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[ROMhack]

Do doo doo do doo doo

Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
Director: Kazuhiro Kinoshita, Seiichi Nakakuki
Composer: Kazuko Umino, Yasuko Yamada
Platforms: 3DO, Game Gear, PC, PSP, Neo Geo CD, Neo Geo MVS, Switch, PS4, SNES, WonderSwan, Xbox One, iOS, Android

Story and Background

In the year 2028, a devastating virus is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. Scores of countries around the world lose their populations instantly and the threat of even greater catastrophe looms when agriculture ceases to exist. It prompts brainiac scientists across the globe to come together create Neo Soya, a delicious fruity snack available for at all major retailers.

Neo Soya becomes the meal du jour but inadvertently turns the remaining population into a hoard of miniature monsters. With nothing left to live for, the remaining population devise a new sport: shooting bubbles at other bubbles of same color. Two major competitors emerge who dominate the sport for the next two thousand years: the blue one and the green one. All the while, jaunty chip-tune music plays in the background.

Puzzle Bobble is the 1994 tile-matching game you’ve probably played a whole bunch of times. Seriously, it’s on every platform under god’s green sun. It was created by the Taito Corporation and as far as I’m concerned is the second-best puzzle game ever made after Tetris.

It features a whole bunch of cute Japanese things, which weebs fans of Japanese anime would describe as 'Chibi' - pronounced Chibus, or Chybus. The idea behind it derives from an earlier title called Bubble Bobble (1986), which is presumable where the green dude met his blue friend and they came up with the idea for this deliciously addictive game.

Gameplay

At any one time, you have a colored bubble. Using the magic of directional controls you then aim left and right. Once you think your aim aligns to a bubble of the same color you press a button. Matching three of these together creates magic and they all disappear. You repeat this over and over again until all of the bubbles have gone away. All the while, you’re under a timer and should you fail to clear all of the bubbles in time then the world implodes and you have to pop a virtual quarter back into the machine to start again.

Beating all of the stages - known colloquially as ‘rounds’ - achieves very little except feelings of pleasure for having beaten the game. Two players can play together at once. It’s important to type your name out as ASS no matter what your score.

Music

The sound was composed by Kazuko Umino and Yasuko Yamada. They used a YM2610B, a fifteen-channel sound chip developed by Yamaha. It features a whopping four concurrent FM channels, two interval timers, a low frequency oscillator, and six ADPCM fixed pitch channels. These run at 18.5 kHz and achieve a sampling rate of 12-bit.

No, I don’t know what any of this means.




Fun Facts

• The game is called Bust-a-Move in North America and for the life of me I can’t figure out the difference between it and Puzzle Bobble. I don’t think there’s any difference.
• There’s at least 15 versions of the game, including an Azumanga Daioh version.
• The green and blue characters are named, Bub (green) and Bob (blue). They like to eat pizza and watch Netflix together after work.
• Each colored bubble features a unique Kanji character.
• The game forbids putting ‘SEX’ into the high score ranking. If you do, it reverts to ‘AAA’.

Good Reads

Puzzle Bubble - Arcade History

Loads of technical information if you’re into that kinda thing. Also a breakdown of the scoring.

History of the Taito Corporation

Read about how they began by selling imported sundry goods and vodka!

Puzzle Bobble - Retronauts (Podcast)

An audible, better version of this article

You, I Want Your Thoughts!

Did you somehow not play this game?!

Did you ever beat it? (trick question, nobody did)

Who would you back in a fight to the death, Bub or Bob?

What are other good puzzle games, besides Tetris and Lumines?

–ROM

Edit: Also make sure to check out DunDunDunpachi 's ridiculously detailed post about VS. Puzzle games (link).

 

[ROMhack]

P.s. I messed up the title

 

[ClanOfNone]

We had a neo-geo cab with Puzzle Bobble in the movie theater where I worked in high school. A few of us were always competing on the high score list.
I came in one day, and it was gone, however serviced our arcade games had swapped out the cart. Sam Sho 2 replaced it, and that lessened the sting a bit, but I missed my PB.

