Bubble Bobble World

Bubble Bobble World is a remake of the classic 1986 game which spawned a host of spin-offs across multiple platforms. Play is very simple–so simple that although the help file went into detail about power ups, monsters, and the backstory, it did not actually specify how to play! Fortunately, it’s not hard. You control a small dragon named ‘Bub’ (in two player mode, someone else plays ‘Bob’), who travels a world composed of multiple platforms, which are often covered with food and always inhabited by inexplicably hostile beings. It is very much like being in the New York City subway system, except that you can breathe bubbles to trap your enemies, and once trapped, you can ‘non violently’ dispose of them by popping the bubble, causing the enemies to vanish. To play, you leap from platform to platform, dodging foes until you can trap them, and trying to grab all the food and power-up items (amulets, potions, and more) that you can. If an enemy touches you, you die; if you lose all your lives, the game ends. If you survive long enough, you will reach the final level, and victory! (If you survive…) As in most games of this type, Bubble Bobble world becomes progressively harder–there are more and faster enemies, including some who can attack from afar, the levels are more complex, and the effectiveness of your bubbles wanes. There are also strategies to learn–jump on a rising bubble to reach an otherwise unreachable platform. Bubble Bobble World is a game which can be learned in under a minute, and, in the full version, offers over a hundred levels of “Just one more try, I know I can beat it” fun. The current version does not work under Vista, and I noticed some slight graphical glitches under XP, but nothing which hindered gameplay. –Ian Harac