At a Glance
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