 

[ROMhack]

We had a neo-geo cab with Puzzle Bobble in the movie theater where I worked in high school. A few of us were always competing on the high score list.
I came in one day, and it was gone, however serviced our arcade games had swapped out the cart. Sam Sho 2 replaced it, and that lessened the sting a bit, but I missed my PB.

Was this in the 90s? I used to love finding those old retro arcades when I went on holiday. It was pretty rare to find them in the UK.

 

[ClanOfNone]

Yeah, it was the early 90's. Arcades were already starting to fade over here by then, by 2000 they were mostly gone.
Super glad that I grew up in the heyday of arcades, it was an awesome time to be a kid.

 

[buizel]

It was also Bust a Move in PAL regions (it flipped flopped back and forth between names), such as my personal fave: Bust a Move 2 DX. Because of this song

 

[Domisto]

In the year 2028, a devastating virus is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. Scores of countries around the world lose their populations instantly and the threat of even greater catastrophe looms when agriculture ceases to exist. It prompts brainiac scientists across the globe to come together create Neo Soya, a delicious fruity snack available for at all major retailers. Neo Soya becomes the meal du jour but inadvertently turns the remaining population into a hoard of miniature monsters. With nothing left to live for, the remaining population devise a new sport: shooting bubbles at other bubbles of same color. Two major competitors emerge who dominate the sport for the next two thousand years: the blue one and the green one. All the while, jaunty chip-tune music plays in the background.

I almost believe you... because Japan.



And no, I've only ever played imitations of this classic. To my shame. And there are so many games based on this.

 

[ROMhack]

It was also Bust a Move in PAL regions (it flipped flopped back and forth between names), such as my personal fave: Bust a Move 2 DX. Because of this song

Yes! That's what confused me. I had that exact version on PSX and couldn't figure out why they kept changing the name.

 

[CeeJay]

Excellent puzzle game based on my favourite all time classic non scrolling arcade platformer.

Other good puzzle games that come to mind from that era are Klax, Arkanoid and Pipemania.

 

[angelic]

I hate the name Bust A Move It's Puzzle Bobble.

And Taito should sue Bubble Witch into the ground.

 

[Mr Nash]

It's times like this that I really wish Square Enix would bring out a robust classics compilation of Taito games rather than just letting all of those IPs they bought up gather dust in their vault.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Nice thread! This game is so difficult for me without the dotted guide (to help judge trajectories). Bad shots can really screw you over. I'm terrible at this franchise.

But I still enjoy it! Puzzle Bobble 3 on Saturn is the version I own.

What are other good puzzle games, besides Tetris and Lumines?
–ROM

Come check out the Vs Puzzle OT because there's a lot of good ones in there. The first three that popped into my head were Magical Drop III, Puyo Puyo, and Meteos.

 

[Enjay]

Wishing OP luck with their future wordpress site.

 

[Saber]

I aways wished to play this games on the arcades here, but at the time I was very inexperienced and tend to get lose easly in the game.

I kinda played a fake version of this game in my smartphone years ago and it was kinda satisfying. It's a charming game indeed.

Also, I have no idea of the name differences. Here it was called Puzzle Bubble.

 

[SALMORE]

i have the game on most of my systems Just bought it for the Switch !

 

[ROMhack]

Nice thread! This game is so difficult for me without the dotted guide (to help judge trajectories). Bad shots can really screw you over. I'm terrible at this franchise.

But I still enjoy it! Puzzle Bobble 3 on Saturn is the version I own.


Come check out the Vs Puzzle OT because there's a lot of good ones in there. The first three that popped into my head were Magical Drop III, Puyo Puyo, and Meteos.

Awesome. I'll read through that when I've got a bit of time. I've added a link to the OP.

Wishing OP luck with their future wordpress site.

Haha, for now I'm enjoying posting exclusively on the GAF.

 

[Mr Nash]

Wishing OP luck with their future wordpress site.

Hopefully he'll be a man of discerning taste and make a Neocities page instead.

 

[hariseldon]

Wishing OP luck with their future wordpress site.

You should never wish WordPress on anyone. Not even your worst enemy.

