Parasol Stars: Rainbow Islands II Nintendo

Parasol Stars is a 1991 single-screen platformer that follows from Bubble Bobble, starring Bub and Bob in the human forms they used in Rainbow Islands. The game is far more like its older antecedent than its immediate predecessor, once again confining the action to single-screen areas and manipulating water flows to flush out enemies and collect sweets for points. Released initially on the PC Engine (and the US TurboGrafx-16), other versions followed for the NES and Game Boy and home computers the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST. Unlike its forebears, Parasol Stars was never an Arcade game.

In Parasol Stars, the player again assumes the role of Bub and Bob in their human form, now equipped with parasols they can use to balance enemies and water droplets over their heads. The player is able to use the parasols to pick up monsters after either hitting them or waiting for them to fall on top of them, and then launch them to the opposite side of the screen. They can also collect water droplets and drop them, creating a torrent of water that drains off the bottom of the screen, washing away any enemies caught in it - doing this with several enemies at once is how the player creates combos for higher scores. Enemies vary from world to world: The musically-themed World 1, for example, has sentient trumpets, pianos and cymbals.

Like Bubble Bobble, Parasol Stars' most distinctive features are the large, colorful sprites, the cheery music and the single-screen puzzle-platformer action. As always, clearing the screen creates a bunch of point-enhancing pick-ups and will eventually move you to the next screen. There are also boss fights, most of which require flinging water or enemies at the boss to hurt them.