Twinbee

Jac2Mac · Post by **Jac2Mac** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:08 pm

I remember buying Twinbee Deluxe Pack on E-Bay and thought to myself, "Why couldn't Konami have done this game as a serious vertical shooter instead of an ultra-kawaii shooter?" Why couldn't Konami do Twinbee as a serious shooter instead of a cute one where the character designs are more like Rayearth?

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:11 pm

What's wrong with cute?

benj · Post by **benj** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:30 pm

professor ganson wrote:What's wrong with cute?

My thoughts exactly. I actually prefer cute shooters, and I wish Konami would make another Twinbee or Parodius.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:31 pm

Twinbee on Famicom is in fact the best-selling shooter in Japan, ever, second only to Famicom Xevious.

It sold about 1.2 million copies - more than Famicom Gradius.

I doubt it would have ever been that successful without being cute. There's your reason for Konami's decision.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sat May 06, 2006 8:53 pm

CIT wrote: It sold about 1.2 million copies - more than Famicom Gradius.

Interesting, I never knew that! How many copies of Xevious were sold?

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun May 07, 2006 12:24 am

Around a million copies - you can find this sort of data on The Magic Box, under the platinum seller chart. it's interesting to have a look there, although according to Shigeharu Umezaki, these numbers are somewhat inflated, have a read:

http://www.video-fenky.com/features/konami.shtml

(I do hope you all are acquainted with Umezaki by now...)

Oh--- and the cuteness factor wasn't the main reason imho. Surely it played a big role (it was the Arale-chan age after all in Japan) but the winning feature was two-player action.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Sun May 07, 2006 7:48 pm

CIT wrote:Twinbee on Famicom is in fact the best-selling shooter in Japan, ever, second only to Famicom Xevious.

It sold about 1.2 million copies - more than Famicom Gradius.

That's amazing. I'm really impressed. The NES version of Xevious was my one of my favorite shooters for a while, it's cool to know that I'm not the only one.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sun May 07, 2006 8:21 pm

I wish all shooters looked like Strikers 1945 II.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun May 07, 2006 8:46 pm

Rob wrote:I wish all shooters looked like Strikers 1945 II.

Meanie!

Klatrymadon · Post by **Klatrymadon** » Sun May 07, 2006 8:50 pm

There's plenty of room for everything, Jac, and Konami have done tons of stone-faced serious shooters...

MSZ · Post by **MSZ** » Sun May 07, 2006 8:59 pm

Whats wrong with cute?

Gradius, Axeley, Trigon and Xexex are already too serious and mean.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun May 07, 2006 9:14 pm

Yet another awesome kawaaiii avatar from our professor! It rocks! Pink fluffy power will own all the evil WWII nostalgic

Fenrir · Post by **Fenrir** » Sun May 07, 2006 11:33 pm

Have you ever noticed that the first wave of ships on the first stage of Twinbee (arcade) has the same identical movement and behaviour of the first wave of ships in Xevious (arcade)?

Err try it.

Jac2Mac · Post by **Jac2Mac** » Mon May 08, 2006 12:40 am

If I did the Twinbee Deluxe Pack, I would make the following changes.

1.I would have made the graphics much more serious and a lot less colorful, more like the anime Rayearth than Digi Charat and have the villians look much more threatening.

2.I would remove all the cute cinema cutscenes from Detana Twinbee and instead I would show the princess who you must rescue being tortured by an evil doctor as well as removing all cute cinema cutscenes from Twinbee Yahoo and instead show Ace torturing the captured princess and Ace plotting to kill the Twinbee pilots.

3.I would have made the games Detana Twinbee and Twinbee Yahoo more like Strikers 1945 in the fact that it would be a very bullet intense shooter and when you die you would start the whole level again just like in Super R-Type. Also in Twinbee Yahoo for the level 4 boss, instead of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, I would have a giant tank that would turn into a mecha Strikers 1945 style and at the end of level 5, instead of a giant doll controlled by Nonsense I wpuld have a giant mecha with a ball and chain and would fire lots of bullets nonstop at you and if you got hit you would have to do the whole level over again. I would also make Ace's plane more like a harrier jet that would not help you defeat Dr. Warumon but would instead come to kill you one last time and his jet would turn into a mecha Strikers 1945 style.

4.I would make the game much more difficult as well and instead of being a fairly easy shooter, I would have made it a die and you're screwed type of game. In other words, if you die, you have no chance against the bosses at all.

5.I would have made the music much more serious. The music in each level would sound more like the music in the original Strikers 1945 and the boss music would also sound more like the music in Strikers 1945.

This is my list of changes to Twinbee Deluxe Pack because I think this game is far too cute and cheerful to play and it would ber better off as a serious shooter where if you die, you're screwed.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon May 08, 2006 12:53 am

Turrican wrote:Yet another awesome kawaaiii avatar from our professor! It rocks! Pink fluffy power will own all the evil WWII nostalgic

Thanks, Turrican. I like having a flying Kirby, since Kirby is no stranger to shmupping about. I wonder though about that red tail. Not exactly sure what that's about.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:00 am

Jac2Mac wrote:2.I would remove all the cute cinema cutscenes from Detana Twinbee and instead I would show the princess who you must rescue being tortured by an evil doctor as well as removing all cute cinema cutscenes from Twinbee Yahoo and instead show Ace torturing the captured princess and Ace plotting to kill the Twinbee pilots.

Does it involve hentacles?

But really guy... what's the point? If you want to play a serious game, don't play Twinbee.