 

[lock2k]

Do doo doo do doo doo

Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
Director: Kazuhiro Kinoshita, Seiichi Nakakuki
Composer: Kazuko Umino, Yasuko Yamada
Platforms: 3DO, Game Gear, PC, PSP, Neo Geo CD, Neo Geo MVS, Switch, PS4, SNES, WonderSwan, Xbox One, iOS, Android

Story and Background

In the year 2028, a devastating virus is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. Scores of countries around the world lose their populations instantly and the threat of even greater catastrophe looms when agriculture ceases to exist. It prompts brainiac scientists across the globe to come together create Neo Soya, a delicious fruity snack available for at all major retailers.

Neo Soya becomes the meal du jour but inadvertently turns the remaining population into a hoard of miniature monsters. With nothing left to live for, the remaining population devise a new sport: shooting bubbles at other bubbles of same color. Two major competitors emerge who dominate the sport for the next two thousand years: the blue one and the green one. All the while, jaunty chip-tune music plays in the background.

Puzzle Bobble is the 1994 tile-matching game you’ve probably played a whole bunch of times. Seriously, it’s on every platform under god’s green sun. It was created by the Taito Corporation and as far as I’m concerned is the second-best puzzle game ever made after Tetris.

It features a whole bunch of cute Japanese things, which weebs fans of Japanese anime would describe as 'Chibi' - pronounced Chibus, or Chybus. The idea behind it derives from an earlier title called Bubble Bobble (1986), which is presumable where the green dude met his blue friend and they came up with the idea for this deliciously addictive game.

Gameplay

At any one time, you have a colored bubble. Using the magic of directional controls you then aim left and right. Once you think your aim aligns to a bubble of the same color you press a button. Matching three of these together creates magic and they all disappear. You repeat this over and over again until all of the bubbles have gone away. All the while, you’re under a timer and should you fail to clear all of the bubbles in time then the world implodes and you have to pop a virtual quarter back into the machine to start again.

Beating all of the stages - known colloquially as ‘rounds’ - achieves very little except feelings of pleasure for having beaten the game. Two players can play together at once. It’s important to type your name out as ASS no matter what your score.

Music

The sound was composed by Kazuko Umino and Yasuko Yamada. They used a YM2610B, a fifteen-channel sound chip developed by Yamaha. It features a whopping four concurrent FM channels, two interval timers, a low frequency oscillator, and six ADPCM fixed pitch channels. These run at 18.5 kHz and achieve a sampling rate of 12-bit.

No, I don’t know what any of this means.




Fun Facts

• The game is called Bust-a-Move in North America and for the life of me I can’t figure out the difference between it and Puzzle Bobble. I don’t think there’s any difference.
• There’s at least 15 versions of the game, including an Azumanga Daioh version.
• The green and blue characters are named, Bub (green) and Bob (blue). They like to eat pizza and watch Netflix together after work.
• Each colored bubble features a unique Kanji character.
• The game forbids putting ‘SEX’ into the high score ranking. If you do, it reverts to ‘AAA’.

Good Reads

Puzzle Bubble - Arcade History

Loads of technical information if you’re into that kinda thing. Also a breakdown of the scoring.

History of the Taito Corporation

Read about how they began by selling imported sundry goods and vodka!

Puzzle Bobble - Retronauts (Podcast)

An audible, better version of this article

You, I Want Your Thoughts!

Did you somehow not play this game?!

Did you ever beat it? (trick question, nobody did)

Who would you back in a fight to the death, Bub or Bob?

What are other good puzzle games, besides Tetris and Lumines?

–ROM

Edit: Also make sure to check out DunDunDunpachi 's ridiculously detailed post about VS. Puzzle games (link).

I've been on a Puzzle Bobble kick lately. Such a wonderful classicthat aged as gracefully as Tetris IMHO.

 

[ROMhack]

Timely...

After years in the wilderness there’s finally going to be a new Bubble Bobble game, with a four-player sequel coming to Switch. The fact that Rainbow Islands is one of the best games ever made is a fact now sadly forgotten by most gamers, with the game no longer being easily available on any modern format. The same is true of its predecessor Bubble Bobble, which was one of the great co-op arcade games of the 80s but which has also now been largely forgotten. But no longer. Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is a four-player co-op game for Switch and will be out in Europe on 19 November, which unusually is earlier than the spring 2020 release date for America.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/08/14/bubb...ntendo-switch-exclusive-10572367/?ito=cbshare