Parasol Stars: The story of Bubble Bobble III review: effortlessly classic game design

Publisher ININ Games

Developer Taito

Platform Xbox Series X / S , PlayStation 5 , Nintendo Switch (reviewed), Xbox One, PS4

Release Out now

Price $9.99 / £8.99

The lesson to learn from the best retro games is, keep things simple. While being the third game in the Taito series from the 80s and early 90s, Parasol Stars: The story of Bubble Bobble III rewinds its own design template and returns to the core ideas of the series: popping enemies in static maze screens for colourful treats and points. (You can play the original on the excellent Hyper Mega Tech Taito Super Pocket .)

Originally released for PC Engine in 1991, Parasol Stars: The story of Bubble Bobble III drops the second game's vertically scrolling stages for a return to the original game's single-screen mazes. Enemies appear in set patterns on each screen and proceed to coast about the stage while you in turn raise your character's parasol to bash them away - they turn into treats, to be collected for points.

Sounds simple? Well, it is, and that's what makes Parasol Stars: The story of Bubble Bobble III so endearing. The eight levels rise in speed and complexity offering a challenge, but the aim of the game is to really just enjoy its colourful silliness, and chase points. As well as smashing enemies with the parasol you can also block attacks, throw enemies and collect water droplets to fire at your assailants. Once you've memorised each stage's enemy patterns you can soon clear screens, puzzle-like to release larger, and wilder, combo points scores.

Retro gaming royalty

Reaching the end of each world unlocks a boss fight, which shifts gears on the game's design with you now balancing bubbles on your parasols and charging attacks to launch at the boss. These moments are relatively straight-laced, and lack the hectic puzzle-like quality of the main stages.

But, at least in these moments we get to dwell and linger on Taito's inventive character design. During this period Taito was a master of crafting simple, elegant and, well… odd creature and character designs. And these bosses are stars, and include a cute one-man-band-musical instrument creature that, if you squint, looks a little like the Kiwi from Taito's New Zealand Story. Adorable.

Just like the creature and character design, Parasol Stars: The story of Bubble Bobble III has a colourful yet simple visual design that has stood the test of time. The bold pixel art designs pop from the screen and the backgrounds rarely clash with the characters and animation, ensuring you can always see the next enemy or pattern.

For those who want to embrace the game's age there are a myriad of features to toggle on and off, including CRT scanlines, a mix of filters and screen resize options. Likewise, the secrets and hidden endings of the original game are kept in play, so that puzzle-nature to each stage becomes more apparent if you're a completionist looking for the secret door hidden in each world.

Playing Parasol Stars: The story of Bubble Bobble III on Nintendo Switch reminds me why this handheld is becoming one of the best retro consoles around at the moment. It's the perfect platform for a game remaster like this, the casual simplicity of this retro classic on Nintendo's console work so well together.

I was a little disappointed with ININ's previous release, Irem Collection Vol.1, but its port of PC Engine's Parasol Stars: The story of Bubble Bobble III is a wonderful trip down memory lane that holds up better than I could have expected. While it would have been good to get more content, for example a gallery of original art, the game we have is simple and sublime.