Parasol Stars Longplay (PC Engine/Turbografx) [60 FPS]
350Developed by Taito and published by Working Designs in 1991
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Video Notes: tool-assisted (save-state, input recording)
Developed as a sequel to Rainbow Islands and the third official game in the Bubble Bobble series, Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble 3 is an arcade game developed by Taito that, strangely, was never actually released in the arcades. Instead, it received a release on home consoles and computers of the day, including the NES, PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 and Commodore Amiga.
The game is closer to Bubble Bobble in terms of design and gameplay mechanics than Rainbow Islands, reverting to arena-based levels where all enemies must be defeated in order to progress to the next screen.
This time around, Bub and Bob are still in the their human forms, but their rainbow-hurling special powers have been replaced with a somewhat more mundane weapon, namely a set of parasols (posh umbrellas, basically...). One would be forgiven for thinking that, based on the previous games in the series, the parasols might bestow some form of magical power upon our heroes, say the ability to summon laser-beam shooting unicorns. Instead, however, enemies are dispatched by unfurling the brolly and hitting them with it to stun them, then hurling them across the screen until they collide with something solid, such as the wall of the arena or another monster.
Making a return in Parasol Stars are the elemental bubbles first seen in Bubble Bobble. Bub and Bob can collect these bubbles on top of the parasol by holding down the button on the controller, then hurling them across the screen as soapy projectiles. Collecting five bubbles will result in them merging to form a super bubble, which can be burst by releasing the controller button and unleashing it's contents with a large pop. Water bubbles release a torrent of water that will wash away anything in it's path, fire burns anything it touches and lighting hurtles across the screen, zapping anything it touches. The player should note that Bub and Bob are also affected if hit by the bubble powers, so should be careful when and where to use them.
As with previous games in the series, Parasol Stars is a game with hidden depths and the road to victory is far from simple. In order to receive the game's true ending, our heroes must gain access to a final hidden world, but this can only by done by finding the key. The secret to finding the key is through collecting miracle tokens, those strange square tokens depicting an elemental power that occasionally appear on certain levels within the game. Collecting three tokens of the same type will result in a "miracle", which reveals a hidden door on the end-of-world boss level. Behind the door is a chamber containing a special item that will grant bonus powers on all of the stages in the next game world.
The key to the final world can be gained by collecting three star miracle tokens before the end of the last normal world. The sting in the tail comes when you realise that the only way to clear existing miracle tokens currently held is to collect three of them to form a miracle. Whereas the colour of the gems in Rainbow Islands was determined as much by the skill of the player as luck, the collecting of miracle tokens here feels more based on luck than any kind of skill. If in doubt, avoid them until star miracle tokens start appearing later in the game.
Although the game was never released in the arcades, I think it's safe to say that the PC Engine delivers visuals equal to those that would have been available on the arcade board. Graphics are bright, vibrant and well animated and consistent with other games in the series - in short, the game looks great!
As for sound, the game features some catchy (if a tad repetitive) music throughout the gameplay. For those wondering why the boss stage music sounds familiar, it's probably because it's the Lambada (by Kaoma) - I guess the use of copyrighted music in video games still went under the radar during the early 90's...
Of all games in the trilogy, Parasol Stars feels like the weakest entry in the series. It's still a lot of fun to play, but it doesn't quite grab me in the same way that it's two prequels did. I think part of this is down to the fact that the mechanics are largely based on ideas recycled from the previous games and just repackaged for the third game. Whilst it's still made to a high quality, I feel that it's more forgettable than Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands - I suspect that some people would be surprised to find out that there even was a third game in the series.
Despite living in the shadows of it's predecessors, Parasol Stars is still a fun game that's worth checking out, especially in co-op with a friend.
#retrogaming