For as initially simple in concept as most of the early arcade games were, you’ve got to hand it to Taito for doing their best in coming up with a way to tie their properties together. One of their hallmarks, the Bubble Bobble series, is at the forefront of this movement, having taken leaps and bounds to have a somewhat confusing but still cohesive backstory between each of its entries, even leaving enough room to make a connection with Rainbow Islands.
With Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III, the latest of Inin Games’ retro re-releases, we get the ultimate version of that, by having both sides of the equation in terms of gameplay, coupled with some of the cutest graphics you’ll ever see in a game. It also helps that like previous nostalgic offerings by the publisher, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes here than your usual retro rescue.
The basic gist of the game is using your umbrella to flip and then launch your victim into incoming enemies. As per other arcade classics from around the same time, the opposition doesn’t only come from the sides of the screen, but from the top and bottom as well. Thankfully, you’ve got as much movement options as your enemies, making the single screen levels quite hectic and bustling with color as you dispatch all manner of oddly shaped bits and bobs.
You can use your weapon as a shield as well, and in true Mary Poppins fashion, it’s also used to glide, a nice little gimmick that helps in avoiding some of the quicker moving threats you’ll face as you make your way further into the game. Given the freedom you have in movement, it’s no surprise that the pacing of Parasol Stars feels so dynamic and fluid, a step above previous entries.
Previously a Japan-only title, now Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III comes to consoles with a bevy of technical options for you to choose from. A series of filters can be toggled in order to suit the gameplay to your needs, with my favorite (again) being the monitor glow one, which emulates the look and feel of an old CRT that goes beyond just adding scanlines. There’s also your usual array of features such as rewinding, saving states, and most importantly, cheats, so when the going gets tough, I can wimp out without shame.
This game came as quite a surprise to me, someone who is a casual Taito fan who has never really done much digging into the company’s storied existence and is constantly impressed whenever a more obscure release like this is brought back into the conversation. Inin Games has been doing a brilliant job at highlighting forgotten gems like this, which goes to show the tremendous importance of the historical preservation of games, a growing concern that shows no sign of slowing down the older their creators and public gets day by day. If you have any interest in building a quality library of quality arcade games of yesteryear, you surely can’t go wrong with this one.
Together with Spica Adventures, Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III is available digitally as part of Parasol Superstars package on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4|5, and Xbox and will be later released in physical form as well through Inin Games.
