Twinkle Tale

Twinkle Tale is a run and gun game that is played in a top-down perspective similar to Étoile Princesse, Kiki Kaikai and Mercs, where the players take control of Saria, the main protagonist of the game, through nine stages of varying thematic set in the land of Alpherion where the main objective is to rescue each of the great wizards of the land and recover the kingdom's powerful gemstones from Gadou, one of the main antagonists of the game by defeating one of his servants, along with one of his creations that act like a boss at the end of the stage in to progress further through the game. The player has access to the options menu at the title screen before starting the game, where various settings can be adjusted such as controls and difficulty configurations.

Some of the levels featured are linear courses where the player must run, shoot, and dodge obstacles and enemies. Several stages are non-linear, however, with various paths that encourage the player to explore and find items. The player can find many types of item hidden in treasure chests, such as star-marked orbs that increase the number of times Saria can use magic, magical bombs, and vials that restore the player's health. If the player is fully powered up, the items will instead grant different bonuses.

In the beginning, darkness and silence prevailed before the creation of the world until three lights red, green and blue were born within. Desiring domination, these light began in trying to destroy each one until their constant conflict spawned two black and white lights in the process. Wanting peace, the white light confined the other four lights and itself into gemstones representative of their colors which, after their powers were in complete harmony, the land of Alpherion was born as a result, where the events of Twinkle Tale takes place. Saria, a young apprentice magician, is summoned by her mentor on going to the Picket Village in order to consult the fortune teller Raza about an important matter that day.

When being inquired by the young apprentice magician, Raza alerts her of a rebellion stirred by the dark wizard Gadou with his legion of monsters by capturing the great wizards of Alpherion, one of which being the young apprentice's mentor, that could potentially lead Alpherion fall under his control if he is not stopped. As a result, Raza bestows upon Saria three magical items so she can go and defeat Gadou and his forces.

Twinkle Tale was the last game to be created by ZAP Corporation, who previously worked on projects such as the conversion of Summer Games for the Master System and Dead Moon for the TurboGrafx-16 before the company was disbanded after its release, although they are not credited as such in the credits of the game or the manual. It was published by Wonder Amusement Studio, a subsidiary of Japanese record label company Toyo Recording, exclusively in Japan on 24 July 1992, becoming the only title to be released under their game publishing label. Early previews showcased the side status bar with a different art style, which was changed before release. Twinkle Tale has not been officially released outside Japan, but an English fan translation exists.

Twinkle Tale received generally positive reviews. Famitsu gave it a score of 21 out of 40. Retro Gamer praised the game too.

Since its initial release, Twinkle Tale has become one of the rarest Mega Drive titles, alongside other coveted titles such as Alien Soldier and MUSHA, with copies of the game fetching over US$300 on the secondary video game collecting market.