REVIEW: Pop 'n' Twinbee : Rainbow Bell Adventures (A.k.a. TwinBee 2) 1993 SNES
	By: Konami Type: Platform Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium

The Twinbee gang are mostly famous for their frantic top-down shooting escapades, coated in a thick layer of cutesy bizzarity. They're quite a big name in Japan as well, where they've had their own radio drama shows, CDs and, erm...pencil boards (of which I managed to nab one *evil laugh*). But for this game, their second on the Super NES, they take a break from shoot'em ups and go platforming instead.
 
Of course, there needs to be some kind of a plot as an excuse for this. Basically, it involves a nutty professor ripping off seven legendary "rainbow bells" that preserve intergalactic peace, and the Twinbee team rush to the rescue. It's all explained in a wonderful-looking and surprisingly entertaining intro sequence. Then, it's on to the actual game, and right from the first minute, the game's atmosphere is so likeable that you'll want to give it a big hug. The mix of comical mecha and the very colourful, pastel-ish and shojo-style backdrops (well, they look shojo to me) creates a unique and irresistible atmosphere of fun and goodwill (something like a hybrid between Gundam and Kaito Jeanne set in Mario World). The gently catchy music and loads of voice samples from the characters add considerably to this, with some of the tunes being particularly nice to just listen to. Graphics deserve a solid thumbs up as well, with lots of large and well-animated sprites strutting their stuff in gorgeous colours, and some remarkable backgrounds. Extra eye-candy comes in the shape of nice intermission screens and of course, that lovely intro scene.
 
So that's the surface, now for the core; what about the game itself? You're given the choice of three different "Bees" to play as, but there's fairly little difference between them. Their main weapons vary slightly, and there's a difference in how long it takes each Bee to power up their super punch or dash, but that's about it. Control of the Bees is fluid and user-friendly, with quite a few innovative features to it. Each of these chubby mechs comes equipped with jet boosters, which allow you to zip through the air at breakneck speed and a mighty super punch which can obliterate entire walls and legions of baddies in one go. You'll need to hold down a button to "charge" these moves, though. But there's more than just that. By collecting power-ups from dead enemies, you can build up a large arsenal of different extra moves and abilities, shoot'em-up style. Overall, the very versatile and clever control system is quite an accomplishment for the Konami coders, and it works very well after some getting used to. The game itself still has a few flaws, though. Most of the levels allow you to roam free and find your own route to the exit. That's not a bad thing, of course, but it's possible to get a bit lost and frustrated when one isn't able to locate the exit (a map screen helps a bit). As for the levels themselves, most of them are actually dead easy to breeze through and offer little resistance. However, it depends mostly on yourself how much challenge you'll get from this. The levels may be slightly wimpy, but once they're completed, there still is a lot left to do. You're allowed to re-visit the levels and try to beat them under a set time limit, or go all-out exploring and hunt down as many pick-ups as possible (usually in previously undiscovered areas of the levels), with a set number of goodies as that level's "target percentage". And even if going for high scores or "100% completeness" isn't quite as compelling and adventurous as it is in, say, Yoshi's Island, it still offers a good enough excuse to come back to those lovely levels and try your best to master them inside-out. But only if you really want to. The game leaves a lot of freedom for your own initiative. You don't have to doggedly follow a set path, instead you're allowed to turn everything upside-down as much as you please. While this deserves praise, it also has a downside, as it mean you can just sneakily skip some tricky bits and get to the end just as well. You need to be a little harsh on yourself if you want to get the most out of this.
 
And that's still not the end of it. The game even features a two-player co-operative mode, which, although slightly iffy, is very enjoyable. Better yet, there's also a head-to-head battle mode, with two Bees duking it out until the bitter end. It's a great little extra that shouldn't be overlooked.
 
And that just about wraps it up. While the game's slightly too floaty and free-roaming nature may be a bit fiddly at times, that doesn't stop it from being a very well-made and highly enjoyable piece of racy platform action. The adorable characters (I mean, babies with green hair and their own mechs! Too cool!) are reason enough to be drawn into this, and once you put your mind to it, you'll also find a loveable game in there, one that you can truly call a friend. Give it a go and marvel at Konami's mastery of 16-bit gaming. - Toasty 90%

Key to the reviewing system]

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