Bubble Bobble

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Bubble Bobble
Bubble bobble.jpg
Promotional sales flyer
Developer(s)Taito
Publisher(s)
  • JP: Taito
  • US: Romstar
  • EU: Electrocoin
Designer(s)Fukio Mitsuji
Composer(s)Tadashi Kimijima
SeriesBubble Bobble
Platform(s)
Release
  • JP: September 1986
  • NA: 1986
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
CabinetUpright

Bubble Bobble[a] is a platform game by Taito, first released in arcades in 1986[2] and later ported to home systems by Toei Company.[3] The game, starring the twin Bubble Dragons Bub and Bob, tasks players with traveling through one hundred stages, blowing and bursting bubbles, jumping on and off blown bubbles to navigate level obstacles, dodging and eliminating enemies. The main goal of the game is to rescue Bub and Bob's girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters.

The player can collect a variety of items including some that carry power-ups and significant bonuses.[2] For example, the red shoe allows Bub and Bob to move faster, while wrapped candies cause Bub and Bob to blow bubbles faster, and blow bubbles at greater distances. Other items, such as umbrellas, allow to skip numerous levels, moving closer to the final level.[4] The game has multiple endings, which depend on the player's performance and discovery of secrets.[5]

The creator of Bubble Bobble, the late Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ), went on to create other games such as Rainbow Islands, Syvalion, and Volfied.[6]

Gameplay[edit]

Arcade screenshot

In the game's plot, "Baron Von Blubba" has kidnapped the brothers Bubby and Bobby's girlfriends and turned the brothers into Bubble Dragons, Bub and Bob. Bub and Bob have to finish 100 levels in the Cave of Monsters in order to rescue them.[7]

In the game, each player controls one of the two dragons. Players can move along platforms, fall to lower ones, and jump to higher ones and over gaps. Each level is limited to a single screen, with no scrolling; however, if a screen has gaps in its bottom edge, players can fall through these and reappear at the top. Each level has a certain number of enemies that must be defeated in order to advance. The players must blow bubbles to trap the enemies, then burst these bubbles by colliding with them. Each enemy defeated in this manner turns into a food item that can be picked up for extra points. Defeating multiple enemies at once awards higher scores and causes more valuable food items to appear. All bubbles will float for a certain length of time before bursting on their own; players can jump on these and ride them to otherwise inaccessible areas.[5] Magic items appear from time to time and grant special abilities and advantages when picked up. Special bubbles occasionally appear that can be burst to attack enemies with fire, water, or lightning. Furthermore, if a player collects letter bubbles to form extend, a bonus life is earned and both players immediately advance to the next level.

A player loses one life upon touching any free enemies or their projectiles (rocks, fireballs, lasers, bottles). Enemies turn "angry"—turning pink in color and moving faster—if they escape from a bubble after being left too long or the players spend a certain amount of time on the current level. They return to normal if either player loses a life. After a further time limit expires, an additional invincible enemy appears for each player, actively chasing them using only vertical and horizontal movements. These disappear once the level is cleared, or when a player loses a life. When there is only one enemy left, it immediately becomes angry and remains in this state until defeated.

In the 100th and final level, players face a boss.[5][7][8] This is one of the first games to feature multiple endings. Completing Level 100 in single-player mode reveals a message stating that the game has not truly ended and a hint to the player: "Come here with your friend." If two players complete the game, they see a "happy end", in which the brothers are transformed to their human selves and reunited with their girlfriends. This ending also includes a code that, when deciphered, allows the game to be played in the faster and more difficult "super" mode. If this mode is completed with two players, a second "happy end" is displayed in which Super Drunk (the defeated boss) is revealed to be the brothers' parents under the control of some outside influence. The brothers return to normal and are reunited with their parents and girlfriends.[7]

Development[edit]

Bubble Bobble was designed by Fukio Mitsuji, a Japanese game designer at Taito. A fan of arcade games by Namco, specifically Xevious, Mitsuji felt that Taito's output by comparison were lackluster and of poor quality, hoping that he could help push the company to produce higher-quality arcade titles.[9] His first game was the four-screen racer Super Dead Heat in 1985, followed by the shoot'em up Halley's Comet the same year.[9] After work on these two games was completed, Mitsuji set out to make his next project a platform game, featuring cute characters and a more comical setting compared to his previous works.[9][10]

