DETANA!! TWINBEE
game Cover
game HuCard
出たな!ツインビー
©1992 Konami
Release : 1992-02-28 (¥6800)
HuCard (4 Mbits) KM92004
Shooter / Vertical

Here is the PC Engine port of Konami's very colorful and cute vertical shooter Detana!! Twin Bee originally released in the arcades in 1991. In a last-ditch effort, princess Melora, queen of planet Meru, sends a SOS distress signal - the Eva (aka Eve) aliens have attacked her home planet and armies of fearsome monsters have invaded the land and have wreaked chaos. Two elite pilots, the young Light and his cousin Pastel, decide to swoop to her rescue. They operate Twinbee and Winbee, two cute and equally powerful flying war machines capable of shooting everything in sight with their awesome ranged attacks. The aircrafts are also equipped with tiny arms allowing them to drop bombs and hit enemies on the ground. But these arms are not immune to enemy fire and losing them prevents the player to use ground attacks (thankfully, a repair-ship soon appears after both arms have been shot down in order to remediate the situation). Additionally, weapons can be upgraded by shooting at floating clouds - they release colored bells which, if shot again, change color and give up various special powers, such as Speed-ups, Force Fields, Wide Shots, Flying Options and so forth... Additionally, the player can also charge up a powerful fire-blast and inflict serious damage to any enemies unfortunate enough to lie in its path. Finally, Gwinbee, the green TwinBee, can help Light and Pastel on their amazing journey... well, that's as long as they can find him! Detana!! Twinbee consists of seven stages and also features a two simultaneous player mode (where both players can join forces and release special attacks!).
Related
Twinbee (FC) Moero Twinbee (FDS) Twinbee 3 (FC) Pop'n TwinBee (SFC)
Non-direct relation : Parodius (PCE-HU) Parodius Da!(FC)
screen shot screen shot
screen shot screen shot
screen shot screen shot
Twinbee Twinbee is a very popular series of games by Konami (Well, at least for Japan that is) that started in the arcades back in 1985. The first Twinbee was a vertical shooter somewhat inspired by other great masterpieces of the time such as Namco's Xevious. However, Konami added its own flair and set of innovations to the mix - cute flying characters with little arms, flying bells power-up system and the option for two players to unite and fire powerful attacks. This first opus was a success and was converted to a couple of Japanese home systems at the time - Famicom (1986), MSX (1986) and the Game Boy (1990). Moero! Twinbee: Cinnamon Hakasei wo Sukue followed in 1988 - this sequel was exclusively released for the Famicom system (it was released in the US though and renamed 'Stinger' for the occasion). It was the first (and only) Twin Bee game to feature horizontal-scrolling levels (well, Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventure released for the Super Famicom in 1994 did as well, but it was platform game and not a shooter). Twinbee 3: Poko Poko Daimaō folllowed in 1989, and exclusively for the Famicom system (no western release). But the true sequel to the original arcade game was Detana!! Twinbee Detana!! Twinbee (aka 'Bells & Whistles') released in 1991 - a colorful and fantastic upgrade, and definitively the most popular opus in the series (picture on the right). The game was a commercial success in Japan, and was ported to several home systems, such as the Sharp X68000 (1991), PC Engine (1992) and was later included in the Detana TwinBee Yahoo! Deluxe Pack released in 1995 for the Playstation and Saturn. Pop'n Twinbee, released for the Super Famicom in 1993, is a wonderful sequel to Detana!! Twinbee and introduced the series to Europe for the first time (this is why Twinbee is often referenced as 'Pop'n Twinbee' there), but alas, no US release. Then, the same year, the Twinbees used their legs for a change and became the heroes of a platform game for the Super Famicom - Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventure was exclusively released for Nintendo's system, and was also only localized in Europe. Another interesting spin-off was TwinBee Taisen Puzzle Dama, released for the Playstation in 1994 and based on a matching puzzle series by Konami, but starring Twinbee characters. The real arcade sequel to Detana!! Twinbee was released in 1995 - TwinBee Yahho! Fushigi no Kuni de Daiabare!! apparently commemorated the 10th anniversary of Konami's series (the year 2005 was not so lucky). However, it was also its swan song and is, to date, the last Twinbee shooter ever released by Konami. The gorgeous game was ported to the Playstation and Saturn in 1995, and was later included in the TwinBee Portable compilation (2007). The Twinbee game that followed was curiouly a Role Playing Game, and was probably created for fans of the Twinbee Paradise anime and radio drama shows (please read the relevant section below). Twinbee RPG was released for the Playstation in 1998 and was the final instalment of the series (if we exclude compilations). Interestingly, another RPG called TwinBee Miracle was announced around 1995 and was in development for the Playstation but was eventually cancelled (the game was entirely in 2D and was maybe canceled in favor of the fully 3D TwinBee RPG). After the release of Twinbee RPG, the franchise went quiet. Despite a number of compilations (such as TwinBee Portable (PSP, 2007)), reeditions (such as Twinbee Famicom Mini Series (Gameboy Advance, 2004) or 3D Classics TwinBee (3DS, 2011)) or phone games (Line Go Go! TwinBee, 2013) the franchise has been sadly dormant...

