Pop'n Twinbee
Game Boy
Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami
By: GammaBetaAlpha
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Table of Contents
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Basics [HELP]
Walkthrough [WALK]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
Pop'n TwinBee, also known as TwinBee Da!!, is a vertically-scrolling
shoot'em'up game, often referred to as a shmup, which was released in Japan and
Europe only. It was also released in the Konami GB Collection 2 for Game Boy, a
Japan-only release. However, it was additionally released with colour for GB
Collection 4 on the GBC in Europe. The gameplay content is apparently identical,
so you may wish to play the colour version instead.
Your ship, the Twinbee, can fire bullets at aerial enemies and drop
bombs on anti-air structures on the ground, all while avoiding return fire from
your foes. At the end of each level you will have a boss to face off against (or
in the case of Stage 5, five of them).
A major part of Pop'n Twinbee is also getting the highest score that you
can. You can do this by destroying enemies for points. You can also fire at
clouds that show up throughout each level, which will drop bells, Grey Bells
giving off up to 10,000 points per Bell.
As expected in a shmup, there are also power-ups. You can upgrade the
TwinBee's guns, movement speed, create two phantom replicas and bring out a
helper Medical Ball by shooting at Bells to change their colours, and picking up
items left behind by destroyed anti-air ground structures.
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CONTROLS
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These are the default controls. They can be changed on the SetUp option
on the title menu screen.
A - Fire bomb (cannot be holding B to fire)
(must have at least one arm)
B - Fire bullets at aerial enemies (hold B for rapidfire)
D-Pad - Move around the screen
Start - Open your menu
Close to return to the main game
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BOMBS
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When fighting structures that are on the ground, you cannot use your
regular bullet fire. Instead, you have to bomb them using the A button (you
cannot be using your regular gun while using bombs, either). To bomb a
structure on the ground, get in close to where the target is (below it, but it
is not necessary to be perfectly vertically aligned) and press the A button
for the bomb to autolock onto the target.
If you do not have at least one Arm on the TwinBee (refer below), you
cannot use Bombs.
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CLOUDS AND BELLS
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Throughout each level, you will encounter various clouds drifting
through the air. When you fire at a cloud, a bell will drop out of it, moving up
a bit before falling south on the screen.
You can shoot at the bell multiple times to send it reeling back up the
screen (and even off-screen) to prevent it from falling off the bottom of the
screen. This also has the effect of (sometimes, but not always) changing the
colour of the bell, which changes its effect if you pick it up.
GREY - Awards extra points. If you do not let a Grey Bell fall off-
screen, the number of points you gain increases consecutively after each bell,
starting off at 500 points, then 1000, 2000, 5000, and finally it stays at
10,000 points for every Grey Bell you get until a Grey Bell drops off screen. At
that point it then resets to 500 points.
BLACK - Gives your ship a speed increase. You can increase your speed up
to a total of three times.
WHITE - Upgrades your aerial gun into a double-shot.
EYE - Gives you two phantom duplicates of your ship that will fire
aerial bullets at the same time as your ship, tripling your firepower (but not
bombs).
STRIPED - Creates a barrier around Twinbee that soaks up some enemy
damage.
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GROUND ITEMS
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When you destroy buildings on the ground, they will leave behind various
items, with fruit being the most common.
FRUIT - Gives you extra points
STAR - Destroys all enemies in the air and gives you double the score of
what you would get from normally destroying them
MILK BOTTLE - Gives your ship an extra life
CANDY - Gives your ship(s) a three-way shot, spitting out one bullet
directly north, and the other two NE and NW, superseding a double-shot gun. If
you pick up another Candy while still having the first power-up active, a
Miracle Ball will activate. The Miracle Ball will bounce around the screen,
destroying any aerial (but not ground) enemies that it comes in contact with.
Touching it with the Twinbee will not harm you, but it will stop the Miracle
Ball until you move away and then it shall start up again.
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ARMS, AMBULANCE AND DEATH
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Your TwinBee ship starts off with two 'arms', a small sphere on either
side of your ship. If you get hit by a bullet, you will lose an arm. If you lose
both arms, you can no longer shoot bombs and if you take another hit, the
TwinBee itself is destroyed and you lose a life. However, a square-shaped
ambulance will drop from about the middle of the screen after losing both arms.
If you grab it, both arms are destroyed, and you will get another ambulance if
you lose both arms again (by contrast, touching an enemy or non-bullet
projectiles results in instant death, a spare arm or two or not). You cannot
use Bombs while you have no arms.
If you die, you will lose all your power-ups. However, you will also
notice a small ship emerging from the TwinBee's remains that slowly flies up to
the top of the screen. Once your TwinBee returns to the screen, go up and touch
the ship to regain all the Power-Ups you had, including Candy-upgraded Gun and
phantom replica ships.
