Thursday 27 October 2011

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES): Bubble Bobble

Year: 1990
Genre: Platformer
Players: 2
Our Rating: 8/10

Mini Review

Bubble Bobble for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was a huge retro gaming success. The game started its life in the arcade back in 1986 but had been ported to the NES (and other home consoles) by 1990. The aim of the game is to capture a range of colourful enemies in bubbles. You play one of the two lovable lizard-like creatures, in some editions these are named Bub and Bob but some editions leave the names absent. Your character must jump around the platform levels shooting at the enemies to collect them in a bubble. After the enemy is trapped, jumping on the bubble will pop the enemy and turn them in to bonus fruit.

After some time if the enemies are not captured they will become red and angry, at this point they will run at high speed around the level increasing the difficulty of capturing them in a bubble. The game is a true retro classic and creates lasting game play with it’s many secret bonuses and bubble upgrades. Firing a certain number of bubbles or collecting certain items will allow essential level warps. Most can only realistically be achieved with the help of a second player. Taito has a real hit with Bubble Bobble and had various sequels and spins offs just as successful such as Puzzle Bobble, Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars. Bubble Bobble is an essential retro game for your collection. I still tip my hat to the arcade version as still the best. However there are many retro game packages including this game and also re-makes on consoles such as the Nintendo DS. The cute characters, learning curve and classic sweeter than sweet theme tune make this game an essential part of any retro gamers collection.





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