TwinBee Paradise A radio drama show called TwinBee Paradise (somewhat based on Pop'n Twinbee) was aired on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting in Japan from 1993 to 1997. Interestingly, the Twinbee pilots weren't given a poper name in Detana!! Twinbee - although the first Twinbee arcade game called the two pilots 'Annamon' and 'Donnamon' (the two apprentice boys of Dr. Cinnamon), Detana!! Twinbee kept their identity secret. That was until the TwinBee Paradise show started and finally introduced them as Light (pilot of Twinbee), his cousin Pastel (pilot of Winbee) and her baby brother Mint (pilot of Gwinbee). Apparently, the radio drama became very popular in Japan, and several animes followed - TwinBee: WinBee no 1/8 Panikku (released in 1994 as a tie-in to the Super Famicom/SNES game TwinBee Rainbow Bell Adventure), Tulip Kaigan Monogatari (1998) and a three episode OVA called TwinBee Paradise and released from 1998 to 1999 (picture on the left). Additionally, a series of three mangas based on Detana!! Twinbee was produced in Japan between 1994 and 1996.

Like many Konami characters and long runnning series in the 1980s/1990s, Twinbee made numerous cameos or guest appearances in other games. The most popular is certainly the Parodius series which featured Twinbee as a playable ship in the orginal arcade game (1992), as well as Gokujō Parodius (1994) and Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius (1996). Interestingly, although none of the Twinbee ships are featured in Sexy Parodius (1996), Konami nevertheless included the Shooting Star, a fighter that originally appeared in TwinBee Yahho! Fushigi no Kuni de Daiabare!!. Twinbee also made several guest appearances in Konami Wai Wai World (Famicom, 1988), Wai Wai World 2 SOS!! Paseri Jō (Famicom, 1991) or DreamMix TV World Fighters (GameCube, 2003) to only name a few. Numerous Twinbee characters also appeared in various Konami titles - for instance, Pastel made a cameo appearance in Battle Tryst (Arcade, 1998), Konami Krazy Racing (Game Boy Advance, 2001) and Otomedius Excellent (Xbox 360,2011).

Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :

STAFF

Producer
K. Kitaue

Director
Y. Yamada
Sound
Metal Yuhki
Kiyoshi Mu

Special Thanks
M. Kurono
M. Saitou
S. Hayashi
Sound Designer
H. Muraoka

Producer
A. Nagata
Arcade Team
Giken No Minasan

©1992 Konami
All Rights Reserved


O
M
A
K
E

Detana!! Twinbee manual Registration Card Miscellaneous stickers
Detana!! Twinbee - Advertising Detana!! Twinbee - Artwork
Click on picture to enlarge

S
E
C
R
E
T
S
Detana!1 Twinbee - Visual Test Note that you will need a 5 players multipad in order to enter the following codes.

Arcade mode:
At the title screen, press I, II, Right, Left, Right, Left, Down, Down, Up and Up on the third controller. Then go to the option menu, a new option called HMode should have appeared, switch is to VMode to activate the arcade screen format.

Play all between-level animations:
At the title screen, press Up, I, Right, II, Down, I, Left, II, Up and Select on the fifth controller. This should activate the Visual Test screen (picture on the right).

LK
rating
Add your Pov here !

P
O
V
s
Konami has blessed us with amazing shooters - Gradius, Salamander or the more obscure (at least in the west) Parodius and Twinbee series. I have personally always loved Twinbee and Detana!! Twinbee is a terrific game. It is probably the better known in the series, and one would think that the cute graphics would indicate that it was aimed to a young audience - but soon the game shows its real teeth and hits you with some razor-edged difficulty spikes (but the game is overall not that hard, especially by Konami's standards). This PC Engine conversion is awesome - lovely and endearing graphics, great soundtrack, and, as always with Konami, it features a superb gameplay. Granted the game doesn't look as polished and detailed as the arcade, but Konami did an excellent job with this conversion. All in all, Detana!! Twinbee is truly wonderful and shouldn't be missed (especially if you are a fan of what many call today the "cute'em up" sub-genre).




PLEASE CLICK HERE IF VGDEN GAME MENU IS MISSING
All logos and trademarks are © their respective owners. All pages content is © Laurent KERMEL