1. Genre Analysis
Bubble Bobble is a platformer game that resembles games such as Don Doku Don, Fairyland Story, and the original Mario Bros. In the game, the player is locked in a room full of enemies, viewed from the front, and must defeat them. The game features a variety of power-ups that make it interesting, and it has a total of 100 levels.
Bubble Bobble was very successful in the UK, becoming the best-selling game for 3 months after its release, and in Japan, it was the 5th best-selling game of 1987. The game received many positive reviews from Computer and Video Games and Crash magazines. The game provided a fun and challenging experience that was also addictive. Many sources, such as Game Master, Game Informer, Stuff, and GamesMT, have ranked the game among the top 100 games of all time.
On the arcades, the game had this minimum technical capabilities:
| Type | Capabilities |
|---|---|
| Monitor type and capabilities | Type: Raster / Capabilities: Color |
| Resolution | 256 x 224 at 60Hz (60fps) |
| DSound Capabilities | Mono or Stereo |
| CPU | 1x Zilog Z80 (3MHz) / 2x Zilog Z80 (6MHz) |
| MCU | Motorola M6801 (4MHz) |
Bubble Bobble is an arcade game that was created by Fukio Mitsuji and published by TAITO in 1986. Mitsuji believed that TAITO's games were too simple and lacked appeal to a wider audience, so he set out to create a game that was fun for everyone and not just for men. To achieve this, he designed the game with cute characters, a two-player gameplay system, and the unique mechanic of using bubbles to defeat enemies. The game was a massive success and is now considered one of the best video games of all time.
The game was later re-released on a variety of consoles, and it had several sequels:
| Game | Year |
|---|---|
| Bubble Bobble | 1986 |
| Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble II | 1987 |
| Rainbow Islands Extra Version | 1988 |
| Parasol Stars | 1991 |
| Bubble Bobble Part 2 | 1993 |
| Bubble Bobble II | 1994 |
| Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III | 1995 |
| Rainbow Islands | 2000 |
| Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! | 2009 |
| Bubble Bobble Plus! | 2009 |
| Bubble Bobble for Kakao | 2015 |
| Bubble Bobble 4 Friends | 2019 |