And prof. ganson: isn't that red thing its feet?

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:03 am

Making a Twinbee game serious would kill the spirit of the entire series IMO, you want serious play Gradius, R-Type, Xexex, and the like. You want good goofy humor or cuteness you play Twinbee and Parodius.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:28 am

Jac2Mac wrote: this game is far too ... cheerful to play

Man I hate that.

MSZ · Post by **MSZ** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:42 am

Jac2Mac wrote:This is my list of changes to Twinbee Deluxe Pack because I think this game is far too cute and cheerful to play and it would ber better off as a serious shooter where if you die, you're screwed.

It's official: You're nuts.

No one forced you to play a cute'em up. There're always some Psikyo/Raizing shmups for you.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:42 am

iatneH wrote: And prof. ganson: isn't that red thing its feet?

I suppose it's either feet or Kirby's in heat.

Fenrir · Post by **Fenrir** » Mon May 08, 2006 8:54 am

Jac2Mac wrote:If I did the Twinbee Deluxe Pack...*snip!*

Yeah, way to go Jac! And let's talk about Parodius... all that stupid pink boinky fluffiness gives me the creep - let's have it more like Gradius and less like a dumb anime cutesy thanks - and, between you and me, it looks like a gradius ripoff

D · Post by D » Mon May 08, 2006 10:50 am

Rob wrote:I wish all shooters looked like Strikers 1945 II.

Me too.
BG
Raiden Fighters
Under Defeat

Jac2Mac · Post by **Jac2Mac** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:05 am

In addition to the following changes to the game Twinbee Deluxe Pack, I would have made the tone of the game more like Metal Black which is dark and angsty and when you destroy the crab or snake boss for example, instead of a colorful explosion, the screen would go black except for the boss who would let out a dying roar as it changes colors and then you would see a mega scary explosion to the sound of the boss's dying roar. I would also make the endings to the game much darker where you must sacrifice the princess to avoid world destruction. I would do that for the tone instead of the happy and sugary nature of Digi Charat and CardCaptor Sakura. May the extreme darkness of Metal Black destroy the happiness and fluffiness of Twinbee and Parodius.

Skyknight · Post by **Skyknight** » Wed May 31, 2006 1:27 am

{sigh} Would you mind explaining why you have it in for light-hearted themes? We can't have everything be doom-and-gloom, now, can we? (Honestly, how did he GET to this state? Overdose of death-metal music or the like?)

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Wed May 31, 2006 2:46 am

I love a great cute shooter every now and then, so I have no complaints about the Parodius, Twinbee, Star Parodia, etc design.

What I do hate about almost all Twinbee games is the gameplay. Specifically, the power-up system. You shoot a bell, then have to stop shooting, waiting for the bell power-up to come to you; but OOPS, a leftover bullet hits the bell, changing it back to the normal gold bonus point bell. HATE HATE HATE!

Fenrir · Post by **Fenrir** » Wed May 31, 2006 10:43 am

ccovell wrote:I love a great cute shooter every now and then, so I have no complaints about the Parodius, Twinbee, Star Parodia, etc design.

What I do hate about almost all Twinbee games is the gameplay. Specifically, the power-up system. You shoot a bell, then have to stop shooting, waiting for the bell power-up to come to you; but OOPS, a leftover bullet hits the bell, changing it back to the normal gold bonus point bell. HATE HATE HATE!

Well, most of the time you know when they appear (out of the clouds). When I reach a cloud I only shoot ONE bullet (or two, or three or many depending on what power up I want) and then move aside and keep killing enemy ships, then come back when the bell falls down.
It's not like parodius where you don't know when the bells appear and can't help much but risk losing the first bonus (blue) out of bullet exhuberance.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Wed May 31, 2006 1:16 pm

Skyknight wrote:{sigh} Would you mind explaining why you have it in for light-hearted themes? We can't have everything be doom-and-gloom, now, can we? (Honestly, how did he GET to this state? Overdose of death-metal music or the like?)

Some people can`t stand anything coloured, cheery, lighthearted or *gasp* GAY. They want to destroy everything that smiles. If it wasn`t for humour I`d be dead by now.

It`s like taking The Life Of Brian and transforming it into a historically correct documentation of the life and death of HIS son.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Wed May 31, 2006 1:30 pm

Jac2Mac wrote: May the extreme darkness of Metal Black destroy the happiness and fluffiness of Twinbee and Parodius.

Yeah, whatever. I´ll keep in mind what you said next time I see those games fighting each other.

Post by **Icarus** » Wed May 31, 2006 1:40 pm

Jac2Mac wrote:In addition to the following changes to the game Twinbee Deluxe Pack...snip!

Cheer up, emo kid.

All that angst is unhealthy.

Besides, you seem to know a lot about the cute and sugary stuff, for someone who supposedly despises everything that is cute. Hypocrite much? (º_o)

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Wed May 31, 2006 3:12 pm

Jac2Mac wrote:I remember buying Twinbee Deluxe Pack on E-Bay and thought to myself, "Why couldn't Konami have done this game as a serious vertical shooter instead of an ultra-kawaii shooter?" Why couldn't Konami do Twinbee as a serious shooter instead of a cute one where the character designs are more like Rayearth?

Who said Konami is not serious?

Konami had done a seriously cute shmup in TwinBee.

I just can't play TwinBee, if I shoot, I can't get power up, if I don't, I just got killed...

Any tips in playing this game?

shmups.system11.org

Twinbee

Twinbee

Re: Twinbee