Mitsuji wanted the game to exhilarating and to appeal towards a female audience.[9] Thinking about what kind of things women like to draw or sketch, Mitsuji created an extensive list of over 100 ideas, and after a process of elimination selected bubbles as the core game mechanic.[9] He liked the idea of the screen being filled with bubbles, and thought that popping them would provide a thrilling sensation to the player, fueling them to keep going.[10][9] The player originally controlled a robot with a spike on its head to pop bubbles — Mitsuji disliked it for not being "cool", instead replacing them with dinosaurs due to them possessing rigid plates along their back.[9] He liked to write down ideas on paper as soon as he thought of them, often flooding his office with stacks of paper filled with potential ideas for game mechanics.[9]

Mitsuji constantly tried to think of new ways to make the game better than it was before, saying to have lost sleep while trying to figure out how he could improve it.[9] He often worked on holidays and late at night to come up with new ideas for the game and to perfect it.[11] Several of the enemies were taken from Chack'n Pop (1983), an older Taito game that is often considered a precursor to Bubble Bobble.[12] Mitsuji intended the game to be played by couples, leading to the creation of the multiple endings, which differ based on player performance.[11][10] Bubble Bobble was released in Japan in September 1986.[13] Alongside Arkanoid, Taito licensed the game to Romstar for distribution in the United States later that year,[14] and to Electrocoin Automatics for Europe.[9]

Conversions[edit]

Bubble Bobble was ported to many home video game consoles and computers, including the Commodore 64, Amiga, Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX2 and Sega Master System — the last of these has two hundred levels as opposed to the arcade version's 100 levels, and was released in Japan as Final Bubble Bobble.[8] A version for the Sharp X68000 was developed by Dempa and released in 1994, which includes a gamemode paying homage to Mitsuji's later arcade game Syvalion, titled Sybubblun. Conversions for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color were respectively released in 1991 and 1996, the GBC port being named Classic Bubble Bobble.[8] A version of Bubble Bobble was also produced for the unreleased Taito WOWOW console.[15] In 1996, Taito announced that the source code for Bubble Bobble had been lost, leading to all subsequent home conversions to be reverse-engineered from an original arcade board.[8]

Reception[edit]

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame4.5/5 stars (NES)[16]
Crash90%[18]
CVG27/30[17]
EGM7.75/10 (GG)[19]
Sinclair User8/10[20]
Your Sinclair90%[21]
The Games Machine93%[22]
Zzap!6497% (C64)[23]
Award
PublicationAward
Zzap!64Gold Medal

Mean Machines gave the Game Boy port of the game a score of 91%, noting that while some changes had been made, the game played identical to the original arcade port and "provides much addiction and challenge".[24] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly stated that the Game Gear version is a faithful conversion of the original which works well in portable form. They particularly praised the simplicity of the gameplay concept and the graphics, and the two-player link option.[19]

Bubble Bobble has been listed by numerous publications among the greatest video games of all time. Your Sinclair magazine ranked the ZX Spectrum version at #58 in their "Top 100 Games of All Time" in 1993 based on reader vote.[25] Yahoo! ranked it at #71 in their "100 Greatest Computer Games Of All Time" in 2005 for its charming premise and cute character designs.[26] Stuff magazine listed it as part of their "100 Greatest Games" in 2008, while GamesTM magazine listed it in their "Top 100 Games" in 2010.[27] Stuff.tv ranked it at #47 in their Top 100 Games in 2009, saying "today's kids might laugh, but this was gold in 1986".[28] GamesRadar+ ranked it at #95 in their "100 Best Games Of All Time" list in 2011, praising its multiplayer and secrets.[29] GamesRadar+ also labeled it the 24th greatest Nintendo Entertainment System of all time in 2012 for its advancements over other games of its genre and its usage of multiple endings.[30] Hardcore Gaming 101 listed it in their book The 200 Best Video Games of All Time in 2015.[31] Game Informer placed it in their "Top 300 Games of All Time" in 2018 for its long-lasting appeal and multiplayer.[32]

Legacy[edit]

Re-releases[edit]

In October 2005, a version was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Windows as part of the Taito Legends compilation.

