system by way of allowing the Twin and Winbee to take a grazing hit on the arms, but the ability to bomb below is lost when the arms are. The good news is when the arms are hit for the first time of a players life a ambulance flies on screen to connect with the Jet and do repairs, after this a item can be found to repair them. Every stage has a Boss fight, which can be won with just some careful steering and quick thumbs.
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| See would you have risked a Birthday purchase on this ? |
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| Blue Balls !! Bells Bells sorry |
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| They arent even ship like just big effing knives |
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| I will never eat bowls of rice again ..they took my arms !! |
The Final Boss !!! is the Spice King and he appears at the end of Stage Five like all the previous Bosses a safe spot on screen can usually be found within his pattern. The Bosses cant be hit till the stolen artifact that was bestowed upon them appears shortly after there arrival on screen. At the end of the fight the game actually continues (Boo!) to Stage 6. The Game doesnt quite start over , see from Stages 6 to 10 the Stages are new but the bosses start over from the beginning its like a bonus game. Its not till Stage 11 that the game really just starts over and this is where I stopped playing having no desire to play thorough the game twice despite how good it really is I look forward to playing the rest of the series soon.
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| strawberry ships |
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| Like a Boss !! |
Yup I said it I got a Wii U .... and its FU*KING DOPE !! Its everything Nintendo systems are ... Just Plain Fun !! My wife who is Fu*king Awesome got me a Deluxe Unit with games and extra controllers as a 10th Anniversary gift. Its a great present and I have no current desire to think about the other two companies coming systems. I just wanna say New Super Mario Bros U is what gaming is all about its 30 years full circle and I couldn't even imagine before now playing Nintendo's new system celebrating its 30th Anniversary of the Famicom and playing a new Mario ta boot. If you still haven't watched the Nintendo E3 Direct video I linked last time then go check it now.
The contest Winners have been contacted and Im sending out the prizes soon so check back for updates on what the prizes were (I don't want to ruin the surprise). And always check back for more games and contests. And be around to celebrate the Famicom's 30th on July 15th !!!
As Always Famiru !!
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