Puzzle Bobble

Puzzle Bobble (パズルボブル, Pazuru Boburu?), also known as Bust-a-Move, is a 1994 arcade puzzle game (for 1 or 2 players) created by Taito Corporation. It is a simple game based on Taito’s popular 1986 arcade game Bubble Bobble, featuring characters and themes from the original. The game’s characteristically “cute” Japanese animation and music, along with its play mechanics and level designs, made it successful as an arcade title and spawned several sequels and ports to home gaming systems

Two different versions of the original game were released. Puzzle Bobble was originally released in Japan only in June 1994 by Taito Corporation, running on Taito’s B System hardware (with the preliminary title “Bubble Buster”). Then, 6 months later in December, the international Neo Geo version of Puzzle Bobble was released. It was almost identical aside from being in stereo and having some different sound effects and translated text.

The Neo Geo version could be set to display the alternative title “Bust a Move”, which was used in United States, Canada, and sometimes in Europe. This mode also featured anti-drugs and anti-littering messages in the title sequence.

Gameplay

At the start of each round, the rectangular playing arena contains a prearranged pattern of coloured “bubbles”. (These are actually referred to in the translation as “balls”; however, they were clearly intended to be bubbles, since they pop, and are taken from Bubble Bobble.) At the bottom of the screen, the player controls a device called a “pointer”, which aims and fires bubbles up the screen. The colour of bubbles fired is randomly generated and chosen from the colours of bubbles still left on the screen.

The fired bubbles travel in straight lines (possibly bouncing off the side walls of the arena), stopping when they touch other bubbles or reach the top of the arena. If a bubble touches identically-coloured bubbles, forming a group of three or more, those bubbles—as well as any bubbles hanging from them—are removed from the field of play, and points are awarded.

After every few shots, the “ceiling” of the playing arena drops downwards slightly, along with all the bubbles stuck to it. The number of shots between each drop of the ceiling is influenced by the number of bubble colours remaining. The closer the bubbles get to the bottom of the screen, the faster the music plays and if they cross the line at the bottom then the player dies and the game is over.

The objective of the game is to clear all the bubbles from the arena without dying. Bubbles will fire automatically if the player remains idle. After clearing the arena, the next round begins with a new pattern of bubbles to clea Scoring system

As with many popular arcade games, experienced players (who can complete the game relatively easily) become much more interested in the secondary challenge of obtaining a high score (which involves a lot more skill and strategy). Puzzle Bobble caters to this interest very well, featuring an exponential scoring system which allows extremely high scores to be achieved.

“Popped” bubbles (that is, bubbles of the same colour which disappear) are worth 10 points each. However, dropped bubbles (that is, bubbles that were hanging from popped bubbles), are worth far more: one dropped bubble scores 20 points; two score 40; three score 80. This figure continues doubling for each bubble dropped, up to 17 or more bubbles which scores 1,310,720 points. It is possible to achieve this maximum on most rounds (sometimes twice or more), resulting in a potential total score of 30 million and beyond.

Bonus points are also awarded for completing a round quickly. The maximum 50,000-point bonus is awarded for clearing a round in 5 seconds or less; this bonus then drops down to zero over the next minute, after which no bonus is awarded

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