Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III Review
thesixthaxis.comThe launch of Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III on PlayStation means that for the first time in many, many years, all three Bubble Bobble games are available on one platform. Both Rainbow Islands and Bubble Bobble were released as part of the Arcade Archives series, direct ports of the arcade games, but Parasol Stars has had a few extra tweaks thanks to developers ININ and this one is actually published by the original arcade machine manufacture, Taito.
The game – also confusing known as Rainbow Islands II even though there are no rainbows – features the same elements as the previous two instalments but with an added twist. The basic gameplay is still the same, with mostly single screen levels that have a bunch of enemies moving in fairly predictable paths, where one touch from any of them will cause you to lose a life. The twist here is that Bub and Bob (still in human form) have parasols which they can use in a number of ways.
Get close to an enemy and flourish you parasol and you can stun the creature, pick it up and throw at other enemies. You can also use the parasol to block incoming attacks, and collect bubbles that drop from the ceiling. Throw a single bubble and it will knock out an enemy, but collect five and it will turn into a super weapon – either a pool of fire, an electric bolt, or a torrent of water – which you can use to knock out multiple bad guys at once.
Like all the Bubble Bobble games the premise is quite simple, and unlike it’s predecessors, Parasol Stars is actually much easier and you can breeze through the first couple of levels without much thought. However, thinking is exactly what you need to do if you want to score the big points. Hitting multiple enemies at once brings showers of point giving fruit, and there many secrets hidden in the levels, just throwing a bubble in a certain direction may produce enough ice creams and eclairs to keep anyone happy. As the enemies always start in the same position and you have just a brief
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