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TWO-PLAYER MODE
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If you have a friend with a second copy of Pop'n Twinbee and hook up
with a link cable, two ships can play together, with Player 2 using the Winbee
ship.
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STAGE SELECT
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If you select the SetUp option on the title menu screen, you can choose
any of the first four stages to go through. To get to Stage 5 and 6, you still
have to defeat Stage 4 first.
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STAGE ONE
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•Start off by focusing less on enemies and more on the bells, shooting
at the clouds to get bells to come out and then shooting at the bells themselves
to change colours. A White Bell is top priority, unless you get an Eye Bell (a
Bell that will give your ship two phantom duplicates and triple your firepower),
then Black/Patterned, and Grey Bells.
•Shortly after the stage begins, you will be shot at by towers on the
ground. To destroy these towers, you need to get close to them (not directly
vertically aligned, but still close) and Bomb them using the A button (on the
default firing scheme) and your bomb will autolock onto the tower. Typically a
Fruit is left behind, but sometimes a Star (destroys all airborne enemies,
giving you 2x the score bonus) or a Milk Bottle will instead be left behind.
•Enemy formations get wild pretty fast, as they will stop coming in
lockstep with one another and start swooping in at curves and dropping to the
bottom pretty quickly. Not much you can do other than hold the B button for your
autofire and be sure to avoid enemy fire as much as is possible.
•The first time you cross over water is a red herring, and you will come
back to land again shortly. The second time you do will start up a boss battle,
and you should stay away from the centre to avoid a couple of projectiles at the
start.
STAGE ONE BOSS
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This boss, whose given name is 'Taiyou No. 13' and vaguely resembles a
sun with a long nose on its bottom side, has several discs rotating it, acting
as an improptu shield. The discs themselves do not attack or anything, but if
you come into contact with them, it is an instant kill. Taiyou does not move
down to the bottom of the screen at all, but he does move left and right and
down a little bit, so stick to the bottom side altogether just to avoid touching
him by accident.
That being said, Taiyou has two different attacks. The first is shooting
out one disc at a time from his 'nose' that goes straight down the screen, but
he shoots them out at a fairly quick pace. The second is spitting out a smaller
bullet from his approximate centre - this bullet can go at diagonal, so watch
out for this as while you can avoid discs simply by not being aligned with him,
the same cannot be done for the bullet.
To damage and destroy Taiyou, just shoot at him. There does not seem to
be any specific damage animation, but shooting at him will hurt and eventually
destroy the boss.
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STAGE TWO
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•Enemies will start swarming you right away in this stage, starting with
a wave coming from the top-left side of the screen of knife-like foes, so watch
out for them.
•Buildings on the ground will start firing at you right away as well -
in this level, what you need to watch out are for the square stones with faces
on them.
•Once you get up to a narrow river crossing, some sort of ship will be
crossing the water. You cannot bomb this ship and it does not appear to fire at
you, so ignore it.
•When you get past the first ship in the water, you will start to
encounter a very annoying type of enemy - U-shaped foes that will pop in from
the top of the screen, spit out three bullets (one straight down, two at a 45
degree angle), and then quickly retreat back up. Watch out for this type of
enemy, as the first one can be a surprise, and later on in the level they will
occasionally show up in twos and threes.
•Also past the first ship in the water, you will encounter a large
formation of stone faces on the ground - a 2x2 group to the right, followed by a
1x2 formation shortly thereafter. They are spaced out as normal for the rest of
the level.
•After you cross a second ship in the water, you will face more U-shaped
enemies, this type with a Down Arrow v engraved on its body, which will orbit in
an S-shape pattern as it drops to the bottom of the screen, occasionally
spitting out a single bullet each.
•Once you get to the waterfall, the boss battle for this stage shall
start.
STAGE TWO BOSS
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Harifoori is the name of this boss. The main body is its weak point,
while the pod on either side of it is invulnerable to damage.
Harifoori's movement pattern is to bob around in a sort of sideways 8
pattern, and he will move down towards the right corner to start. However,
sometimes (especially if Twinbee is on the upper side of the screen) Harifoori
will 'bounce' off the side of the screen and move back towards the centre
instead of completing half the sideways 8 loop.
Start the battle off on the right side. Harifoori will move towards that
side at the start no matter what, but more importantly, both the main body and
its pods will always target their shots in the direction the Twinbee is in. If
you wait until they fire and you have a couple of speed upgrades, you can
quickly move left while holding B for autofire to blast at Harifoori.
A good tactic to try is to stay on the opposite side of the screen where
Harifoori is, about midway or slightly above the middle of the screen. When
Harifoori spits out bullets and missiles at you, they merely go in the direction
Twinbee is in, but do not home in on you. You can then go down and to the
opposite side of the screen just as Harifoori is moving back up to the center of
the screen and to the side you were just on, strafing Harifoori in the process,
then moving up again on the screen to repeat the process.
