TwinBee 3: Poko Poko Dai Maou (NES, 1989)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-7 Challenge-6.5 Story-4
Level Design-7 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7*/? Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+
Air to air plus air to ground attacks
2-player co-op
Change the order of the first four levels in the options menu
Difficulty options (easy and hard modes)
Two different ships/characters (only cosmetic differences unfortunately)
Gun drones (2 which follow the main ship around)
Small sprites and less clutter makes it a bit easier to deal with power ups (the bells) and gameplay at the same time (than in the SNES or GB games)
Pretty good art direction (some bizarre enemies and bosses)
Temporary invincibility (found by destroying ground targets)
Catching your ghost after respawning restores your speed and gun drones (fire power loses one level)
Hit points (3)
Cute in-game animations after beating levels
+/-
Respawn on the spot (no bells given if in a boss fight can create some difficulty spikes)
Losing both arms (these work like extra HP) makes an arm power up appear regardless of where you are (makes it pretty easy to stay alive in most cases)
Fairly easy to rack up extra lives (easy mode)
No smart bombs or melee attacks
-
No continues (can at least start with 10 lives and you can gain a few more during gameplay)
No auto-fire
No manual speed adjustment (at least it doesn't reset your speed if picking up a blue bell while at full speed like in the SNES game, can regain your speed after dying if you grab your ghost/angel)
Bell system is still pretty distracting and annoying when your ship is slow
No weapon inventory and no alternate strong weapon to switch to
Fairly weak/unimpressive firepower when fully upgraded
Kinda short (five levels)
Bonus levels are just short regular levels with bells that only give points and no enemies
Easy final boss
Some slowdown and flicker
Bosses get less interesting mechanics-wise as the game goes on (the first ones have two phases)
Somewhat slow and unskippable post boss cutscenes
Some trial & error (mechanics, boss patterns)
A bit repetitive
Doesn't show your stats during boss fights (lives, speed, score)
Level Design-7 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7*/? Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+
Air to air plus air to ground attacks
2-player co-op
Change the order of the first four levels in the options menu
Difficulty options (easy and hard modes)
Two different ships/characters (only cosmetic differences unfortunately)
Gun drones (2 which follow the main ship around)
Small sprites and less clutter makes it a bit easier to deal with power ups (the bells) and gameplay at the same time (than in the SNES or GB games)
Pretty good art direction (some bizarre enemies and bosses)
Temporary invincibility (found by destroying ground targets)
Catching your ghost after respawning restores your speed and gun drones (fire power loses one level)
Hit points (3)
Cute in-game animations after beating levels
+/-
Respawn on the spot (no bells given if in a boss fight can create some difficulty spikes)
Losing both arms (these work like extra HP) makes an arm power up appear regardless of where you are (makes it pretty easy to stay alive in most cases)
Fairly easy to rack up extra lives (easy mode)
No smart bombs or melee attacks
-
No continues (can at least start with 10 lives and you can gain a few more during gameplay)
No auto-fire
No manual speed adjustment (at least it doesn't reset your speed if picking up a blue bell while at full speed like in the SNES game, can regain your speed after dying if you grab your ghost/angel)
Bell system is still pretty distracting and annoying when your ship is slow
No weapon inventory and no alternate strong weapon to switch to
Fairly weak/unimpressive firepower when fully upgraded
Kinda short (five levels)
Bonus levels are just short regular levels with bells that only give points and no enemies
Easy final boss
Some slowdown and flicker
Bosses get less interesting mechanics-wise as the game goes on (the first ones have two phases)
Somewhat slow and unskippable post boss cutscenes
Some trial & error (mechanics, boss patterns)
A bit repetitive
Doesn't show your stats during boss fights (lives, speed, score)