39 years of Twinbee on the Famicom that many people remember

 

40 years has passed in the blink of an eye, especially in the gaming industry, where everything seems to have just happened recently (if you don’t believe me, go ask people who played old games). Especially games on the Famicom, which is one of the consoles that people from the 80s to 90s must have played many times. One of them is a shooting game that can be played by 2 people at the same time, which is still in the memories of many people up until now, like the game Twinbee, or in our country we call it the bell shooting game. And on January 4, 1985, it was the 39th anniversary of this game. Let’s go back in time and see the story of this game and what it was like. If you’re ready, let’s take a look together.

TwinBee, or TsuinBī, is a vertical shooter game from Konami that was released in Japan in 1985 for the arcades and later ported to the Famicom in 1986. TwinBee is widely regarded as the first prototype of the cute 'em up genre. The game features two players on-screen, each controlling a humanoid spaceship. Player 1 controls the TwinBee, the game's namesake spaceship, while Player 2 controls the WinBee. The controls consist of an 8-way joystick and two buttons: one for shooting enemies in the air and one for bombing enemies on the ground.

The highlight of this game is the power-up system, where players must shoot bells hidden in the clouds. If players continue to shoot bells, the bells will change to 4 other colors. The yellow bell is the normal color that will give normal bonus points. The white bell will upgrade the player's guns to double cannons. The blue bell will increase the player's speed. The green bell will help the player create copies of the ship's image to increase shooting power. And the red bell will create a shield for the player's ship, which helps the ship take more damage. The difficulty is here because if you shoot too much or don't hit, the bell will disappear or the color will change according to the shot.

The game has been very popular since the first part was released, with many sequels released, but in our country we are most familiar with the first part. And because of Twinbee's popularity, it was made into an anime called TwinBee WinBee ⅛ Panic and The Tulip Coast Story, and an OVA called TwinBee PARADISE, which made us know that the ship we control is a hand-arm ship, not a robot like many people think.

For the old generation, this game may be familiar from the collection cartridge, where most of the time when playing, we will compete for the bell rather than helping each other fight like the game should be. The game, if played alone, may be a bit tense, and the enemies will gradually increase in number and fly faster. It is a challenge that people of that era remember very well. For those who are interested in the Famicom version of Twinbee, it is also available on Nintendo Switch Online. Anyone who is interested can go find it and play it. As for the next time, what old games will there be, wait and see, because we will definitely bring interesting old games for you to read about continuously. So, stay tuned.