Bubble Bobble is one of the best coin-op games ever created in video games history. The game hit the arcades in 1986 and a year later was ported to all home computers and consoles. The Game Gear version was developed in 1994.
Review
STORY / GAMEPLAY
Young boys Bub and Bob were cursed and transformed into small dinosaurs. Their girlfriends are held prisoners by the Giant Bee Master and now Bub (and Bob) must fight their way through 100 levels to save the girls and kill the Bee, breaking the curse and gaining back their human nature. Your main quest is to jump from one platform to another and eliminate all your enemies by trapping them inside bubbles. To help Bub (and Bob) survive the challenge, you must always keep an eye for various power ups and bonuses that appear from time to time. The most valuable bonus is the chewing gum power up that can make you shoot different and more powerful bubbles (like the rapid-fire bubble for example). Also, you have the opportunity to complete the word EXTEND by collecting all letters needed. This bonus will transport Bub (or Bob or both) to the next level at once. There are also numerous other bonuses that will transport you to more levels, make you shoot fire blasts or take you to some extra stages to collect diamonds. Bubble Bobble is a really fun game to play! It's also very easy to get you into and learn its gameplay mechanism while its cuteness really draws you in! Bubble Bobble is one of the best arcade platform games ever created in video gaming history, hands down!
NOTE The Sega Game Gear version supports 2-players mode only via linking two consoles together.
GRAPHICS / SOUND Bubble Bobble just seems as if it was made for this 8bit handheld console! The graphics look so great and colorful and in no way a pixelated mess. Also the music is more catchy than ever, featuring the excellent original in-game theme and all the sound effects from the original! Bubble Bobble is surely one of the best coin-op conversions ever made for the Sega Game Gear!
Screenshots
Gameplay sample
Arcades (original version)
Hardware information
Game Gear
CPU: 8bit Zilog Z80 at 3.58 MHz MEMORY: 8KB RAM GRAPHICS: A standard of 3,2" with 160x144 pixel resolution, 32 on-screen colours out of a palette of 4096. It support 64 hardware sprites (8x8 or 8x16 pixels). Video memory is 16 KB wide. SOUND: 3 square wave generators, 1 noise generator, the system has a mono speaker (or stereo via headphone output)