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Bubble Bobble 'genre'

D

dock

Member
1983-chanknpop.jpg

1983 Chank'n'pop (1 player only, not really a traditional platform game)

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1985 Fairyland Story (1 player only)

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1986 Bubble Bobble

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1989 Don Doku Don

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1991 Parasol Stars (consoles/computers only, no arcade version)

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1994 Bubble Symphony

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1995 Bubble Memories

I'm very interested in the single-screen 'Bubble Bobble' genre, so I thought I would try to chronicle the progress of the genre.

The appeal of this genre, in my opinion, is that it is amongst the most perfect co-op genre. Players can play together and make the game easier for themselves, and weaker players never 'fall behind' because they are brought along with every new stage. I think there is still potential in this genre, and that it hasn't been 'bettered' since the release of Bubble Bobble. Not even the Bubble Bobble sequels come close, because they introduce more 'fuss' into the controls and design of the game.

Can anyone else thing of notable examples of the genre that don't use scrolling areas and still have 2 players? These are all the Taito games that I can think of which meet this criteria, but there are also titles such as RodLand that fit the mould. I've ignored New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands and Liquid Kids because they are single player and using scrolling areas.
 
I wish they'd get Bubble Bobble on XBLA/PSN, for the life of me I don't know why, perhaps it's a licensing issue.
 
Taito did Exit on XBLA... I wouldn't mind if they gave BB the Extreme treatment on the handhelds or downloadables...
 
Snow Bros would count, I had forgotten about that. It has simultaneous 2 player mode too I believe.

meppi said:
You should really like Zupapa I think.
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Oh, this looks cool, I've never seen it before. I'm going to track it down and give it a try. It reminds me a lot of the Sparkle Island minigame from Thrillville.
 
I just did a google search for "Bubble Bobble clone" and came up with another title: Diet Go Go. Never heard of it, but it looks similar.

I also played another similar game with a Halloween theme years ago, but I can't remember the name of it. It played like Snow Bros., but you used fireballs instead of snowballs.
 
dock UK said:
Snow Bros would count, I had forgotten about that. It has simultaneous 2 player mode too I believe.
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Yup, it was 2 player mode, alright

There's a neo geo game called Nightmare In The Dark that plays similar to Snow Bros that might be worth checking out. I doubt it was ever ported to anything other than AES, though
n1wg1c.jpg


Tumblepop, Diet Go-go and RodLand have similar gameplay, too
 
I did pick up BBDS last week.. it's not bad, but far from great.

The two-screen action makes for some unfortunate deaths, some of the bosses are ridiculously difficult. The game still manages to maintain its charm, though, retro-music/characters/stages and all.
 
It's not very well known at all (klov) doesn't even have a page on it, but I remember playing Berlin Wall as a kid. It may be a hack/mod of another game but no information confirms that. One of those mystery games from my childhood.

Berlin_Wall_Arcade.png
 
jarrod said:
Anyone pick up Double Shot yet? Any good?
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I did, it's alright. It's a pretty difficult game with NO saving what so ever so I don't think I'll ever get to the end. It's typical bubble bobble gameplay but with added colour-coded enemies. The level design isn't great at times as they seem more concerned with the levels looking like things and so it's a bit awkward to get around some levels. Also if you lose all your lives you have to complete a crappy mini-game to continue, you'll randomly get 1 of 3 games that get progressively harder, but they are just tacked-on to make use of the touch screen.

It has co-op play too, but it's multi-cart only and I haven't tried it.

It would be a much better if you could actually save your game.
 
jarrod said:
I wouldn't mind if they gave BB the Extreme treatment on the handhelds or downloadables...
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This is possibly the sweetest idea ever.

*spends an afternoon dreaming of BB with combos and patterns and rates and what-not*
 
Nightmare in the dark is really fun if you like the bubble bobble type game. Maybe Buster Bros series could loosely fit in here to, they are single screen and have co-op.
 
Zigg, what do you mean by patterns and rates? How would you do an 'extreme/CE' edition of Bubble Bobble?

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Nightmare in the Dark came out in 2000, which is very late for this genre! Wow.
 
A few questions regarding the genre:

- What do you think of the ability to 'drop' through the floor by holding down and pressing jump? The Bubble Bobble games and all Taito games don't allow this, but the Data East and SNK titles do.

- Do you like the bubble bobble 'passageway' at the top and bottom of the screen? This strikes me as a good way to quickly get the player to the top of the screen, but other games don't seem to use it.

- Do you enjoy the Bubble Bobble Old + New facility for starting mid-way through the game, or with this sort of thing do you think it's okay to always start from the beginning?

It's true that it is weird that there is no online co-op version of these games. I wonder how they would respond to lag.
 
Eccocid said:
Anyone remember RODLAND on amiga?
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Yes, it was fantastic. Also loved Parasol Stars on the Amiga, wish both games got ported to more 16-bit consoles like the Mega Drive so I could own them again.
 
