Storyline

The game revolves around piloting "Bee" robots, collecting bells, and saving fairies (Which seems optional . . . ) for some old scientist (or just an insane man). The only cutscene is the intro (Maybe an ending one, too), so there's little focus on story. Ah well, that's how this genre goes (traditionally).

Gameplay

Before the game and when you get a game over, you can choose a character to play. Twinbee is the "middle" character, with equal punch and jump meters. Gwinbee has a shorter (Better) punch meter but an extremely long jump meter. Winbee is the opposite of Gwinbee. I always go with Twinbee, although the others can be good for different bosses. You collect powerups in the form of colored bells which affect your character in different ways. For instance, Gold bells change your punch attack into a weapon attack (a hammer, baby rattles, or a whip), blue bells let you use a gun, and purple bells create a force field shield around you that lasts until you get hit by an enemy.

There is a level selection map, although it's a very boring one. You can replay any levels you've already cleared at any time, good for practicing and also gaining powerups before fighting bosses. There are six different areas, a grassy/hilly zone, a watery forest zone, a dark cavern zone, a carnival/warehouse/something zone, an icy zone, and a mechanical-type zone. Each zone has a boss, and then there are 3 other bosses after that. Standard platformer stuff. The bosses can seem a bit hard at first, but once you find the pattern, it becomes extremely easy most of the time. After each boss, you recieve a large bell. Doesn't affect your game in any way, though.

Each stage has a massive amount of small bells to find, and some you can't get to until you find one of the colored keys. Each stage also has some other things you can find (A few fairies), and a "Time to Beat" (Which is basically an INSANE time limit to the stages which seem impossible and also pointless).

Now, you might be thinking "That sounds fun, trying to get all bells in all levels!" but no, because the game has no save ability, nor does it keep any form of record of bell pickups or times. So trying to get 100% of everything is even more useless than you thought. There is a password system, but that only saves your accessed stages and your number of keys.

There are two 2-player modes. A co-op and a death match. I haven't played either, but death match looks like it could be fun (The vs levels seem a bit small though). Twinbee:RBA is not very difficult, but you may lose interest long before finishing the game.

Graphics

There are many "cute" games. RBA is EXTREMELY cute. It looks very much aimed towards young children, but don't let the graphics fool you, there is some difficulty here. . . . I would rather have monsters that actually look mean.

Sound

Replayability

Overall

Screenshots

August 4, 2011 - 07:25 BST - Nate

Also, maybe I'll start reviewing games that have been released within the past six months for once thanks to my new disposable (heavy emphasis on this word) income. Maybe.

June 12, 2010 - 15:30 GMT - Benny

May 31, 2010 - 15:53 GMT - Benny