A game about cute dragons and bubbles can’t be that exciting, right? Wrong! This weeks Retro Recap is everyone’s favorite Bubble Bobble!
Another simple puzzle game that hooked many people, Bubble Bobble employed the simple mechanic of trapping enemies in bubble that your friendly little friend could blow and proceeding to pop them with your spines. Sounds like something that would be aimed at child, but the difficulty level as you progressed could bring the most hardened gamer down to their knees.
The name of the game was to save one of our loveable dragons girlfriends from a mass horde of enemies. Seeking revenge, Bub and Bob set out to vanquish as many foes as possible whilst progressing through each stage. The colorful stages and simple gameplay made Bubble Bobble one of those games that you got frustrated over, but wanted to play more and more. And once you got to grips and finally completed the game, you weren’t just satisfied.
One of the first early games to provide multiple endings depending on how well you performed during your ascent to the top. Each ending giving you the satisfaction of a job well done as well as revealing the fate of the dragons girlfriends in multiple scenarios. Bubble Bobble truly was a game that was ahead of its time.
Bubble Bobble has fun facts? Yeah it does!
- After the success of the initial Bubble Bobble game, the creators announced that they had, in fact, lost the original source code. All subsequent title were reversed engineered from this version
- The main 2 characters, Bub and Bob were originally created to appeal more to girls
- The original arcade version contained 100 levels
I didn’t get to spend a lot of my youth playing this game. However, I did get to experience this as I grew up, picking up the game on my Nintendo DS. If I had to describe this game, it would be summarized by frustratingly addictive, much like many current indie mobile games that we all know and love / hate.
As mentioned, Bubble Bobble gave multiple endings, a concept not seen in many games, even in recent mainstream titles. I personally enjoyed storming through trying to perfect my game and get the best ending possible, something which I’m actually still yet to achieve.
Did you play Bubble Bobble during its arcade days? Or were you similar to me and picked up the game more recently? Let us know in the comments section below!
