What is Bubble Bobble? A brief history, how to play it, and more

History

Baburu Boburu or Bubble Bobble as we like to call it was created and released for play in arcades in the year 1986 by Taito, the popular gaming publisher. The object of the game is to take the twin dragons, presumably named Bub and Bob (not to mention that they’re known as the Bubble Dragons) through the hundred programmed stages in the game as they both blow and burst the bubbles they come in contact with throughout the game.

They are also required to use the bubbles they come in contact with to navigate through the obstacles (they use them to propel themselves forward and to both destroy and dodge the stage’s enemies. Aside from that they also have the option to collect items that may or may not offer them different abilities or power-ups. A good example of this would be the red shoe item that allows both the dragons to move faster than they normally would or the candies that allow them to speed up their ability to blow bubbles as well as blow bubbles further than they typically would. Aside from this, The primary focus of this game is to navigate through the cave of monsters in an attempt to rescue both Bob and Bub’s girlfriends.

Download a Bubble Bobble ROM here

Special items in Bubble and Bobble

  • Candies:
    • Yellow: Rapidly Fire bubbles
    • Blue: Fast Moving Bubbles
    • Red: Fast run
    • Purple: Far moving bubbles
  • Rings
    • 500 pts per jump
    • 100 pts for blowing a bubble
    • 10 pts for moving a step
  • Lanterns
    • Purple: Kills all enemies, Makes 6K diamonds, Explosive
    • Light Blue: All rings
    • Yellow: All sweets
    • Red: All rings and all sweets
  • Crosses
    • Blue: Water flood, Makes 7K diamonds
    • Yellow: Big Lighting, Makes 8K diamonds
    • Red: Fire breathing, Makes 9K diamonds
  • Candy Canes and Treasure Chests
    • Candy Canes are 500 pts each
    • Treasure Chests are 1000 pts each
  • Potions
    • You collect each of these items until time runs out. If you manage to collect all the items you receive 100000 pts. If you’re playing a 2 person game the person who collects the most gets the 100000 pts while the other person gets 50000 pts. All items are worth 500 pts individually
      • Orange: Round orange items will fall through the screen 15 times
      • Red: Flowers will fall through the screen 16 times
      • Green: four-leafed clovers will fall through the screen 17 times
      • Yellow: Rainbows will fall through the screen 18 times
      • Purple: Music notes will fall through the screen 19 times
  • Rare Items
    • Clock: Will cause monsters to freeze
    • Bomb: 200 points explosion, makes 10k diamonds
    • Silver Bell: 1000 points chimes whenever there’s a monster near
    • Book: 3000 points explosion, makes 8K diamonds
    • Silver ring with small blue stone: 3000 points stars fall from the sky and turn monsters into 6k diamonds
    • Flashing Chack’n heart: 3000 points enemies freeze and you can run into them and kill them
    • Pink Necklace: 5000 points and you can bounce balls which kills monsters for 6K diamonds
    • Red Necklace: 4000 points and you get 10 free extend letters
    • Crystal Ball: 5000 points makes special items appear more quickly
    • Cigar: 100 points and acts like a yellow potion which makes the next 3 special items turn into potions
    • Silver Door: 1000 points takes you to a secret level
    • Gold Door: 3000 points and takes you from level 50 to level 70
    • Skull: 10 points and causes a comet to fly across the screen that causes monsters who come in contact with it to get angry
    • Red Bubble with a yellow pulse: 100000 points and gives you fire breath for 5 rounds
    • Lightning potion: 1000 points and lets you blow lightning bubbles

Gameplay

Video of Bubble Bobble Gameplay

Okay, so here’s the nitty-gritty on the game itself. Essentially the objective of the game is to go to the Cave of Monsters and rescue the brother’s girlfriends – it’s very simple. The brothers themselves weren’t dragons at first, however. They were turned into dragons by the infamous Baron Von Blubba. There are 100 different levels for the brothers to choose from to save their girlfriends though. There is a predetermined number of enemies on each level who must be destroyed. Before the player’s girlfriends can be saved all 100 levels must be finished.

If players are going through the game while it’s in 2 player mode then they each get control of one of the 2 dragons. To move along the game players can jump on to platforms, fall on to the lower ones, and jump over both the higher platforms and the gaps. Players get rid of enemies by blowing bubbles that encapsulate them and then running into them and popping them. Every enemy that gets defeated via bubble pop gets turned into a food item, that can be consumed for a few extra points. If you manage to destroy multiple enemies at a single time you are given higher scores which translates into higher quality food items. By the way, if you allow bubbles to float for a period of time on their own they will burst automatically. There are also special bubbles that appear from time to time that has certain attributes that can be used to attack enemies. If you manage to collect letter bubbles that spell the word EXTEND you will earn an extra life and will take both you and your gaming partner to the next level.

Enemies

You manage to lose a life in the game if you touch any enemy that isn’t trapped inside of a bubble or their attacks. Enemies have the ability to turn “angry” (which means that it turns pink and moves faster) if they are allowed to escape from a bubble or if you just so happen to take too long on a specific level. However, if either you or your partner lose a life the enemy will return to normal. If you spend more time on the level (and enemies have already gone angry) you then have to deal with an invincible enemy (2. 1 for both players) who can only use horizontal and vertical movements to catch you. However, once the level if over these enemies will disappear. If there comes a time when only one enemy remains that enemy will go into an angry state until it’s destroyed.

Ending

After you reach the final, 100th level you will have to face the boss. If you play the game in single-player mode you will see a message at the end of the game saying that you have to come back and play the game with a friend to see the true ending. After you beat the game with a friend you’ll see a message saying “Happy End” and both players will be turned back into humans and reunited with their female counterparts. You also get the option to play the game in Super mode (which is essentially a harder, faster version of the initial game). If you manage to defeat Super mode with 2 players you’ll find out that the boss, Super Drunk is actually the 2 brother’s parents being controlled.

To play the game online, you can go here

Fun Facts about Bubble Bobble

  • It originated from a 1980’s game that went by the name of Chack’n Pop
  • It was made for couples to play (which explains the 2 player ending)
  • Paying attention to numbers is very important in the game (certain scores and ending score numbers give players certain bonuses)
  • It was one of the first ever games to utilize the idea of having multiple endings

Bubble Bobble 4 Friends

Bubble Bobble 4 Friends trailer

Taito is releasing Bubble Bobble 4 Friends in Europe and North America in the next few months (11/19/19 in Europe and the first 3 months of 2020 in North America). The game features Bubble, Bobble, Bub, and Bob as they make their way through a series of cooperative puzzle-platforming stages in the game. BB4 Friends exclusively for the Nintendo Switch and is a complete remake of the initial format of the Bubble Bobble game.

Not only that but Bubble Bobble 4 Friends also comes with a twist, it has a multi-player format. This is the first Bubble Bobble game since Taito’s release of Bubble Bobble: Bust-a-Move-Universe.

Conclusion

And there you have it, everything you need to know about Bubble Bobble (and more). For more information feel free to visit the links at the end of the article. Also, if you find anything else feel free to leave it in a comment and we’ll add it to the article(if it’s relevant). Thanks for reading.

A majority of the information in this article was taken from Wikipedia

Resources:

https://tjasink.com/games/bb/items2.html

http://mentalfloss.com/article/91165/facts-about-bubble-bobble

https://www.polygon.com/2019/8/14/20805812/bubble-bobble-4-friends-release-date-nintendo-switch