Bub and Bob traded their bubbles for umbrellas — and then found out that an umbrella is really a bucket.
February 15, 1991. You open the parasol and an enemy's shot bounces off the canopy, harmless. That is only half of what it is for. The other half arrives when something bursts and leaves a droplet hanging in the air: you tip the umbrella underneath it, catch it, and keep catching until the canopy is heavy with water. Then you throw the whole thing. Water floods along the floor of the screen and takes everything with it. Stars caught the same way chase enemies down on their own. Clouds turn into lightning. A rainbow becomes a floor you can stand on. Eight worlds of single-screen stages, a second player beside you if you have one, and a boss at the end of each world who falls to one element and no other.
Space Invaders and Parasol Stars share a producer. Tomohiro Nishikado's name sits on this 1991 Taito cartridge, thirteen years after the game that filled the coffee shops.
The line back to Bubble Bobble runs through one person, and it is not the one most people assume. Fukio Mitsuji, who made Bubble Bobble, had left Taito in 1989 and is not credited here. The planner on this one had learned the craft from him, and after he left, decided the series should not stop and carried it on himself.
So what I have on the shelf is a student's continuation rather than a master's sequel, which is the harder of the two things to do well.
About this game
Parasol Stars was built by Taito's Second Development Division together with Bits Laboratory, and the producer was Tomohiro Nishikado — the man who had designed Space Invaders thirteen years earlier. In 1991 he was overseeing a game about two children and their umbrellas. The planning, the story and the game design came from Kataru Uchimura. It reached Japanese shops on February 15, 1991, on a HuCard, and North America received it as a TurboGrafx-16 release — one of the very few PC Engine games that ever got an official Western version at all.
Key Features
Eight worlds of single-screen stages. The parasol has two core functions: block enemy projectiles, and collect dropped elements to transform into ranged attacks. Collected water becomes a powerful water bomb; stars from enemies become homing star throws; clouds create lightning; and a 'rainbow' element can create platforms. Two-player simultaneous co-op. Each world has a boss requiring specific elemental tactics. The game rewards precise item collection over speed.
Gallery
The Story Behind
What the PC Engine was showing off lives in two chips. Its processor was only 8-bit — a HuC6280, a modified 65C02 running at 7.16 MHz — but the picture was handled somewhere else entirely, by the HuC6270 video display controller and the HuC6260 colour encoder. Between them they held a palette of 512 colours and could put 482 of those on the screen at the same moment. The Famicom managed 52. The Master System managed 64.
Eight worlds of candy-bright stages, small enemies scattered across every screen, water and stars and lightning and a rainbow all lit at once — and none of it has to be rationed. No colour has to be given up to afford another one.
A machine putting 482 colours on a screen simply looks different from a machine putting up 52, from across a room, before anyone has read a word on the box.
Tricks & Tales
The two characters you are moving are not the dinosaurs. Bub and Bob spent the first Bubble Bobble as bubble-breathing dragons; here they appear in human form, as Bubby and Bobby, and their weapon has moved from their mouths to their hands.
Taito did not hand this hardware to a stranger, either. The director had already programmed Taito's PC Engine version of The Ninja Warriors two years before — so the person shaping the umbrellas had already spent one whole project finding out what the HuC6270 would and would not do.
The music came from outside the building. Noriyuki Iwadare wrote it while he was still at CUBE, working with Kenichi Okuma; later that same year the two of them co-founded Two Five, an audio group set up for game sound, and Taito handled the sound direction in house. Iwadare's Lunar score, the one most people know him by, was still a year away.
Then there is the umbrella itself. An umbrella is a defensive object. You raise it to keep something off you — rain, a shot, whatever is falling. In this game it is also the only thing that collects. The canopy that blocks is the canopy that fills, and until it fills you have nothing to throw with.
Bub and Bob spent two whole games pushing things outward — bubbles, then rainbows. Here they hold something up, and wait for it to fill.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
The PC Engine version was released in Japan in February 1991. A TurboGrafx-16 version was published in North America, making this one of the rare PC Engine games that received an official Western localisation. The PC Engine HuCard format is standard.
Maintenance Tips
Standard PC Engine HuCard with no battery backup. Clean the HuCard contacts with isopropyl alcohol. The HuCard format is generally durable but keep away from moisture. The Japan version is more common than the TG-16 North America version.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III copies regularly.
Will this Japanese PC Engine game work on a North American TurboGrafx-16?
Not without a hardware adapter. The TurboGrafx-16's data bus lines are wired in reverse compared to the PC Engine, making the two regions physically incompatible at the cartridge (HuCard) slot level. A passive adapter such as the dbElectronics Turbo PC-Henshin bridges this gap for HuCard titles. For CD-ROM² software, the TurboGrafx-CD drive will run Japanese discs if they do not carry a software region check, but compatibility varies by title. In both cases, Japanese PC Engine software is designed for the Japanese market and carries no English text.
How should I store and clean a PC Engine HuCard?
Keep HuCards in their original plastic sleeves or a protective case, away from humidity and direct sunlight — the exposed gold contacts oxidize over time. To clean: apply 90%+ isopropyl alcohol to a cotton swab and gently wipe the gold edge contacts. Never blow on them — breath moisture accelerates corrosion. Handle by the plastic edges only, avoiding the contact strip. HuCards have no internal battery and no moving parts, making them among the most durable formats from the era.
Does this HuCard have an internal save battery?
HuCards do not support internal battery backup by design. If this title requires save data between sessions, it either uses a password system or requires an external backup peripheral (such as the Tennokoe Bank or Backup Booster) connected to the PC Engine's expansion bus. Check the game manual for the save method — many action and strategy HuCard titles are designed as single-session experiences and do not require saving at all.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III
A short checklist for buying used PC Engine software wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Make sure it fits your console
Japanese PC Engine HuCards and CDs are not compatible with the North American TurboGrafx-16 — the formats differ. Use a Japanese PC Engine system.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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HuCard or CD-ROM² — know which you're buying
PC Engine games come on HuCard chips or on CD-ROM². CD titles also require the right CD system and a working System Card.
Confirm the format in the listing, and for CDs check the disc surface and that saves are supported.
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Check that the contacts are clean
Dirty edge contacts are the most common cause of startup and sound trouble in cartridges of this age.
Choose a seller who cleans the contacts before shipping. A note that it was tested and cleaned means the basics were handled.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See what we have in stock →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑From the Museum's Screening Room
Parasol Stars — Max Explains