TwinBee (series)

TwinBee (ツインビー) is a video game series composed primarily of cartoon-themed vertically scrolling shooter games produced by Konami that were released primarily in Japan. The series originated as an arcade video game simply titled TwinBee in 1985, followed by several home versions and sequels. The character designs of almost every game in the series since Detana!! TwinBee in 1991 were provided by Japanese animator Shuzilow HA (Jujiro Hamakawa), who also planned and supervised most of the subsequent installments in the TwinBee series. The series also inspired a radio drama adaptation that lasted three seasons in Japan, as well as an anime adaptation.

History

The series centers around a blue bee-shaped anthropomorphic spacecraft named TwinBee, who is usually accompanied by a pink "female" counterpart known as WinBee. In most games, the first player controls TwinBee while WinBee is controlled by the second player. A third ship also exists named GwinBee, a green counterpart to TwinBee and WinBee who in most games serves as a power-up, but in some instances also appear as a third playable spacecraft. In contrast to the serious sci-fi theme of Konami's Gradius series, the TwinBee series is set in a cartoon-like world featuring several kinds of anthropomorphic creatures in addition to regular human characters. The player controls their spacecraft in most games shooting or punching at airborne enemies while throwing bombs at enemies on the ground, similarly to Namco's Xevious.