Occasionally, the main body will submerge and hide behind the waterfall.
It does not do anything until it comes back out again. In the meantime, stay in
either bottom corner, as the two small pods tend to shoot missiles straight
towards the centre-bottom of the screen when the main body is gone.
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STAGE THREE
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•A lot of the enemies do not actually attack or shoot bullets in this
stage, as you may notice with the very first wave of enemies. They do not twist
or move in surprising ways, so often they are just there to soak up damage and
attempt to overwhelm you with numbers so you may accidentally run into one of
them. Some enemies WILL shoot at you, however, so do not get careless.
•You will notice the ground-based buildings for this level right away -
they are star-shaped and the stars will move around a little bit when firing.
•Clouds on this stage do not come from the top most of the time.
Instead, they spontaneously form in front of the spire-like structures on the
ground, and are semi-transparent.
•Partways through the stage, you will come across river rapids. When the
Twinbee ship is floatnig right above them, it will be pushed in the direction
the rapids are flowing. Use this as an indication to stay away from the centre-
bottom of the screen, as there will be a couple of ships that pop out from
there and oscillate left and right slightly and move towards the top of the
screen. These ships do not appear to shoot or anything, but they will destroy
the Twinbee with contact.
•Once you get past the third river rapids, be prepared to deal with a
boatload of enemies, including a 2x3 grouping of 6 Stars on the ground crammed
together, and multiple octopus and Metroid-like enemies. Once you get past this
wave and come to a long walled gate, you will be fighting the boss for this
stage.
STAGE THREE BOSS
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This boss is known as Kameron, and it was obviously designed with a
tortoise base.
Kameron likes to move around the screen a lot nonstop in no real set
pattern. His head will come close to the bottom of the screen (but never
actually touch it).
This can be problematic, as he spits out one bullet at a time from his
head, aimed at the Twinbee. As a result, when he comes down towards the bottom
of the screen, you need to move away from him quickly so you have time to react
when he fires at you and dodge a bullet.
Aside from that, Kameron also fires two projectiles out of his rear end
that go up for a bit before coming back down, dropping to the bottom of the
screen. While you can dodge these, they can also be destroyed in mid-air by
firing at them with your gun, particularly useful if you have the Candy Power-up
active.
After Kameron takes some damage, the silhouette of a bird will appear on
its shell. From now on, when you fire at him, he will sometimes respond with a
couple of balls of goop that shoot out straight towards you. These can also be
destroyed, but it may be best to hold your fire until he moves upscreen so you
have plenty of room to dodge just in case.
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STAGE FOUR
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•Coming into this stage, move up to near the top of the screen and send
a bomb flying at the egg-shaped object with a crack along its middle. This is
the building type for the stage that will fire at you from the ground.
•As you will notice with the first couple of waves of skeleton enemies,
this stage introduces more unusual enemy movements. The Skeletons do not
actually attack, but they bounce up and down in a rapid oscillation going left
to right (or right to left) and slowly drift down towards the bottom.
•The same goes for the Spade playing cards that will go from one side of
the screen to the other, bounce off, and also slowly drift down.
•Watch out once you get to a row of 4 eggs lined up. Once you approach
these, you should expect to see a lot of enemies that will drop from the top of
the screen straight down to the bottom without any movement to the sides.
•Later on in the stage, you should come across what almost resemble
beanstalks on the ground with a ball on top. When you get close to one of these
balls, it will open up and spit out three bullets at you one time. You cannot
really control when they open up, so in general just stay away from them until a
ball opens up, then you do not have to fear it anymore.
•Most of the beanstalks are close to one another, but after a single
lone beanstalk later on in the level, the boss will appear.
STAGE FOUR BOSS
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The Giant Queen Bee is an annoying boss, if only because she just dumps
so much stuff on you. The Giant Queen Bee herself will only move left to right,
bobbing up and down slightly in the process. However, she will constantly be
sending down lances straight down, as well as heart-shaped projectiles. Often,
four Worker Bees will come out of the Queen Bee and swarm around the area. Not
only will they fire lances at you at the low point of their flight, but they
will provide obstacles that make it more difficult to nimbly move around.
Fortunately, there are two things that will help you out in this battle.
The first is that the Hearts can be destroyed in mid-air and the Queen Bee will
stop sending them out after she takes some damage (indicated by her 'tail' at
the back being visibly damaged). The second is that the Worker Bees RARELY touch
the bottom of the screen where the Twinbee is, so you can generally stay out of
their way after you get used to their flight patterns. If it does look like one
may come into contact with you, then take the hit from a lance if you have to -
your arms will be destroyed first before the Twinbee itself is with the lances,
but contact with a Worker Bee is an instant kill.
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STAGE FIVE
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"The buildings on the ground for this level are the raised fists.
