TwinBee (series)

TwinBee
Genres Scrolling shooter
Developers Konami
Publishers Konami
Platforms Arcade, NES, MSX, SNES, Game Boy, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PlayStation Portable, PC Engine, Sharp X68000, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, mobile phones, i-Revo, iPhone OS, Android, Wii, 3DS and Wii U's Virtual Console, PC (EGG Project).
First release TwinBee
March 5, 1985
Latest release Line GoGo! TwinBee
May 20, 2013

TwinBee (ツインビー) is a video game series composed primarily of cartoon-themed vertical-scrolling shoot-'em-up games produced by Konami that were released primarily in Japan. The series originated as a coin-operated video game simply titled TwinBee in 1985, which was followed by several home versions and sequels. The character designs of almost every game in the series since Detana!! TwinBee in 1991 were provided by Japanese animator Shuzilow HA (Jujiro Hamakawa), who also planned and supervised most of the subsequent installments in the TwinBee series.[1] The series also inspired a radio drama adaptation that lasted three seasons in Japan, as well as an anime adaptation.

Overview

The series centers around a blue bee-shaped anthropomorphic spacecraft named TwinBee, who is usually accompanied by a pink "female" counterpart known as WinBee. In most games, the first player controls TwinBee while WinBee is controlled by the second player. A third ship also exists named GwinBee, a green counterpart to TwinBee and WinBee who in most games serves as a power-up, but in some instances also appear as a third playable spacecraft. In contrast to the series sci-fi theme of Konami's Gradius series, the fictional universe of the TwinBee series is set in a cartoon-like world featuring several kinds of anthropomorphic creatures in addition to regular human characters. The player control their spacecraft in most games shooting or punching at airborne enemies while literally throwing bombs on ground ones similarly to Namco's Xevious. The main power-ups in the TwinBee are yellow bells that the player can uncover by shooting at the floating clouds. The player must shoot these bells to keep them afloat and after shooting them a number of times, they will change colors, allowing the player to add new abilities to their spacecraft.

Despite being one of Konami's most prominent series in Japan during most of the 1990s, only a select few titles were localized for the foreign market. Particularly the second console game Moero! TwinBee (which was released in America under the changed title Stinger); the two SNES installments, Pop'n TwinBee and Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures, in Europe and TwinBee Da!! for Game Boy, which was released in Europe as a standalone title with the name Pop'n TwinBee and later in compilations. The second arcade game, Detana!! TwinBee, also had a limited international release under the name of Bells & Whistles. The original arcade game was featured in the Nintendo DS compilation Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits under the name RainbowBell (the European compilation however, uses the original TwinBee name).

List of games

Cover artwork of Twin Bee Da! for the Game Boy.

Cancelled games

Radio drama

A radio drama version of the series was produced following the release of Pop'n TwinBee for the Super Famicom titled TwinBee Paradise (ツインビーPARADISE), which began airing on the radio station NCB on October 10, 1993. The series lasted three seasons, with the third and final series concluding on March 30, 1997, comprising a total of 96 episodes, which were later released in drama CD collections.

TwinBee Paradise features the same cast of characters previously introduced in Detana!! TwinBee and Pop'n TwinBee. TwinBee Paradise further developed the fictional universe of the TwinBee and many story elements introduced in the serials, including the names of TwinBee's and WinBee's pilots, Light and Pastel (who were originally nameless characters in the games), were canonized in later video games such as TwinBee Yahho! and TwinBee RPG.

Anime

Two short anime films and an OVA mini-series based on the TwinBee were produced:

  1. The first was TwinBee WinBee Hachibun-no-ichi Panic (ツインビー ウィンビーの1/8パニック TwinBee and WinBee's  1⁄8 Panic), a short film released in 1994 released as a promotional tie-in to the Super Famicom game Rainbow Bell Adventure. Sometimes shortened to Winbee's  1⁄8 Panic.
  2. The second anime short, Tulip Kaigan Monogatari (チューリップ海岸物語 The Tulip Coast Story), was released in 1998 alongside the first short in a promotional tie-in to the subsequent OVA series. Alternatively titled Tulip Beach Stories.

The OVA series is titled TwinBee Paradise and is based on the radio drama of the same name. The OVA comprises three episodes, which were released individually on VHS and Laserdisc in 1999:

  1. "Venus' Smile" (ヴィーナスの微笑み "Venus no Hohoemi")
  2. "Midsummer Mirage" (真夏の蜃気楼（そのままじゃん） "Manatsu no Shinkirō (Sono Mama Jan)")
  3. "Evil Revival" (悪よ復活せよ！ "Aku yo Fukkatsu seyo!")

Manga

Other manga

List of characters

From the early games

From Detana!! TwinBee and onward

Appearances in other games

References

  1. ↑ "Shuzilow HA Design Works" (in Japanese).
  2. ↑ コナミの"お得なサイト コナミ"に『プーヤン』が登場！
  3. ↑ コナミ、iアプリ対応の通信型対戦ゲーム配信サイトオープン
  4. ↑ http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/18820.html
  5. ↑ TwinBee JG at P-World
  6. ↑ KONAMI Content Arrives on the LINE Game Platform Shooting Game "LINE GoGo! TwinBee" Released May 20
  7. ↑ 【LINE GAME】「LINE GAME」にKONAMIの「ツインビー」シリーズが登場 シューティングゲーム『LINE GoGo! TwinBee』サービス開始
  8. ↑ LINE GoGo! TwinBee (iTunes)
  9. ↑ LINE GoGo! TwinBee (Google Play)
  10. ↑ [아이폰게임] 라인 고 고 트윈비(LINE GoGo! TwinBee) 플레이 영상 아이폰게임영상
  11. ↑ LINE GoGo! TwinBee ライン ゴーゴー！ツインビー
  12. ↑ TwinBee Miracle [PSX - Cancelled] in Unseen 64
  13. ↑ List of contents of Gamest magazine sorted by game title. See row 出たな!! ツインビー (in Japanese)
  14. ↑ List of products related to Detana!! TwinBee
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