In this new iteration, bubbles are a bit tougher to pierce through than they were way back in 1986. The aim of the game is to entrap cute bad guys in orbs of dragon saliva then burst the little blighters off the screen to reap the tasty fruits and sugary desserts that they leave behind. If you have never played Bubble Bobble before, the rules are very simple to grasp. But rather than just having the iconic Bub and Bob blasting through a collection of single-room stages, you now get to share the joy of four-player co-op with two new adorable allies called Peb and Pab.
As it happens, a brand new Bubble Bobble game has arrived exclusively for the Nintendo Switch where I can share both the arcade classic that resonates with me so dearly, as well as this swanky new updated version with my beloved family.īubble Bobble 4 Friends stays true to the original’s form of bite-sized, bubble blasting action that the late Fukio Mitsuji once originally designed for Taito. Many years have passed since then, and now I get the pleasure of watching my own children’s minds ticking and developing their own fond gaming memories.
In fact, I adored Bubble Bobble so much as a kid, that if I were to be asked to whistle something with a gun to my head it would almost certainly be the game’s melody. I remember scribbling down level codes and stashing them in the plastic black slip folders that the cartridges would sleep in before save states became a gaming standard. It was a game so simple to understand that even she – with very limited gaming coordination – could grasp its simple but ingenious mechanics. Back to when I would convince my younger cousin to play it with me so I didn’t have to endure the pain of watching yet another bloody Doris Day musical with her. Revisiting Bubble Bobble on the NES Classic Edition takes me back to one of my earliest gaming memories.