3D Classics: Twinbee (Nintendo 3DS) / Twinbee (NES)
Developed/Published by: Konami Released: 10/08/2011 (Nintendo 3DS), 7/1/1986 (Famicom) Completed: 05/04/2023 Completion: a rare 1 credit “clear” finishing the first loop with 950,800 on the 3D Classics version. Trophies / Achievements: n/a
Well it’s all surprises here, because I had tremendous fun playing through this after considering the original arcade release somewhat miserable to play through due to it’s relentless brutality. With the Nintendo 3DS taken out back and beaten to death by Nintendo, I took the opportunity while the big N was distracted to lift all the 3D Classics from behind the bar and I wasn’t expecting to play this for particularly long considering that the release doesn’t let you savescum your way through it (you get a single quick save, and it’s deleted when you load it back up. Right now it’s holding at the start of the second loop, triumphantly.)
However, it’s got a lot going for it. NIntendo’s 3D Classics range are a truly odd bunch and it’s a bit of a tragedy that they gave up on the series so quickly, considering they’d hit their stride with upgrades to Kid Icarus and Kirby’s Adventure, but the writing was probably on the wall with their decision to make the flagship releases Excitebike and… Urban Champion? A game they haven’t even released on Switch Online, they’re so shamed? To be fair, they did put out Xevious, and (oddly) they even put it out as an Arcade port, not a port of the (excellent) NES version, but that’s a game with a tragic lack of cache outside of Japan. I suspect these sold so horribly poorly that there was just no money in it, and I wonder if it was a bit of unconscious self-sabotage from either Nintendo (not wanting to just shove up 3D Super Mario Bros or 3D Legend of Zelda) or Akira (wanting to do more interesting releases). I mean M2 still puts out versions of Sonic every time they get to do some Sega re-releases even if all they really want to do is put out Fantasy Zone again.
Anyway. As I was saying, 3D Classics: Twinbee has a lot going for it. First of all, the 3D is good. I kept it on the whole time and never found it painful. Secondly, it mildly (quite mildly) prettifies the original NES release with the backgrounds not looking as plain and there’s a cute “theatre curtain” framing. And finally, and most importantly, it’s got auto-fire (missing on the Switch Online version…) and overall is nowhere near as much of a ballache to play as the arcade original.
It’s just a lot more… balanced. More forgiving. I mean maybe I’ve gotten really good at shooters all of a sudden, but that’s not particularly likely. There are a manageable amount of enemies and bullets on screen until the gauntlet that is the mid-point of level 5, and the power-ups are huge bumps in power–the “shadow options” create a wall of bullets and the shield lasts for a pretty ridiculous amount of time. If you’re able to get the shield and the rare 3-way shot, you’re golden.
With everything a bit less busy on screen, you can actually manage to juggle bells successfully, and in my 1CC I died several times and was able to get powered back up fairly quickly and with only some panic (in level 5 I did go through a death-loop ending up with only a single life left, but just managed to get a shield in time.) I was obviously helped by auto-fire… but that was a staple of third-party controllers at the time. It’s not cheating… really…
If there is a problem it’s that if you lose your arms (which allow you to bomb enemies on the ground) you basically get one shot at recovering them and it seems like the ambulance never shows up again and so you’ll probably die, or have to die, as a result. Oh, and the bosses are a bit crap.
This is good though.
Will I ever play it again? Well, I’ve actually beat this twice now, first on Switch Online with some saves and then on the 3DS, so probably not? But I recommend it over the arcade original and I now look forward to the sequels.
Final Thought: While I’m positive about this, I would say in 1986 the original release isn’t that exciting considering Xevious came out over a year before (November 1984) and is still, honestly, better. And I guess if you were buying 3D Classics (which you weren’t, because no one was) you were much better off getting Xevious there too even if 1CCing this is extremely rewarding. But yeah, if it’s 1986? It certainly seems like you’re better off saving your Christmas money till April when Gradius finally hits the Famicom.
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