I’m a fan of the whole Bubble Bobble format. Having played the game when I was younger, I developed a taste for it and over the years, several games have come out that followed similar formats, including Snow Bros. from Toaplan and the absolutely incredible Nightmare in the Dark for the Neo Geo MVS. Most of them have been arcade exclusive, and only Bubble Bobble has really ever stayed mainstream.
All the games in the genre consist of pretty much the same thing. Play through 10 static screen levels of capturing enemies in bubbles (or snowballs or fireballs in other games) and then bursting the bubbles to rocket them out in chains across the screen, then gather the bonus items and/or powerups that drop. On the 10th level, fight a boss. It’s a simple format and it works like a charm because simple, easy to pick up games are fun. Taito has left the Bubble Bobble franchise to languish for quite some time, so it was a surprise to see it finally pop back up. Bubble Bobble III was way back in 1995 and since that 25 year hiatus, there have been a smattering of mostly handheld re-releases, so it’s pretty amazing to see the game revived.
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends from Taito and Inin Games is the newest release in Taito’s famous 34 year old franchise! Released in Europe late last year, it has finally managed to make it to North America. Bub and Bob, everyone’s favorite Bubble Dragons, have managed to pick up a fresh coat of paint here, but the formula for the series remains by and large intact, with the addition of four-player simultaneous play. There’s also an arcade edition of the original Bubble Bobble game available for play and I highly recommend you try it. The original is tough as nails and pretty fun to boot!
It seems that magical fairy Bonner is a bit riled up and is making a mess of a child’s bedroom. There’s no real depth to the storyline, but story isn’t really what the series is about. The exposition is just a thin excuse to tie the levels loosely together and honestly, it’s probably entirely unnecessary. What is important here is the gameplay. Bubble Bobble 4 manages to keep the same feel of the original series but it skins all the enemies in such a way that they resemble toys from a generic kid’s playroom. Toy tanks and wind-up teeth abound and little weird propeller headed enemies and bouncy balls attack from all sides. Somehow, the graphic design doesn’t really pay homage to the original series, managing to lose the flavor for a much more generic presentation.
You still work your way through 10 levels at a time then reach a boss, but there are only 50 levels in the game, which you then can repeat on hard mode. Later levels are significantly bigger than the original game, offering a wide variety of semi-transparent platforms, airflow challenges, and weird jumping sections requiring you to float halfway across the screen on a bubble to reach an enemy. The level designs are mostly solid but sometimes a bit too gimmicky, with some only having a single possible pathway to reach the enemies and essentially leading you by the hand. The first couple worlds felt more like the original game, but the further you progress, the less of a feel of vintage Bubble Bobble you have.
Boss fights are similarly designed. While they stay in a similar format to original game, the bosses feel distinctly uninspired and repetitive, with simplistic attacks and cheap shots. Bub and Bob more pretty slowly and if you’re not used to the patterns, you’ll die quickly. By world 4, the challenge ramps up fairly well and you’ll be hard-pressed to survive undamaged unless you’re patient and calculating. The game’s final boss cranks difficulty so heavily that you’ll be struggling to survive at all, even with your fancy gear.
After every boss fight in Bubble Bobble 4, you’ll receive a new piece of equipment. Some lets you shoot bubbles further, other items allow you to blast the screen with lightning bubbles or ignore wind effects temporarily. Beat the game and you’ll have 6 options to choose from as well as unlocking Hard mode. If you manage to get all six EXTEND bubbles strewn throughout that world, you’ll also upgrade your equipment a bit. The equipment helps shake up gameplay a bit and later on, especially in Hard mode, is pretty useful. Hard mode is the same 50 levels, but with radically increased difficulty. It definitely won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s nice to have the challenge there.
I blew through all 50 regular levels in Bubble Bobble 4 Friends in a matter of a couple of days of light play. Keep in mind that’s without playing for score and I didn’t care how many continues I used. There’s no penalty for continuing other than loss of score so Bubble Bobble 4 is easy to credit feed. Personally, I don’t play for score often, so that didn’t matter to me, but you can add a whole extra level of depth to the game with score-based play. Chaining enough enemies when you burst their bubbles creates bonuses and if you clear the screen in certain ways or within certain time limits you can get much larger bonus fruit at the end of each level. Unfortunately, there’s no leaderboard and no real way to share those challenges with your friends anywhere but in local couch co-op, but at least there was a nod here to hardcore gamers.
After finishing the game, aside from Hard mode, there’s nothing really left to accomplish. There’s no online play, no competitions, nothing else. Just 50 levels and the original arcade game, which I kept returning to. It’s hard to say whether that’s more out of nostalgia or more because the original Bubble Bobble is a better game, but it’s great that it was included. Sadly lacking were Bubble Bobble Part II and Bubble Memories (aka Bubble Bobble III) which would have been an incredibly welcome addition to add, even if they were only unlockable. There’s no history of the franchise or art gallery, and nothing else to really capture a player’s attention. For a franchise that’s slipped mostly out of the collective unconscious of gamers, this is a significant oversight. New players are not likely to wax nostalgic over Bubble Bobble 4 Friends.
As an attempt to create a family-friendly couch co-op puzzle game, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is a nice try. It’s fun to play with 2-4 players but not notably so, the solo experience is genuinely lacking and feels almost unbalanced, and the whole game seems more like someone tried to add their own twist to the game and accidentally made it too childish more than anything else. In short, it’s not all that clever and it’s not all that fun, certainly not for the $40 price tag. If you’re a fan of group party games, you might get your party on with it, but with no online compatibility, its appeal will likely be limited to families that game together with pre-teen kids.
It’s hard to fully recommend Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, but it’s not a game to hate either. This is a decent release that by all rights, should check all the boxes. There’s just something missing, some ephemeral fun factor that isn’t quite there while playing Bubble Bobble 4. It isn’t immersive enough, isn’t compelling enough of a puzzle game. It’s a great try, and it’s almost right, but not quite. For hardcore fans of the franchise, it’ll probably be enough, but for the average gamer, it might be best to look elsewhere for your puzzle gaming fix.
This review was based on a digital copy of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and worked great in both. Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is a Nintendo Switch exclusive and is not available for any other console. All screenshots are of actual gameplay. The game is out March 31.