Game:

Detana!! TwinBee (1991)

Duration: 28:29

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10

I'm shocked that this, of all my attempts, is the one that actually pulled through and cleared the first loop, as I've had seemingly far smoother runs fail to do the same. If nothing else, all the mishaps should make for an entertaining watch.

More on the game, and some tips:

I used to really loathe this game due to the nasty player hitboxes and the difficult recoveries brought about by the bell juggling, but I've come around to enjoying it more.

Don't get me wrong, I still think the hitboxes are silly (especially the way the hitboxes for the arms jut out), but I found that getting the shield (red bell) made it feel a lot more comfortable. Not that it makes your hitbox any smaller (quite the opposite, actually), but it feels more reasonable when compared to the size of the shield itself, and your arms are safe as long as you have a shield active. The shippo barrier granted by the purple bell may be more effective in the second loop due to the sheer number of bullets to block, but I could never get the hang of using it effectively.

Regarding bell juggling and powerup recovery, memorizing the bell sequence is key, as is remembering which bells you can expect to show up depending on your current powerup state (e.g. the green bell doesn't appear when you already have options). When you want a specific bell, you should keep an eye out for the previous color in the sequence so you know when to let up your fire and shoot more carefully. Also, it's important not to get too greedy trying to get specific bells to give you the color you want. The bell sequence is shared across all bells, so if you've almost reached the color you want on one bell but don't have time to juggle it more, you can just grab it and finish your juggling on the next bell.

Recovery is a bit more doable in this game (at least in the first loop) than in the original TwinBee, largely thanks to the charge shot which gives you much needed power and side/rear coverage. The default speed also feels a bit more comfortable here than in the original TwinBee. Unlike in Gradius where you have to prioritize your powerups and save up for the ones you need first, in TwinBee you can potentially get as many powerups as there are bells, and getting one powerup doesn't make it take any longer to get the next, so when you're recovering it's usually safer to take whatever powerups you can get (aside from the black bell speed-down) instead of trying to juggle for exactly what you want and probably failing at it. It's worth noting that the bell sequence resets at the start of each stage, so if you die near the end of a stage or during a boss, you know exactly what to expect at the start of the next stage. Your arms are also reset, and so is the flying ambulance (which only appears once per life in the original TwinBee, but can appear once per stage in Detana).

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