At the end of 2006, a new port for mobile phones in Europe and Japan was released.[citation needed]

On December 24, 2007, the NES version of Bubble Bobble was released in North America on Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii.[33] The Famicom version of Bubble Bobble was also released for the Nintendo eShop on October 16, 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS and on January 29, 2014 for the Wii U.[34][35][33]

On November 11, 2016, the game was included in the NES Classic Edition.[36]

Sequels[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Japanese: バブルボブル Hepburn: Baburu Boburu

References[edit]

  1. ^ "FM Towns ROM Archive". Bubble Bobble FM Towns ROM.
  2. ^ a b "Bubble Bobble Video Game by Taito (1986)". The International Arcade Museum. Retrieved 2009-10-04.
  3. ^ "Bubble Bobble & Rainbow Islands games". Mobygames.com. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  4. ^ "Bubble Bobble/Special items — StrategyWiki, the video game walkthrough and strategy guide wiki". Strategywiki.org. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  5. ^ a b c Dawes, Adam (September 2004), "Bubble Trouble", Retro Gamer, Imagine Publishing (8): 36–41, retrieved 2013-01-11
  6. ^ dreamkatcha (April 2, 2016). "Remembering Fukio Mitsuji". Everythingamiga.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  7. ^ a b c "Bubble Memories", Retro Gamer, Imagine Publishing (95): 26–35, October 2011
  8. ^ a b c d Campbell, Stuart (July 2006), "The Definitive - Bubble Bobble", Retro Gamer, Imagine Publishing (28): 58–68
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Fukio "MTJ" Mitsuji - 1988 Developer Interview". BEEP!. 1988. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  10. ^ a b c CVG Staff (26 August 2005). "Bubble Bobble creator speaks!". Computer + Video Games. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  11. ^ a b Mitsuji, Fukio (28 July 2005). Taito Memories Jōkan — Fukio Mitsuji Interview. Taito. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  12. ^ "Chack 'N Pop - Videogame by Taito". Killer List of Videogames. Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  13. ^ Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). タイトー (Taito); Romstar; B. アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. pp. 43, 130, 148. ISBN 978-4990251215.
  14. ^ "Bubble Bobble - Videogame by Taito". Killer List of Videogames. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  15. ^ Szczepaniak, John (11 August 2014). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers (Firstition ed.). p. 363. ISBN 978-0992926007. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  16. ^ Couper, Chris. "Bubble Bobble-Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  17. ^ "Bubble Bobble Review". C+VG. October 1987. pp. 14–15. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  18. ^ "Bubble Bobble Review", Crash (45): 132–133, October 1987, archived from the original on 2006, retrieved 2012-08-10
  19. ^ a b "Review Crew: Bubble Bobble". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis (63): 42. October 1994.
  20. ^ "Bubble Bobble Review". Sinclair User. October 1987. p. 50. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  21. ^ "Bubble Bobble Review", Your Sinclair (69): 56, September 1991, archived from the original on 2006, retrieved 2012-08-10
  22. ^ "Bubble Bobble Review". The Games Machine. November 1987. p. 66. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  23. ^ "Bubble Bobble Review", Zzap!64, Newsfield Publications (30): 12, October 1987, retrieved 2014-06-23
  24. ^ "Bubble Bobble Review". Mean Machines (23). August 1992. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  25. ^ "Let the People Decide", Your Sinclair (93): 11, September 1993, archived from the original on 16 August 2006, retrieved 2014-06-24
  26. ^ "The 100 Greatest Computer Games Of All Time". Yahoo! Video Games. 2005. p. 8. Archived from the original on 30 July 2005. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  27. ^ "GamesTM Top 100". GamesTM (100). October 2010.
  28. ^ "Top 100 Games - Bubble Bobble". Stuff.tv. 2009. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  29. ^ "The 100 best games of all time". GamesRadar. April 1, 2011. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  30. ^ "Best NES Games of all time", GamesRadar, 2012-04-16, retrieved 2013-12-05
  31. ^ "HG101 Presents: The 200 Best Video Games of All Time". hardcoregaming101.net. December 5, 2015. Archived from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  32. ^ "The Top 300 Games of All Time". Game Informer. No. 300. April 2018.
  33. ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-10-13. Retrieved 2018-10-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  34. ^ "BUBBLE BOBBLE | ニンテンドー3DS | 任天堂". 任天堂ホームページ (in Japanese).
  35. ^ "BUBBLE BOBBLE | Wii U | 任天堂". 任天堂ホームページ.
  36. ^ "Nintendo's releasing a miniature NES console packed with 30 classic games". PCWorld.com. July 14, 2016.
  37. ^ "스코넥 Mobile | Mobile News". Web.archive.org. June 21, 2017.
  38. ^ "Bubble Bobble 4 Friends announced". Metro. August 14, 2019.
  39. ^ "Bubble Bobble 4 Friends launches March 31, 2019 in North America". Gematsu. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  40. ^ Lada, Jenni (29 November 2019). "Amazon Japan Bubble Bobble 4 Friends Cyber Monday Deal Gives People Final Bubble Bobble". Siliconera. Retrieved 20 December 2019.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bubble_Bobble&oldid=957612967"