Many years ago now, my brother and I were kind of obsessed with Bubble Bobble as we used to play it religiously together. Then came Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2, which we loved even more. Following that was Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III – and I didn’t really play this one all that much. Well, I can right that wrong now as developer Taito and publisher ININ Games have teamed up to bring Parasol Stars to modern consoles.

“In this critically acclaimed Taito classic, available on modern consoles for the first time, the now-transformed Bubby and Bobby embark on a mission to save their neighboring planets. But this time, instead of blowing bubbles, our favorite duo swings colorful parasols filled with magical powers. Use parasols as a shield against enemy projectiles or to stun, pick up and throw foes as projectiles themselves!”

Let me get right into this one. Parasol Stars is great fun, it is classic 16-bit platforming that really did take me back to the good old days of gaming. If you have never played the game before, then the basic gist of Parasol Stars is to clear the screen of enemies. This is old-school, one-touch death gaming from the era of the arcade. But, you can use your parasol to pick up enemies, which you then use to throw at other enemies. There are power-ups to collect and secrets to find. As I said, this is good fun.

This new version keeps things exactly the same as the original, in terms of gameplay, but you do get a handful of options to tinker with and play modes to choose from. Along with a classic arcade mode, you can play Parasol Stars with a selection of cheats, and you can rewind if you mess up. There’s a challenge mode where you can try for a high score with only one credit and an online leaderboard to see how you fair against others. However, if you want to earn those achievements/trophies, then you can’t use any of the cheats or rewind system, and you have to play old-school arcade mode – but the game is very, very generous with the continues. 

There are several visual options, such as adding CRT scan lines, an arcade screen glow and you can even change the display size. There’s an option to go full widescreen, which does stretch the graphics slightly but is still playable. Then there is a very unplayable screen size that shrinks the display to a couple of centimetres square in the middle of the screen, and you need a pair of binoculars to see what is going on. I have no idea why that is even an option. The only major improvement is that you can select a new control scheme where you don’t moonwalk when holding down the attack button. If people had forgotten, when you held down the button to use your parasol in the original, you would only face one way and would have to release the button to turn around. This left you open to cheap attacks from the enemies. Now, you can face left and right while still using your parasol. It’s great too, and this simple control change makes Parasol Stars so much more fun to play.

Priced at around £9, Parasol Stars is not going to do too much damage to your bank balance but, I’m not entirely convinced that the price point is truly worth it. As much fun as the game is, you are still talking about a game from 33 years ago and honestly, there are not a great deal of refinements here. If this had been another £6 but included more games. Not the entire Bubble Bobble franchise as there are a ton of titles, but if this had been the original trilogy – it would’ve been a great package. But £9 for a three-decade-old platformer with no major improvements or additions? It just feels a bit light on content. I’d be lying to myself if I said that I didn’t enjoy playing through Parasol Stars and yeah, it’s great to have it readily available on modern consoles – but I’d also be lying if I said it’s truly worth £9.