Twinkle Tale

This is a Japan only gem for the Genesis that I immediately fell in love with when I first played it. I think we were looking for games to blind race on SpeedRunsLive back in the day and I was going through the TAS archives for Genesis games and the fantasy + run 'n gun screenshot of Twinkle Tale looked too appealing to pass up on. I started speed running this one myself in fact and got competition with someone who unfortunately ended up getting carpal tunnel from all the button mashing.

Twinkle Tale isn't a game that should be as remarkable as I may make it out to be, probably, but I have a very soft spot for it for various reasons. You play as a little girl in a huge wizard robe outfit and holding the stereotypical walking staff. You won't even notice that in-game though, it may as well have been an old bearded guy. There's no voice clips or anything. Even the most stubborn Japan-haters should be able to stomach little girls in their games in this case. Anyway, so it's a fast paced top-down manually scrolling shooting game where you just move around and blast fantasy creatures. There's three weapons you can level up by picking up power ups. You can switch between the weapons at any time, and if you get hit, the weapon you're holding gets downgraded by 1 level. The weapons include stars (spread), beam (powerful piercing shot), and homing (it sucks). There's also two different bombs you can pick up, a fire bomb that clears the whole screen and a blue snakey beam bomb that does more damage. The stars are essential for speed running since you can kill things very quickly by mashing at them point-blank. This won't work as well with the beam since it pierces and the amount of your shots allowed on screen is capped. Max power stars pointblank is by far the most powerful.

The system is all very functional, but what makes the game work so well for me is the stage design and fast pace. Each stage has unique environments and you can dictate the pace of the game yourself, if it's your first time playing you're bound to move forwards slowly and be more defensive, but as you memorize the levels it's natural to start speeding through and eventually you can even try to optimize a speed run, it all feels like the game is easing you into improving little by little in a very good way. If you're playing through at a moderate speed it's about 20 minutes with 8 stages that you can just rush through. Each stage is different and gives you new stuff to look at or fight. After beating an outdoors stage with some temple ruins and flying birds and shit you beat a big ass tree. Move inside the tree to kill some spiders and shit. Kill some spiders and shit and you're suddenly inside a huge fire dungeon or volcano shooting at demons. Then you're in a stronghold fighting huge armored knights, mages, skeletons, cyclops, and eventually Satan. There's even a shmup stage after you suddenly learn to fly though that one is pretty mediocre, and the final stage which takes place in a crystal palace is probably the best and most inspired. Even the final boss is awesome with how atmospheric it is, it just builds up in such a cool way. The game does have a story and english translation patch but you don't really need that to be honest. I should probably mention that this whole game is really EASY if you're into games like this, but that doesn't mean it's a pushover on a blind run. Also, there are some things I miss in this game. For example, the soundtrack is just mediocre. I love me some Genesis tunes but this one sorely lacks outstanding ones. Also, speed running, while fun as hell, will give you carpal tunnel unless you go full Nip and play with Rapid Fire.

All in all, a highly recommended hidden gem, but don't set your expectations too high because this is a bit of a personal choice. The game isn't exactly "amazing" on any individual level, I just happen to really really like it.