There are two major types of classic games- those that were great for their time and those that hold up today. It’s easy to let nostalgia color the memory of a game, and having played it when it came out can hide any number of shortcomings that a brand-new player would get caught up on, but there are also games that are every bit as good today as they were on day of release. A perfect example of this would be Bubble Bobble on the NES, a port of an arcade game that managed the rare feat at the time of having a superior home conversion.
Two little dragons, Bub and Bob, blow bubbles that capture enemies and also act as fragile platforms for a well-timed jump. Hopping on top of a bubble and jumping the instant you land is a major technique to navigate the levels, while jumping directly into the bubble pops it and takes out any enemies that may be inside. Popping several enemies in a single burst gets higher-point item drops, and the levels are packed with bonuses and secrets that add a ton of replayability. The NES version of Bubble Bobble was the best-known entry in the US but it had several sequels, from the non-dragon-y Rainbow Islands to Bubble Symphony, Bubble Memories, and the most recent Bubble Bobble 4 Friends. There was a long gap where Bub and Bob got sidetracked from their original gameplay by the success of the classic puzzler Bust A Move, but now Bub at least is back for his classic gameplay in the newly-announce Bubble Bobble: Sugar Dungeons.
Review: Bubble Bobble 4 Friends
If you’ve ever enjoyed a Bubble Bobble game, you owe it to yourself to give Bubble Bobble 4 Friends a shot.
Arc System Works announced it’s working on Bubble Bobble: Sugar Dungeons today and it’s a mixed bag of classic gameplay and new elements. While the core game sticks to the classic single-screen filled with monsters you’ll need to clear in order to progress to the next, Sugar Dungeons is a single-player roguelike rather than a strictly-sequenced multiplayer arcade adventure. The levels are randomized, although it’s a bit early to say if that applies to the layout or if it’s a random order of hand-designed challenges, and between-run progression sees Bub power up with new and stronger skills in order to progress further in the next run. The announcement comes in the form of the traditional trailer, and um… yeah.
There’s no avoiding that the trailer isn’t showing Bubble Bobble: Sugar Dungeons in the best light, thanks to a soundtrack that turns the classic theme into muzak and an art style that’s mostly noticeable by its absence. Making the entire game’s theme centered around sugar snacks can also be politely described as a choice that was made, inoffensively generic and an all-time world record holder for Bland. Underneath it all it’s still going to be Bubble Bobble, though, so there’s plenty of reason to hope that the game can rise above whatever’s happening with its visual presentation. The last round of Bubble Bobble from Arc System Works, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, was mostly dinged for its length, and the addition of the roguelike and meta progression elements in Sugar Dungeons should go a long way towards helping with that. It’s been a long, long time since the NES classics of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands, but after all these years it’s still great to see the little dinos bubbling their enemies away.
