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Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventure
Super Nintendo (SNES)
BestBee
4.5/5 stars
“Pop’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventure” (“RBA”) is a 1994 2D Platforming spinoff from the popular-in-Japan ‘TwinBee’ SHMUP franchise by Konami. Unfortunately for those of us on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Japan never localized very many of the ‘TwinBee’ games, with “Stinger” (a renamed “TwinBee 2: Moero TwinBee”) as the sole exception. A couple of these games did, however, make it to Europe, including “Pop’n TwinBee.” “RBA” was another one of the ‘TwinBee’ games that made a European journey, but unlike the SHMUP “Pop’n TwinBee,” “RBA” didn’t survive the journey unscathed, with some noticeable downgrades that stop short of ‘butchery,’ but nevertheless make the English version a less in-depth experience. Thankfully, Fanslators saved the day again, providing an English patch for the original Japanese version of “RBA.”
Presentation
“RBA” is a fairly typical ‘TwinBee’ title in the looks department. The sprites are big, bright, and frequently pastel colored. There are plenty of layers of parallax scrolling and fancy effects. It’s just a sharp, clean-looking 16-bit game. Character designs are very anime and very kawaii, so those who become ill at the sight of things Japanese people consider ‘cute’ might get less enjoyment out of the game’s visuals.
“RBA” features a pleasant soundtrack of fairly nondescript tunes. While there are plenty of opportunities to hear a new song or jingle in “RBA,” none of them have the earworm quality as the soundtrack from, say, “Super Mario World.” Sound effects are well done, and include a number of good-quality digitized voice samples for the Bee craft themselves.
Story
If you play the European version of “RBA,” you’ll experience a kinda-Engrish opening spiel about how a set of mystical Rainbow Bells keep peace in the universe and that the warmaking of the spacemen led by Dr. Warmon (great subtlety there…) has caused the bells, and therefore the Princess of the Universe, to fade away. TwinBee, Winbee, and Gwinbee – three anthropomorphic chibi mechs must put a stop to Warmon’s ambitions, with the help of their elderly mentor, Dr. Shinamon.
Okay.
If you play the Fanslated Japanese version, however, there is no Engrish to be found, Warmon is called Woodman, and Shinamon is called Cinnamon. Plus nearly every stage on the map features some expository banter between Light (TwinBee’s pilot, a 16-year-old boy), Pastel (WinBee’s pilot, a 14-year-old girl), Mint (GwinBee’s pilot… who is an actual 1 year old fetus), and Dr. Cinnamon about what they might encounter in each stage. Dr. Woodman even comes on the radio to gloat and taunt before each boss stage.
With all of this text and dialog removed from the European version, the game doesn’t really make much sense from a narrative perspective. With it, though, “RBA” has one of the best narratives I’ve ever seen in a 16-bit platformer. We actually learn about the characters, their personalities, and their universe. Sure, the villain is a bit one-dimensional, and the history of the Bees is glossed over (probably presuming anyone playing “RBA” would have also played every ‘TwinBee’ SHMUP in Japanese and picked up the backstory that way), but I enjoyed the narrative quite a bit, and the game experience suffers without it.
Gameplay
“RBA” is a rather interesting 2D Platformer that takes obvious inspiration from Sega’s ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ as well as Konami’s own “Rocket Knight Adventures,” with a dash of “Super Mario World” thrown-in for good measure. All of these inspirations add-up to a game that feels wholly unique.
From ‘Sonic,’ “RBA” takes the ability to run really fast, grabbing power-ups (which, naturally for a ‘TwinBee’ game, take the form of colored bells), and trying to hit the stage goal in an arbitrary (and usually incredibly short) amount of time. These goal times are, thankfully, optional, and don’t really seem to have much of an effect on anything. The player will never be unceremoniously killed off in “RBA” for dawdling too long in a stage.
From “Rocket Knight Adventures,” “RBA” takes the ability to charge up punches and jumps in order to launch projectiles or the Bee’s body through the air, bouncing off angled walls in the process.
From “Super Mario World,” “RBA” takes a world map and a large number of secrets in each stage, including a number of hidden keys and fairies to find, and many stages with multiple goals, where each goal exits to a different stage on the map. Unfortunately, the European version of “RBA” lost almost all of this inspiration, transforming the world map into a simple, linear spiral and removing all extra goals from the stages (the collectables are still in, though).
The player(s) (yes, “RBA” supports 2-player simultaneous coop!) can choose between TwinBee, WinBee, or GwinBee upon starting the game. Players can switch characters if they die, or by resetting the console and reloading the save. Yes! “RBA” has over 30 stages and includes battery-backup autosaving (the Japanese version has four save slots, while the European version only has one). TwinBee is a generic all-rounder character with a mallet for a weapon. WinBee has a much slower charge time for punching but a much faster charge time for rocket jumping, which makes her fast but somewhat difficult to control - she wields a whip with more range than the mallet. GwinBee is the inverse of WinBee, with a much faster punch charge time and a much slower rocket jump charge time, making him ideal for tackling bosses that require strong hits but not as much mobility (read: all of them) - he... throws rattles, which have more range than both the mallet and whip.
“RBA” features a return of all the classic bell-based power-ups from the SHMUP branch of the franchise. These range from a laser pistol to activating each Bee’s special weapon, to ‘Gradius’-style Option drones that follow the player and deflect sneaky backstab attempts by enemies, to temporary invincibility. Taking a hit causes the player’s Bee to drop all of their bells, but, like ‘Sonic,’ the player can scramble to recapture at least a few of them. Bells drop from slain enemies, and are usually pretty easy to come by. Unlike in ‘Sonic’ games, though, bells don’t serve as the player’s only buffer against death. In fact, bells don’t have diddly squat to do with keeping the player’s Bee’s three hearts intact. If a Bee takes three hits, they’re done and need to start the stage over (there are no mid-stage checkpoints), but thankfully the continues are unlimited, and any hidden goodies (specifically keys and fairies, which have an effect on which ending the player sees) stay collected even if the player Bee dies before completing the stage in which they were collected. In order to restore hearts, players need to seek out rare heart powerups, or collect a certain number of non-colored bells, which litter the stages like coins in any ‘Mario’ game or rings in any ‘Sonic’ game.
In general, the controls are very responsive and the stages are fairly large and complex. Tracking down all of the secrets to get the best ending will definitely add a lot of replay value for completionists, while the base game itself is long enough that only the most dedicated will be able to complete it in a single marathon session. Most important of all, though, is that “RBA” is fun and completely lacking in arbitrary penalties that tended to drag down nearly every 8-bit platformer and plenty of 16-bit ones too.
Overall
Regardless of whether you play the Fanslated Japanese version of the game or the official European translation, “Pop’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventure” is a fantastic 2D Platformer that lives on as one of the true hidden treasures of the SNES. While I’d go so far as to dock the European version a half-star, if that’s the only version you can get your hands on, it’s still well worth the time for fans of quality Platforming. This is definitely my favorite ‘TwinBee’ game, even though (because) it’s not a SHMUP.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
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