Welcome to my review of Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III. This game was originally created by TAITO way back in February of 1991 for PC Engine. It was recently given some modern love for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S when it released on July 11th, 2024.
Developers TAITO and publishers ININ Games brought this local co-op legend to us at a great price of £8.99. For the purpose of my review, I was kindly given the PlayStation version, which I played on the PlayStation 5.
You may know of the story of Bubble Bobble, you may not. A long story put into shorter words is that Bubble Bobble was a smash hit game during the 1980s. In fact, it was released the year I was born, 1986. It had a ton of follow ups (see the wiki for more) including a couple of really fun sequels that I remember well. These were Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars.
Bubble Bobble started off with two dragons named Bub and Bob. Once they completed their quest in the first game, they were returned to human form in Rainbow Islands. Of course, there’s a huge back story to all of this… But I think you should find it out for yourself as they’re fun games.
Back to the topic in hand. Parasol Stars.
The Game
Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III is a critically acclaimed classic platform game from Taito. Players take control of either Bubby or Bobby to embark on a quest to save the planets that neighbour their own. However, instead of blowing bubbles, they now use colourful parasols that are filled with magical powers to take on their foes.
During each level on the eight planets, you will be able to defeat foes as well as collect yummy collectibles that will help you climb the leaderboard and gain the highest scores.
There’s also a variety of pickups that will grant Bubby and Bobby special powers. Such powers are giant balls of fire, screen-clearing magic, and energy bouncing balls. That’s not all though as there are a number of powers to find and use during your journey.
What is a great thing about this game is that it brings back some love for fans of couch co-op games. However, you can play the game on your own just fine.
One thing that will stick in your head is the fantastic soundtrack. The moment I started the game, and the music started, I was already humming along to it. It took me all the way back to my younger days of playing this game on the Commodore Amiga. Such good times.
It’s not all Good News
The gameplay is fun, the music is great, the graphics are adorable. However, the game feels quite repetitive. Even though the design of the levels is different, you don’t have to do much else other than jumping around the screen, taking down small enemies to finish the level whilst picking up fruit/sweets for higher scores to then eventually taking down the planet boss. Rinse and repeat for the next world.
Sometimes, nostalgia isn’t a good thing, and this certainly felt like the case for me here. However, I can see those who haven’t played this game in the past, such as a younger gamer really enjoying it. So go fill your boots folks because £8.99 is not a lot of money at all.
One good addition to the game is Save States. If you’re not sure what these are, they are basically an instant save point of that moment in the game. Should you exit out, you can return to that exact point and not the start of a level. However, you cannot use these in the mode that unlocks trophies. You can only use them in the more casual mode the game has.
Conclusions
Whilst this game holds a special place in my heart, as do the others in the franchise, I think that’s where it should have stayed. It’s just not as good as I remember it being.
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy playing through the game again. However, I felt let down a bit by this port as one trophy in particular just won’t pop. It’s completely bugged out and has a zero percent unlock rate. Therefore, that means the platinum cannot be unlocked. I do hope this gets fixed soon as there’s quite a few people talking about this across the Internet.
I give Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble a score of 7/10.
If you wish to learn more about this game, please visit the official website. You can also check out our previous PlayStation game reviews.
A code was kindly provided for us to review this.
