| “ | Get the ambulance! When hit by enemies or bullets, the player will explode or lose an arm. When both of your arms are gone and an ambulance appears, catch it. It will repair your arm. (If both arms are gone, you can't use bombs.) |
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| ~ Translated description from TwinBee 3 |
The Ambulance (救急車 Kyūkyūsha), or Helper Car (お助けカー O Tasuke Kā), is a gameplay mechanic appearing in most games that comprise the TwinBee series. If the player's ship has sustained enough damage and ends up losing both of its arms, an ambulance will appear on the screen. Making contact with it will repair the ship, giving it its limbs back.
While their design may vary between games, ambulances are generally depicted either as lifebuoy-shaped hovering devices or as flying white vehicles with a big red cross painted on their roofs.
Description[]
The mechanic works practically the same in most games from the series; if the player's ship is hit by an enemy projectile or bumps into another enemy, they will lose an arm (that is, if they didn't outright explode); losing both arms will render them unable to throw Bombs to the ground anymore. At this point, an ambulance will appear on the screen and the player will then be able to make use of it in order to repair their ship, regaining any missing limbs.
A single ambulance is generally available per ship and/or per stage; so if the player has already made use of one and they lose another arm afterward, they won't be able to restore it until the current level has been completed. However, some games allow an infinite use of ambulances if playing on the Easy difficulty setting, regardless if the player has already used one in a given stage.
Gallery[]
Artworks[]
Sprites[]
_-_01.gif "Ambulance - TwinBee (arcade) - 01.gif (2 KB)")
_-_01.png "Ambulance - TwinBee (Famicom) - 01.png (910 bytes)")
Cameos[]
Trivia[]
- Scenes with Doctor Peach in the anime and other related media can sometimes be seen accompanied by the appearance of ambulances, probably being a reference to their appearances in the games.
- The ambulance makes a cameo appearance in the background of the Donburi Island Stage in Otomedius Excellent.