This Week In Retro: TwinBee

February 1985: Cinnamon v. Spice

by Diamond Feit

A recent (as of this writing) dustup about categorizing video games has me thinking about one of the oldest genres in the medium with a name that sounds descriptive but in fact offers precious little information. We've used the word "shooter" ever since Space Invaders took over Japan but today that word covers an impossibly broad slate of titles both modern and retro. I don't even need to elaborate on this point because I'm certain anyone reading this has already thought up ten different examples that qualify as "shooters."

Speaking of Japan, the historic impact of Space Invaders in this country obviously invited other developers to try their hands at making a shooter. SNK and Namco found their first tastes of success with Ozma Wars and Galaxian, respectively. Even Nintendo made a memorable shooter during this era, if only because it flopped over in the U.S. which prompted a rushed creation that still defines the company today: Donkey Kong.

Even after Japan's Invader Boom ended and we saw developers flex their muscles and explore new, untested concepts, the popularity of shooters endured. One point in the genre's favor is its utter transparency to new players, since any adult or child can grasp the controls and objectives immediately after inserting a coin. That makes shooters a tempting option in an arcade setting where one must consider gameplay in terms of cost performance, especially in Japan where a single credit runs for 100 yen—far more money than a U.S. quarter.

With shooters continuing to find new fans throughout the heyday of the 1980s, certain trends emerged. While Space Invaders and its descendants scrolled vertically, other games found success scrolling horizontally. Player mobility also varied, with Sasuke vs Commander and Defender locking players to a single axis of movement while Vanguard and Xevious let your vessel soar to and fro. Those latter games also featured a wider array of weapons to better take on enemies approaching from different directions.

Of all the would-be successors to Space Invaders' throne, Xevious made the biggest splash with the original arcade release and a Famicom port reaping huge profits for Namco. This prompted Konami to develop their own take on that formula, complete with green, earthy terrain and dual armaments for the player's ship. 40 years ago this month, Japanese arcadegoers got their first taste of a new kind of shooter in TwinBee.

TwinBee takes place in the far-off future of 2801 on Donburi Island, a once peaceful place now living under the tyranny of the Spice King. Having occupied the island and seized control of its fabled Jewel of Paradise, the Spice King now rules the land under the might of his army led by four generals, each of whom possess one quarter of the Jewel. Donburi Island's only hope lies in the laboratory of the reclusive Dr. Cinnamon where he builds two battleships dubbed TwinBee and Winbee. He imparts the crafts to his two sons and they take flight to reclaim the Jewel of Paradise and Donburi Island itself.

None of this narrative appears in an arcade playthrough of TwinBee, although promotional materials do name-drop Spice King and Dr. Cinnamon. Later ports to the Famicom and MSX offer proper exposition in their accompanying manuals. However, anyone playing any version of TwinBee will immediately pick up on the game's overall goofy tone with an abundance of bright colors apparent in the player characters and enemies alike. The fact that the Spice King's army resembles assorted vegetables, kitchenware, and other non-threatening objects also communicates the game's comedic sensibilities.

TwinBee and WinBee, too, don't fit the usual profile of flying machines designed for combat. Besides their front-facing cannons, each ship includes a pair of arms which toss bombs that can take out ground-based turrets. These arms also act as a makeshift shield, exploding upon contact with projectiles but allowing TwinBee and WinBee to continue fighting. Should the two craft fly together in formation, either front-to-back or side-by-side, both players get an offensive boost.

TwinBee introduces a unique power-up system where players have a choice in how they strengthen their vessels. Firing into the scrolling clouds over Donburi Island will produce a small yellow bell that bounces upwards before falling towards the bottom of the screen. Yellow bells offer only points, but shooting bells repeatedly will cycle through other colors that produce different effects, including weapon upgrades, speed boosts, and a defensive field impervious to bullets. This system raises the challenge level of TwinBee significantly as players must carefully juggle the bells with their guns while also fighting for their lives.

While clearly modeled after Xevious like many other games of its era, TwinBee represents the first example of a "cute-em-up," a subset of the overall shooter genre. Cute-em-ups still require quick reflexes and rapid button pressing to score points and keep playing, but their overall aesthetic leans into the sillier side of video games with chipper soundtracks, food-based names, and absurd antagonists based on everyday items.

Cute-em-ups—like the shooter genre as a whole—found and continue to maintain a following in Japan more than any other region. Indeed, Konami exclusively released TwinBee domestically and never exported the Famicom version to the NES. A sequel developed for the Famicom Disk System later released abroad under the name Stinger; subsequent titles in the series were likewise renamed for Western territories (e.g. Bells and Whistles and RainbowBell) or simply not sold at all.

This lack of international TwinBee awareness did nothing to curtail these characters from making cameos in other Konami games. TwinBee and WinBee appear in the Parodius series—Konami's other major cute-em-up franchise—as do the bouncing bells that award bonus points. TwinBee icons show up as hidden collectibles in multiple Castlevania games, as well as Vs. The Goonies and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja to name but a few.

Today TwinBee sits largely idle, with no new releases since a smartphone game in 2013. However, Konami has not forgotten about the legend of Donburi Island. Hamster included the 1985 original in its ongoing Arcade Archives series of classic games, and despite not appearing on the NES, the Famicom port of TwinBee is available globally on Nintendo Switch Online. There's even an SP version that lets players start on the game's second loop for more challenging combat.

With Konami's recent policy change towards actually publishing new video games, I suspect TwinBee and WinBee will shake off their cobwebs sooner or later. In a 2022 contest courting developers to revisit the company's past franchises, one of the top finalists was cartoonist Ken Niimura and his proposed sequel TwinBee Loop! The Mystery of the Planet of Light and Darkness!! (yes, with three exclamation points).

Given the sheer number of shooters—both old and new, retro and modern—available on Steam these days, surely there's room for TwinBee or WinBee to soar again. If not, I suppose Ken Niimura could introduce his brand-new characters GrinDee and SchwinDee to moderate applause.

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.