A couple weeks ago I rediscovered a long lost passion of mine. A game I had almost forgotten. Luckily browsing through the RFGen NES High Score thread reminded me to dig out one of my all time favorite games.

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Originally an arcade release Bubble Bobble was ported to the NES in 1988. It was the same basic game with a few changes to things like scoring, items and gameplay.

Each level takes place in just one screen. The game is very simplistic and I think that's a huge part of the appeal. Its one of those games that anyone can pick up and play instantly, but only few can master it.


Gameplay is so simple its almost ridiculous. B button shoots bubbles out, A button makes character jump, D-Pad moves you left or right. Your objective is to capture each enemy in a bubble (which you spit out of your mouth) and then pop that bubble causing the enemy to turn into delicious fruit!! It makes about as much sense as most other games at the time, but who cares about that. In later levels some advanced techniques are required such as jumping on your bubbles to make it to higher ledges or popping an enemy the second he touches you (so that he pops as he is being captured).

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There is a pretty good variety of helpful items that appear during your adventure to help out. Some of them clear the screen, some give a bonus game, some give extra lives, some are powerups, some let you skip a few levels, but many are just score boosters.

If taking too long to complete levels a skeletal whale named Baron Von Blubba will appear and chase you around the screen getting faster and faster until he either kills you or you clear all other baddies from the screen. This makes getting highscores challenging as you can't take your time on many levels.

Two Player mode is pretty much a must with this title. All levels remain the same, the only difference is you can have a friend play along with you. Its helpful on some levels and hurtful on others, but always fun (even when frustrating). I spent many nights with old roommates popping our way to level 100 and then doing it again right after. With infinite continues its really newb friendly.

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Bubble Bobble has it all: Huge amount of unique levels and enemies, massive (and fun) end boss, secret levels and endings, extra mode after finishing the regular game, excellent single or multiplayer fun and of course a high score counter. As a fairly cheap title I'd suggest grabbing this game first chance you get if you don't already own one. Its easily one of the best NES games, and in my books simply one of the best games out there. Plus the whole plotline is that a drunk stole your girlfriends. That's awesome!!

Score 9.5/10

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