A Taito single screen (mostly) platformer, Parasol Stars is subtitled ‘The Story of Bubble Bobble III’. It’s a fairly unusual title in Taito’s long tradition of single screen platform games, in that it didn’t originate in the arcade.

Instead, Parasol Stars was originally a PC Engine title, published in 1991, though it did make its way to other platforms too. Just like the ‘official’ second game in the Bubble Bobble series (despite other games labelling themselves as such, with Bubble Bobble 2 and Bubble Symphony also laying claim to that title, all confusingly published by Taito), Rainbow Islands, Parasol Stars features the dinosaurs from the original game in their human forms, now known as Bubby and Bobby rather than Bub and Bob.

Another aspect that it has in common with Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands is that the players characters have a unique weapon, which doubles up as an assistant to traversal with a little experimentation.

In Parasol Stars, as you’ve probably guessed, the central mechanic of destroying enemies is achieved using a parasol. This can be used to stun, to pick up enemies, to destroy them, and also to do the same with items, or to power up elements such as water droplets or lightning bolts. It can even be used to slow down your descent from a high platform.

It’s impressively versatile, and the cutesy looks, as well as a familiar style to its single screen (although some stages do scroll very slightly) gameplay, where enemies leave fruit behind once destroyed and you move to the next stage when they’re all vanquished, hides a surprising depth and flexibility to its mechanics. Much more so than in either of its predecessors.

There’s also a nicely varied feel to enemies too, which can emerge from larger objects that act as Gauntlet-esque monster generators, as well as there being massive bosses to take care of too.

There’s a real timeless charm to its visuals, which remain untouched here, though there’s perhaps a bit of a filter to ensure we’re not just seeing raw pixels on our fancy future screens. The graphics are incredibly colourful, and it has to be said that they’re absolutely beautiful.

Despite the visuals being left alone, control enhancements, save states, a rewind and fast forward feature, along with cheats, are all included as features, so it’s not just a barebones port.

Parasol Stars is a glorious addition to Taito’s wonderful series, and single screen platformers in general. It’s a timeless classic that now gets the chance to be properly experienced on modern hardware by a whole new audience, as well as its old one. It’s great to see it back, and it’s also fantastic to revisit a game that has aged so beautifully, more than 30 years after its original release.

Parasol Stars is out now on PlayStation consoles, Switch and Xbox consoles. Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a code for review purposes.