I’ve long considered Bubble Bobble to be one of the most perfect arcade games ever released. It came out at the tail end of the single screen limitation that many of these titles faced, but it had much better execution than most of them. It was a pretty big hit, and because of its simple visuals the game was released on just about every major home platform of the time and for several versions of PC. I was too young to remember the original arcade machine. In fact my first exposure to the wonderful world of Bubble Bobble was the version released for the eight bit Nintendo, and that cartridge is the subject of review for today. My brother and I were always on the look out for co-op games, and so this was a no-brainer when we hit up the rental store one faithful Friday night in my childhood. We both instantly fell in love with it so much that we still occasionally return to the game. It has become somewhat of a New Years Eve tradition for us to complete the title before the stroke of midnight. You can probably already guess that I love this title even today, but that’s not going to stop me from telling you why Bubble Bobble is one of the true 8-bit classics.
The story is very simple. You play as a cutesy and colorful baby dinosaur who has the innate ability to shoot bubbles from your mouth. In any other game it would be fire, but bear with me because these bubbles pack a wallop. This little guy’s girlfriend has been captured and dragged off to the cave of monsters which consists of one hundred different areas, and it’s up to your little guy to defeat all of the enemies and eventually face off from a giant version of the game’s generic foe. This is one of the early games to offer multiple endings, and it’s entirely based on how you defeat the final boss. This is a very cool feature but there’s no retries. You need to keep both players alive until the very end to get the good ending.
The game itself is a two dimensional single screen action platformer. You can move left/right, jump, and shoot bubbles. Your goal in every stage is to defeat all on-screen enemies and at this point you’re whisked away to the next area. Each level is a single screen consisting of platforms and obstacles that form some very creative designs. When hit with bubbles enemies are encased within them, and when you jump on top of them they’re destroyed and leave behind food items that grant you extra points. Your character can only take one hit before they perish, but at this point you’re thrown right back into the action. Losing all of your lives results in a game over but thankfully you can continue from the stage you left off on.
The real highlight of Bubble Bobble is in its two player mode. Gameplay here is simultaneous with one player manning Bub and the other Bob. The reason it’s so interesting is because of the bubble mechanics. There’s just so much to do with them. Not only can you encase enemies within them, but they can also be used as platforms. If you hold the jump button your character will repeatedly jump off of them, and this feature is often required in the stages. It definitely helps if one player continuously blows bubbles and the other uses them to reach a higher level. In addition either player can pop encased enemies that the other trapped making for some awesome co-operative experiences. Should one player lose all of their lives the other can sacrifice one of theirs to bring them back for another chance.
What also helps to mix things up are the power-ups. These aren’t particularly common, and because of this they’re very special. One increases the distance that your bubbles travel after being blown, another makes your character move significantly faster, and a third changes your primary projectile to fireballs that destroy all enemies in their path. There’s even one that allows you to shoot bubbles with lightning bolts in them that discharge upon being popped. The craziest of the bunch however is an umbrella which instantly allows you to skip a specific number of stages based upon its color. Some levels feature additional elements such as bubbles full of water that unleash a wave that flows along all surfaces until it reaches the bottom of the stage.
Graphics are very simple in this game. The backgrounds offer absolutely no variety and are all black. We aren’t even given drawings to paint a better picture. That’s not an issue though and seems to be a common element in most arcade games from those times. The characters feature only a rudimentary number of frames, but it looks decent enough that there’s no real issue. One of my pet peeves is when there’s virtually no difference between them walking and standing, and that’s a problem here. Still, Bubble Bobble is one colorful game. The barriers in each stage are all colored differently which helps to differentiate them from one another. What’s cool is the fact that the developers had a lot of fun with these designs. They often spell out words or make out shapes. I still find myself chuckling over some of these, and though I don’t remember the specific number these stages are designated as I recall them based on their unique designs.
The soundtrack is a mixed bag. First of all there are only two different themes in the entire game. You have the same song playing throughout all of the standard levels. I always think I’ll be tired of it considering the game is one hundred levels long, but that’s never the case because it’s incredibly catchy and happy go lucky. The main theme is iconic, and I love it. The only change is the final boss music but this too is well composed but significantly darker. Despite the limited soundtrack I really like the audio here.
Bubble Bobble is a true classic. This is the game that makes me sad that Taito is no longer an independent company. Chances are that if you own a system from the 80s then you have access to it; Bubble Bobble was by no means an exclusive to the Nintendo Entertainment System. My dream is to one day own an arcade cabinet for it, but for now I’m happy just playing the 8-bit Nintendo version while I bide my time.
