It is with great pleasure that I present this review of Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III  for the PlayStation 4!*

You may be asking yourself, “Why would you care so much about reviewing a rerelease of some obscure TurboGrafx-16 (TG16) game that only five people have ever heard of?” You see, I am one of those five people, as I actually bought a copy of Parasol Stars brand new for my TG16 when I was a kid. It even went on to become one of my favorite titles for the console. So much so, that I already preordered this sweet special edition of the Nintendo Switch version of Parasol Stars from Strictly Limited Games before learning that I would have the opportunity to review it ahead of time. What exactly justifies the Special Limited Edition? I shouldn’t digress too much, so I’ll leave that explanation below.** The important thing is that I am probably one of the bigger fans of Parasol Stars out there already, and the big question for this new release is, “How well does it hold up?”

Despite my affection for the game, it’s been quite a few years since I last played Parasol Stars on my TG16. Like many other games, it is currently packed up in hopes of one day being incorporated to an updated game room. Besides, my massive retro gaming backlog is keeping me occupied enough as it is. Still, I do find myself wanting to bust out my favorites from time to time. Luckily, a lot of these have been released for modern consoles in some form or fashion, but Parasol Stars is one that has slipped through the cracks. Until now, of course!

As its subtitle suggests, Parasol Stars is actually the third game in Taito’s Bubble Bobble series (ignoring Bubble Bobble 2 for Rainbow Islands…  just… yeah… ignore that). If you are a fan of Bubble Bobble, then you’ll be right at home with this style of game. One or two players can enter a single screen stage that must be cleared of all enemies before moving on to the next. Each world has a series of stages before you encounter the world boss whom you must defeat in order to move onto the next world. Repeat this until you’ve traversed all the planets in this game’s solar system and complete the game. The worlds are nice and varied, each one vivid and colorful, filled with multiple baddies with unique attack patterns. 

You’ll use your parasol to throw baddies or power bubbles across the screen, picking up items or attacking other enemies in the process. Your parasol can also be used as a shield from enemy attack, and as a floatation device that slows your fall. You can also find hidden items that pop up when you throw enemies or bubbles across their path. Other power-ups and bonus items show up from time to time, and seeing the effect of each new item is part of the fun! Boots make you faster, the bracelet sends a spark around the screen taking out anything it touches. The effect of other items isn’t known until you complete a level; sometimes you’ll be given a bonus round, other times giant treats appear that massively boost your score. There’s a lot of variety, and the game never seems to get dull.

This new port of Parasol Stars offers multiple modes catered towards modern gaming. In Standard Mode, you can choose to play with a rewind feature, save states, and several cheat toggles to suit your liking. On the flip side, you can choose the challenge of Arcade Mode which disables the convenience upgrades of the Standard Mode and is the only way to unlock all of the trophies. However, Arcade Mode still gives you 99 credits to beat the game, so it would be like going to the arcade with $25 in quarters in your pocket ($24.75 to be precise, you math nerds). 

Both modes make for a pretty easy trip through the world of Parasol Stars, but luckily, part of the fun of this game isn’t just playing to beat the level, but also in playing to trigger corresponding “miracles” in each world. In order to trigger a miracle, you have to use three max level power bubbles (water, lightning, fire, or stars) and then collect the matching badge that pops up on the next level. If you get three of the same miracle badges, then after defeating the world boss, a special room opens up with a sweet bonus item. If you manage to open up all the bonus rooms, then when you beat the regular boss of the game (which is already pretty sweet), then you are whisked away to a completely new world that is probably the most impressive of the entire game. Yes, that means there is a bad ending and a good ending, and getting the good ending can be a little challenging without the rewind feature, but it is still very satisfying to play through the bonus world.

To be fair, I never actually beat Parasol Stars as a kid. I made it fairly far, but the later stages were quite tough, and I didn’t have 99 credits to complete the game either. If you want to try playing the game the way it was originally presented, then you can find it hidden under the “Challenge” mode. This mode gives you just 1 credit and no cheat options. Of course, you can earn extra lives through power-ups or by finding hidden “tokens”, but in some of the tricky levels, you can quickly run through your stock and land right back at the beginning of the game to try again. 

The additional features to assist with difficulty makes this version feel more modern, and I definitely appreciated being able to finally see the endings that I had only previously imagined from what I heard in the sound test when I was younger. Good times, indeed. For those old school types like me who remember listening to a game’s music for hours on end via sound tests, Parasol Stars has one, but it is hidden via a code (see image caption). I also found it interesting that the boss music in Parasol Stars is from the “Lambada” song by Kaoma (RIP Loalwa Braz). Not much gets me more excited than video game music crossovers with real songs! (i.e. Eternal Champions/E 1999 Eternal, Kirby’s Dreamland/”Drop It Like It’s Hot”, Mega Man’s Elec Man stage and… everything! Right?)

It is worth noting that I encountered a glitch in the Standard Mode that prevented me from beating the game with the good ending despite satisfying what I thought was the requirement for moving on. I was able to use the cheat menu to enable the bonus room doors and get through it, so it could be that I just didn’t know what I needed to do, but… it happened again upon reloading a previous save as well. I’ll need to play through the whole game from the start to see if I run into the same issue in the Arcade or Challenge Modes. Hopefully not. Since I was never able to get this far in the original TG16 version, I don’t know if it is a persistent issue across platforms, of it is simply “human error.” In any case, if you get stuck, don’t forget that you can use the cheats to advance. No shame in beating a glitch, and besides, it’s totally worth seeing the good ending, too. The extra world is sweet!

From my experience, this new version of Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III definitely feels like an improvement over the original release with the extra modes and options, but as a fan, I do wish there was a bit more, specifically something like a museum feature that other retro re-releases often include. At least I still have that sweet special edition coming in the mail!  

* A copy of Parasol Stars was provided to The Splintering by ININ Games for the purpose of this review.

** Why get the Special Limited Edition of Parasol Stars? Well, I really dig the one track that plays throughout the majority of the game and find myself humming it in my head from time to time. :p “Duh-duh-duh-nuh-duh-nuh-nuh Cause they’re anything but square…” Hmmm… Yeah, there was some commercial that used to come to mind whenever I would play this game, but that line is all I can remember about it. So if you remember a commercial in the mid-90’s that had a song singing about whatever it was being anything but square, leave a comment down below. Maybe Frosted Mini-Wheats or something? In any case, you can order your own physical copy of Parasol Stars from Strictly Limited Games here.