The Bubble Bobble series wasn’t always just dragons blowing bubbles. Before Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories came along, Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars were the official Bubble Bobble sequels, and they starred Bub and Bob as humans instead of dragons. Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III was originally released on Turbografx-16/PC Engine rather than to arcades, but it’s every bit as well-made as its forebears. More than 30 years later, Parasol Stars has finally returned to consoles thanks to ININ Games. While the new release is low on frills, it’s great that modern audiences have a chance to play it.
In Parasol Stars, a monster called Chaostikan has secretly escaped from Bubble Bobble’s cave of monsters prior to the sealing of the cave by the heroes of that game, Bub and Bob. Following the events of Rainbow Islands, Bub and Bob were gifted magical parasols (umbrellas) from the grateful residents of the islands. Chaostikan eventually unleashes a new army of monsters on several neighboring planets, and Bub and Bob must use their Magic Parasols to save the day. This premise is not communicated in the game itself, which sadly lacks an intro, but rather in the game’s instruction manual. That’s a problem because ININ’s release of Parasol Stars does not include a manual or reference materials. Thankfully, Parasol Stars was included on the Turbografx-16 Mini a few years back, and Konami still offers the instruction manual for download (at the time of this writing).
Parasol Stars is a platformer in the style of Bubble Bobble. The game is divided up into a series of themed worlds, each with six regular levels followed by a boss level. Some levels are single-screen and others can be scrolled left and right as players navigate them. In each level, our heroes must clear the screen of enemies while collecting power-ups and score-bestowing items. Once the screen is cleared, the team moves on to the next level. Take too long to clear a level and an invincible enemy will start to chase the players down, just as in Bubble Bobble.
The key difference from Bubble Bobble is that Bub and Bob fight enemies with parasols rather than bubbles. The parasol can be aimed and swung forward or upward, stunning any enemies it touches. Holding the attack button will allow the player to pick up a stunned enemy. The foe can then be thrown forward, damaging any enemies it strikes along the way. Holding the parasol out allows it to act as a shield since only large enemies and bosses can pass through it. Players can also jump and hold the parasol upward in order to float through the air, though the technique is seldom needed other than to unlock an Achievement.
Many levels have drops that fall continuously from the ceiling. These drops come in four elemental varieties: fire, water, lightning, and star. By collecting a droplet with their parasol, the player can fire a weak version of the droplet’s element. Rather than just collecting droplets, a few levels require the heroes to jump on the droplets as they fall in order to escape from pits, much as players sometimes have to jump upward on bubbles in Bubble Bobble. Jumping on the drops is tough, but charging a mega drop makes it much easier. Mega drops are formed by collecting five small drops. This allows Bub and Bob to throw a powerful elemental attack. During boss battles, our heroes can drink a bottle that allows them to form mega drops by holding their parasols upward. These mega drops are required to damage bosses. The first few bosses are easy, but later bosses can be quite tricky to defeat.
Bubble Bobble games are usually better in co-op (other than the sadly single-player Rainbow Islands), so it’s good that Parasol Stars supports drop in, drop out local co-op. Clearing stages is faster with a friend, and bosses go down much more easily as well. The game even has a couple of co-op mechanics. If Bub or Bob holds his umbrella out, it will reflect droplets or enemies thrown by the other player. One player can even pick the other player up and throw him, though this is probably more useful for joking around than for killing enemies. Finally, elemental drops thrown by one player can briefly stun the other, so careful throwing might be in order.
A normal playthrough of Parasol Stars consists of eight planets and a total of 56 levels. To get the good ending, however, players must visit the two hidden worlds that come after the eighth planet. This requires the player to collect three star crests prior to completing World 8. The problem is that precious little information about how to get the star crests exists online (this video’s description has the best guidance), so nobody on TrueAchievements or TrueTrophies has reached the hidden worlds (as of now). Speaking of Achievements, ten or so of them are quite tough and might be unobtainable to most players.
ININ’s version of Parasol Stars includes three modes: Standard, Arcade, and Challenge. All three modes support 2-player local co-op. Standard Mode allows the use of save states, rewinding, and five optional cheats. Arcade Mode doesn’t allow any of those helpful features, but it’s the only mode that has Achievements/Trophies. Given the overall toughness of the Achievements, ININ should’ve allowed Achievements in Standard Mode as well. As for Challenge Mode, each player gets a single life. There are no leaderboards, so there’s not much incentive to play Challenge Mode. Other extras include a single widescreen border and a handful of additional video options. Oh, and the Xbox version forces players to confirm their Xbox profiles a total of three times before starting the game, which is weird and clunky.
More than 30 years after the original release, Parasol Stars is still a lovely game. Each world features a distinct theme and unique enemies, and the sprites are great. The parasol-based gameplay still works very well too; this game actually plays more like Bubble Bobble than Rainbow Islands did. The game itself gets really tough towards the end, so it’s a good thing that ININ gives players 99 credits in both the Standard and Arcade modes. The omission of the instruction manual and other extras is disappointing, but it’s hard to complain much when the game only sells for ten bucks. Bubble Bobble fans owe it to themselves to play through this “lost” sequel. Pop that parasol open and get to it!
Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III costs $9.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch.
An Xbox download code was provided by the publisher for this review.