Gagaman said:
Yes, it was fantastic. Also loved Parasol Stars on the Amiga, wish both games got ported to more 16-bit consoles like the Mega Drive so I could own them again.
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Both games were also available on PC-Engine/TG16 (in fact Parasol Stars originated on there).

Parasol Stars was quite a let down for me at the time, I have to admit. I loved both Rainbow Islands and Bubble Bobble, but this didn't seem to capture the tight gameplay of either.
 
Tr4nce said:
Hell yeah. When i saw the thread title, the name 'Snow Bros.' immediately popped in my head. Awesome game.

snow0001.png
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unlike BB, snow bros was actually possible to complete with one coin/credit, pretty fun game.
 
I routinely beat bubble bobble with a single quarter in the arcade. It wasn't that difficult, you just needed to know all the tricks in the game and which levels to skip. If you played with a friend that was player 2 then they should sacrifice to save you since they could have unlimited men.
 
I'm a huge fan of any and all games in this genre. Bubble Symphony would have to be in my top five games of all time.
 
I'd regard Berlin Wall and Mr Do's Castle as more like evolutions of Space Panic than of Bubble Bobble.

Of course, then the question arises about whether you consider Space Panic to be another of BB's ilk or not. No jumping, but the kill-all-enemies single-screen approach fits most of the other criteria.

Also going off at a tangent, I'm never quite sure if I consider Pang in the same grouping. Its platforminess is very minor, even compared to the Space Panic lineage, but it still has a rather similar feel to the whole range.
 
fatboyee said:
I routinely beat bubble bobble with a single quarter in the arcade. It wasn't that difficult, you just needed to know all the tricks in the game and which levels to skip. If you played with a friend that was player 2 then they should sacrifice to save you since they could have unlimited men.
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Well, you couldn't actually finish Bubble Bobble in single player mode. You get the bad ending. You need a second player to finish it properly, but I get what you mean. I think my best was finishing it on second credit by myself. One credit if another player joined me. However I must admit that's using the Original Game and Power Up cheats.

It's a great game and my pants would be on the ceiling if either BB or Rainbow Islands got released on XBLAH. However I have to admit the style is rather tired these days.
 
mclem said:
I'd regard Berlin Wall and Mr Do's Castle as more like evolutions of Space Panic than of Bubble Bobble.
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Definitely. Also, it's one of the few cold-war themed cutesy single-screen games, so that's pretty niche and merits mention in case anyone was looking for one of those.
 
AstroLad said:
It's not very well known at all (klov) doesn't even have a page on it, but I remember playing Berlin Wall as a kid. It may be a hack/mod of another game but no information confirms that. One of those mystery games from my childhood.

Berlin_Wall_Arcade.png
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I remember playing Berlin Wall on arcade too, it was a real game as far as I know, not a hack/mod.

I couldn't remember what it was called for years, but I did have Wani Wani World for the Megadrive, which was a re-skinned port with cutesy dinosaurs, a little like Bubble Bobble - I guess they changed it because of the Berlin Wall theme.

1480.jpg
 
I just like saying Bubble Bobble.

Seriously, just say it out loud.

Bubble Bobble.

I bet you can't stop saying it. It's fun.

I have nothing further to contribute.
 
Night_Trekker said:
I also played another similar game with a Halloween theme years ago, but I can't remember the name of it. It played like Snow Bros., but you used fireballs instead of snowballs.
Click to expand...

atomico said:
There's a neo geo game called Nightmare In The Dark that plays similar to Snow Bros that might be worth checking out. I doubt it was ever ported to anything other than AES, though
n1wg1c.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow, and in the next post too. That's it.
 
FTWer said:
ahh Bubble Bobble, such an underrated game.
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Really? I always thought it was fairly highly regarded?

Anyway, I'm sooooo glad I have the Taito Memories (or whatever it's called) release for PS2 with this on it. Pop it in every now and then and play as long as I can stand it.

Still hoping Parasol Stars will see a VC release eventually...
 
I can't remember the name of the game, and it's not technically the same 'genre' but really close.

I loved that game where you shoot the vertical ropes and it pops the bubbles into smaller bubbles until eventually cleared. It plays in a similar level structure to the bubble bobble 'genre'.
 
Bubble Bobble ... one of my earliest arcade memories. Such a timeless classic, even nowadays I still love to play it.
 
Dirtbag 504 said:
I can't remember the name of the game, and it's not technically the same 'genre' but really close.

I loved that game where you shoot the vertical ropes and it pops the bubbles into smaller bubbles until eventually cleared. It plays in a similar level structure to the bubble bobble 'genre'.
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Puzzle Bobble?
 
I'm too a huge Bubble Bobble fan, been playing it since release, and play it at least once a month still.

I would die for a XBLA/PSN port
 
Dirtbag 504 said:
I can't remember the name of the game, and it's not technically the same 'genre' but really close.

I loved that game where you shoot the vertical ropes and it pops the bubbles into smaller bubbles until eventually cleared. It plays in a similar level structure to the bubble bobble 'genre'.
Click to expand...

Pang.
 
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