•As you will quickly learn coming into this level, enemies will just
swarm you from all over the place, including from behind. Do not stay right at
the bottom of the screen, so that you do not get accidentally killed in contact
with a helicopter popping up from the bottom of the screen. This chaos continues
on for a pretty long period of time, so expect to get killed once or twice.
•When you get to the floating islands that drift left and right, you
CANNOT fly over them, you must go around them as contact with them is an instant
kill.
•Past the floating islands, you will get another large landmass with a
lot of raised fists that you need to destroy to have a realistic chance of
making it past safely, along with a final few swarms of enemies mainly coming
from the sides of the screen.
•Once you get to a final drifting island, the boss battle gauntlet
begins.
STAGE FIVE BOSSES
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The first boss stays at the top of the screen, with several discs
orbiting him. He is a pretty big nuisance as he fires a ton of bullets with very
little refractory time in between bullet sets. To beat him, you need to be able
to time your movements well to slip in between the short space between each set
of bullets that he spits out and continue holding the B button for autofire.
The second boss, a large bee, takes up a smaller space as he does not
have any discs rotating around him, and only shoots a single bullet at a time,
and moves around a lot in a wave-like fashion, oscillating up and down while
going left and right. However, honeycombs will form all over the screen,
starting off fairly transparent and then solidifying. You can fly over them
while they are mostly transparent but become fatal once they solidify. You can
also destroy them, but for ones that form on the side or bottom of the screen
you will need to be able to nimbly maneuver around them while strafing the bee.
The third boss, a sort of beetle, is fairly easy in himself. He moves
around but does not come down right to the bottom of the screen himself. Let him
shoot his five bullets and then quickly fly to the other side of the bottom of
the screen and you should not have any problems with stray bullets in your path.
The problem comes in waves of four subordinate beetles that form at the top of
the screen. If you have the Candy upgrade to shoot out three bullets at a time,
it is easier to clear them out before they move to the bottom and shoot bullets
at you.
Boss number four, vaguely resembling a scorpion, may be the easiest. He
will constantly have several smaller scorpions orbiting him which he spits out
one at a time at you. Each smaller scorpion will shoot a single bullet, while
the larger scorpion will shoot multiple ones at you. You can destroy the smaller
scorpions while they are still around the larger one or as they are coming
towards the bottom of the screen, but they will regenerate. The large scorpion
will start moving towards the right side of the screen, wrap over the border to
the left side of the screen, and continue right for a few more runs before
reversing directions and going left. Stay at one side of the screen, shoot, then
when you get fired at, quickly move to the opposite side of the screen and
repeat.
The fifth and final boss, the gear boss, has the simplest pattern - he
constantly moves around in a clockwise circle, directing bulletfire at wherever
the Twinbee is. Meanwhile, smaller gear enemies show up at the top of the screen
and then go down to the bottom, shooting at you. Stay one step ahead of the gear
boss - from his position at the North side of his rotation, when he rotates down
to the south side, loop around him clockwise, and keep your finger on the B
button to destroy the small gears. Once he starts coming back up, continue going
around him clockwise and strafe him with bulletfire. Repeat circling around him
and staying a step ahead until the boss is destroyed and the gauntlet finishes.
STAGE SIX
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•You will not fight any regular enemies on this island stage, instead
getting three short sentences from the evil presence before finally fighting the
boss.
STAGE SIX BOSS
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The final boss is called 'Super Delicious Ultra Cyber Poppo', but the
author thinks that is a ridiculous name even in the absurdist style of the
Twinbee games, so will stick to just calling it Cyber Poppo.
Cyber Poppo is basically a snapper turtle-like boss who moves left and
right, but does not dip to the bottom of the screen. His head will snap out and
spit out lollipop projectiles, which can be destroyed. Although the bottom
corners of the screen are not perfect safe spots, they are surprisingly good
spots to park out on as it is only the occasional lollipop that will come in
contact with you there. From there, you can continue to strafe Cyber Poppo and
cause damage.
Cyber Poppo has three indication stages of damage. First, his right fin
(from your perspective, the left side) will be damaged, then the right fin, and
finally his head. After each body part is destroyed, he may let off a one-time
attack of small cloud projectiles that kill with contact. After you cause some
more damage the final boss will finally go down, leaving you with an ending and
a credit roll.
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Contact Info
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[CONT]
Although I believe I have found everything there is to find in this
game, there is occasionally the possibility of some super secret level in an
obscure game that was never found because it was too obscure, or the like. If
you have anything that you feel needs to be includes, feel free to email me at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you have any other information to contribute or notice any errors,
again, shoot me a notice at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you wish to host this guide, or use information from it, consider the
FAQ semi-public domain: you can host it without asking and derive information
from it word-for-word if you wish, but keep the document unchanged if hosting it
and give credit where due if using information
