Bubble Blowing Beasties (Bubble Bobble Plus (Wii))

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Bubble Bobble Plus (Wii)
Date:	28/10/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple to pick up and play, but incredibly addictive. Superbly designed levels

Disadvantages: Jumping on bubbles very tricky, Level 72 stupidly difficult

Bubble Bobble Plus (BB+) is a remake of a ludicrously addictive 80s arcade game, which has appeared on many home computer consoles over the years. Having been addicted to it in my youth, there was joy unabated in the SWSt household (well, the male part, at least) when an enhanced Wii version was announced.

This is where things get a bit confusing. BB+ is downloadable from Nintendo's Wiiware service and offers several new game modes and improved graphics. It's not to be confused with Bubble Bobble which is available from Nintendo's Virtual Console service and is a straightforward port of the old Super Nintendo game (confused yet?!). At a cost of 800 points (around £7) BB+ costs more, but it's worth paying the extra, as it offers more challenges.

The trick with remakes is to get the balance right. You need to match the original's look and feel to appeal to existing fans, whilst providing something for newer gamers. BB+ manages this perfectly. The look and feel of the original is retained and crucially, the perfectly balanced gameplay is virtually unchanged, so that new gamers will find a basic-looking, but infuriatingly addictive platform game.

BB+ is Japanese in origin. That means it's a little strange. Up to two players take the role of Bub (a small green dinosaur) and Bob (a small blue dinosaur) and fight their way through 100 monster infested screens, collecting food and power-ups along the way. Bub and Bob's party piece is their ability to blow bubbles which are used to trap monsters. Jumping on a bubble bursts it, killing the monster and turning it into food. Kill all the monsters and you move to the next screen. Like I said: Japanese = strange.

But forget plot or logic, within Bubble Bobble gameplay is king. Although it's now over 20 years old, and has easily been surpassed in the presentation stakes, BB has lost none of its edge. The design of the game is absolutely perfect. Early screens gently introduce you to the controls, giving you a fair chance to get to grips with the game. Almost imperceptibly, levels get progressively trickier, with some truly fiendish level designs later on. Yet, the difficulty curve is so well defined that by the time you've reached these later stages, you'll have developed the skills to match up to the challenge.

Whilst BB+ is great fun in one-player game, it really comes into its own with two players, combining co-operation and competition perfectly. Most of the time, you work together to clear the screens, but things can get really nasty when you do all the work only to see your co-player nick all the power-ups and bonuses (this is Mrs SWSt's speciality - she always "just happens" to be standing where a mega bonus drops). This perfectly balanced aspect of the game will lead to many insults being traded back and forth between players!

The controls are incredibly simple to master adding to the pick up and play nature of the game. The directional pad moves your little dinosaur fella, one button makes you jump, the other blows a bubble. So simple, anyone can get down to killing monsters straight away, and unlike many modern games, you don't need 47 hands to play.

Bright, colourful and cute graphics on every screen make BB+ a visually appealing title. As main characters, Bub and Bob are incredibly cute, making you do everything in your power to stop them getting killed. Even the monsters are cute and, whilst small, beautifully detailed. Everything moves very smoothly, regardless of how much is on screen at any time.

Although sound effects are limited to fairly traditional arcade beeps and bloops, there is a lovely little tune that plays throughout the 100 levels. It lasts for a couple of minutes, before looping back round again. Normally, I'd find this annoying and repetitive, but here, there's just something about it that complements the game. No matter how much I play it, it's never grated on the ears. In fact, if you know the tune, you probably started humming it as soon as you began this review!

Now, I'd have been happy with this as it is, but makers Square Enix weren't. In addition to Standard Mode (the original 100 levels), Arrange Mode, allows up to 4 players to play 100 completely new screens, effectively doubling the size of the original game. Super Standard and Super Arrange Mode offer slightly more challenging versions of those 200 levels. As if that wasn't enough, two further modes (Expert 1 and Expert 2) provide another 50 new levels each. The downside is that these last two have to be downloaded for a further 200 points each.

There are a couple of flies in the ointment which spoil an almost perfect game. To complete some levels you have to blow bubbles and then jump on them to reach otherwise unobtainable parts of the screen. This was always a slightly tricky skill to master, but on this Wii version it has been made even harder. Jumping on your bubbles can be incredibly frustrating: they either burst as soon as you jump on them or let you get half way up the screen and then POP! you're sent plummeting back to earth. It's far, far harder than the original arcade version. Older players will be howling in frustration, whilst newer gamers might just give it up as "impossible". This is particularly true on the notorious Level 72 which is so difficult to get the timing right that I have so far failed (and I'm not alone in this - just Google "Bubble Bobble plus and 72 for evidence!)

It's also annoying that there is no option to start from any level you have already completed. Yes, you get Continue Plays, so that if you die you can restart from the last level reached. However, this only lasts for the current game session. As soon as you switch your Wii off, it resets and the next time you play, you start all the way from level one again.

In fairness, these were flaws with the original game, but given the care and attention lavished on the rest of this update, it's a shame they weren't ironed out during playtesting.

BB+ might not be the most stunning looking game and the gameplay might sound a little strange, but this is a must-have download for Wii owners and one of the most incredibly games you will ever play. Grab a friend now and get playing!

© Copyright SWSt 2009

Summary: A welcome update to one of the best arcade games ever.