Bubble Bobble Revolution (DS) Review
Posted by Shawn Struck on 08.15.2006
Is this the beginning of a fantastic remake, or is Dreams Studio just blowing smoke?
Bubble Bobble-- such a simple story-- features Bub and Bob, two ordinary guys turned into bubble-blowing dinosaurs, who must get through 100 levels of bad guys to rescue their sweethearts. They blow a bubble, trap enemies inside and then pop the bubble with their spiny backs. I played this game religiously on the NES and arcade.
Though it's been about two decades, the basics behind the Bubble Bobble game are still as fun and challenging as ever, and have remained fun and challenging in ports across a dozen different systems over the last nineteen years.
Bubble Bobble Revolution, however, is more than just a port of the original... as the Atari site boasts, the Dreams development studio set up by Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado rebuilt the Bubble Bobble game from the ground up.
There is a port of the original Bubble Bobble game as well-- so how does the port compare? The bubbles seem to travel further than what I remember-- but since the continue-less version of the original game means you do it all in one sitting, or you don't do it at all, you'll be forgiven for wanting to take whatever advantage you can get. The levels, however, don't quite fit on the screen and nudge up or down a bit when you have to leap up or down the screen... which leads to frustration when an enemy that wasn't there a moment or so pops up and causes you to lose a life. This aside, the port of the original has everything Bubble Bubble fans will love and remember.
The New Age mode, however, is something you'll want to forget. Here’s how it breaks down:
Graphics
The new graphics lose the cute charm of the original sprites (the enemies especially) and the backgrounds make it difficult to see what's happening onscreen. Most of the enemies looks like smudgy, pre-rendered blobs that someone tried to make look threatening, and the character redesigns for Bub and Bob look just as unappealing. Gameplay
Sure, there's the same basic idea: you play a dino, you blow bubbles at enemies before popping them, and run around collecting fruit for points. But now the screen is four times as big... without containing four times the playing area., which means that now you have to have to scroll painfully left and right around the play area (the top half is on the top screen) and hope you'll see what's going on.
The level difficulty is very uneven, too. One board could be a cakewalk, with the next two bordering on the impossible. I was happy to see that while the New Age version scrapped all the power-up bonuses and added two not-as-useful bubble types, they DID retain the "eat fruit that the enemies turn into after you pop them" gimmick-- except that the levels can be so difficult to navigate, you'll be hard-pressed to GET said fruit.
Sound
The music at least fares a bit better, mostly consisting of remixes of the original theme song, but aren't "not bad" so much as "bland enough to be inoffensive". None of the music sounds catchy enough to be memorable, and none of the music was harsh to the ears, but you could play with the sound off and not really miss it.
Fun Factor
Perhaps still feeling warm and nostalgic from playing the original port on the DS, you may approach the “New Age” mode with a sense of optimism, expecting the same level of fun, if not more, of the remake. Your hopes will then be dashed as your nostalgia-tinged optimism runs headlong into the frustrating level design, horrid graphical “updates” and horribly broken gameplay.
Lasting Appeal
With a game like Bubble Bobble Revolution most of the lasting appeal would be in multiplayer play, and unique features of the DS. The DS's wireless abilities means that it's able to offer two-player AND four-player mode on a handheld, which would be a GREAT feature if it didn't require separate copies of the game to play-- for a game that's nearly 20 years old, that's a rip-off of the highest order. There are a few levels that use the DS microphone to have you blow on the mic to rotate fans, but other than that, the New Age version doesn't make any noticeable use of the DS' unique features.
The 411
Anyone hoping that this game delivers on its promised revolution will certainly have his or her bubble burst.
Graphics
4.0
Smudgy, blobby indistinct graphics blend into the confusing and busy backgrounds way too often, and the character redesigns are flat-out ugly.
Gameplay
3.0
Uneven difficulty progression, broken level design, crippled power-ups and scant use of the DS' unique controls.
Sound
5.0
Bland, inoffensive, forgettable remixes.
Lasting Appeal
4.0
Elusive, poorly explained collection goal and rip-off multiplayer requirements give you little reason to play again.
