Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III Review

Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III is the return of the legendary Bubble Bobble dragons Bub and Bob. However, this time around, there’s a catch: there are back in humans. Our two former dragons are on a mission to save neighboring planets.

Those familiar with the Bubble Bobble series might remember our heroes blowing bubbles in order to take on any threat barring down their way. But now, given they are now in human forms, they use parasols in order to attack enemies. Hitting them once will stun them and a second hit will send them bouncing into walls, dying and converting to fruits.

Given that the origin of this game was the arcades, it makes sense for it to be focused on scoring the most points, but it also gives the game limited gameplay unless you plan on constantly trying to beat your own score. You’ll also find blue or electric balls that you can pick up and throw at your enemies.

Bosses aren’t a bit more tricky to take down. As they are impervious to your parasol attack, and getting too close will result in deaths, you’ll need to pick up and fire items left at your disposal. However, it seems to work randomly. You won’t be able to just shoot at will like in a shmup; which is annoying.

The game looks fine. It’s overall very bright and colorful; there’s a decent variety of enemies you’ll encounter throughout the levels. Given it’s an arcade game ported to consoles, it fits the bill. The arcade-y pixels might bring back some nostalgia factor to older gamers. The soundtrack is an enjoyable chiptune, arcade-y soundtrack, however it’s not as classic as the original Bubble Bobble game.

Again, annoyingly enough, given it’s a Ratalaika published game, you’ll constantly have to “identify” yourself on your way to reach the game. Once more, Achievements are being restrained behind Arcade Mode; while in all fairness, this isn’t a very difficult game, it’s still annoying and unnecessary.

Nothing really wrong with Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III. It’s a cute, simplistic, easy to pick up action platformer and a “by the numbers” arcade game. Also means the gameplay variety is quite limited and unless you like score-based game where you try to beat your personal best each time, there’s not much here. That being said, there are worst ways to spend a few hours and it’s fun little co-op game.