Bubble Bobble for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) – Great Video Games

Bubble Bobble was an arcade hit, and it was naturally ported to the NES console. The NES port as actually quite similar to the original game. I have so many memories of playing this game with my friends when I was around seven years old. This game is seriously beyond cute.

The concept was very simple. You were some kinda weird looking dragon lizard thing running around shooting bubbles out of your mouth at crazy looking enemies. They would get captured in the bubbles, and you would jump on them to send them flying the crap away. They would turn into fruit and stuff that you collected for points. Simple game, simple rules, hours of fun. Once you eliminated all the enemies, the game would transport you to the next screen. There were like around 100 levels or something! That made the game an epic adventure for us back then.

You might be surprised to learn that Bubble Bobble actually has a back story. Baron von Blubba stole Bub and Bobba’s girlfriends, and now they have to get through 100 levels in the “Cave of Monsters” in order to get their ladies back. Oh, and that Baron dude turned them into bubble dragons. Yeah, it’s convoluted, but it makes… sense? I can’t believe I’m saying that this makes sense. I’ve been writing about too many video games.

Despite the simplicity of the game, it was actually pretty epic. My friends and I tried to get through the whole game together – that was one of the major selling points. The cooperative 2 player mode was seriously addictive. The game started fairly easy, but pretty soon you were jumping around the screen like crazy while shooting bubbles. The level designs were very memorable and had lots of writing and shapes on them.

When the last enemy remained, he got angry and turned red. That would cause him to run around the screen like Sonic the Hedgehog. If you collected a skull item, the only bad item, this would also turn enemies angry. The game also featured multiple endings depending on how well you played the game, which was a novel concept at the time. And in usual Japense fashion, they screwed up the translation on the game's ending screens. That much we expect from most of these old NES games, though. It's almost like they did it on purpose just for a laugh.

I would say the only real problem with the game is that the music becomes horribly annoying after a while. This is a game that takes a fair amount of time to beat, and the music is so simple and repetitive. C’mon, Taito. Bubble Bobble should have at least had different tunes depending on how far you got in the game. Oh well.

Over all, this is a must play NES classic. The original Bubble Bobble on the NES is hours and hours of pure fun, and it’s even better with friends.

It always felt kinda weird to get all serious about beating this game, but you really did have to get hardcore to make it far in the game. The later levels could be very unforgiving. While there was a password system, the truly hardcore fans wanted to do a straight playthrough of the game. Just put on some different music, though. That tune in the game gets annoying enough to make you want to punch yourself in the face with a brick.