Pop'n TwinBee

About Pop'n TwinBee

Pop'n TwinBee (1993) is Konami's cheerful Super Famicom shoot 'em up, the sixth TwinBee game, in which two players can fly together, punch enemies and even throw each other, and which first reached North America in 2020.

Pop'n TwinBee in Depth

Like Detana!! TwinBee, which it follows, up to two players can fly at once, player one as the blue TwinBee and player two as the pink WinBee. Players enter a name and choose one of three types of companion ships, which follow, engulf or surround their ship, and fly through seven stages, each ending with a boss. Instead of extra lives, each ship has a life meter, and a limited number of continues let players resume at the stage where they fell. As before, the guns shoot airborne enemies and bombs hit the ground, but ships can now also punch enemies at close range and launch tiny replicas of themselves at every enemy on screen, using a stock of charges. In a two-player game, one player can give the other some life energy or throw the partner's ship at the enemy. Bells, which change colour when shot, give different power-ups depending on their colour.

The options include a "couple" mode, which makes enemies aim mainly at player one, so that a less experienced player can enjoy the game alongside a stronger partner. The story begins when TwinBee and WinBee, patrolling Donburi Island, receive a distress call from Madoka, granddaughter of Dr. Mardock, a once-benevolent scientist driven mad by a bump on the head who now plans to conquer the world with an army of Acorn Men.

Making Pop'n TwinBee

Konami developed and published Pop'n TwinBee for the Super Famicom in 1993 as the sixth game in the TwinBee series and a direct follow-up to the arcade Detana!! TwinBee, known in the West as Bells & Whistles. It was also released on the SNES in the PAL region, the first of three TwinBee games localised for Europe, followed by a Game Boy Pop'n TwinBee that was really the earlier TwinBee Da!! and the platform game Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures. According to Famitsu, it sold about 146,124 copies in Japan over its lifetime, and readers of Super Famicom Magazine ranked it 38th among Super Famicom titles in a 1993 poll. Critics' reviews were generally favourable. Its North American debut came only in February 2020, through an update to the Nintendo Switch Online SNES library.