Reviews

Its a competent conversion of the bubble blowing arcade game which features some of the most famous in-game music ever. It also has a strong reputation as a teamwork 2 player game.
For me the screen feels a little cramped and the levels all seem the same and I can't quite see how this game gets praised quite as highly as it does. I don't mind cute, I like platforms, and I enjoy Rod-Land which has similar gameplay and teamwork but Bubble Bobble still leaves me relatively cold.
It is addictive enough to rate above average, but is short of the top bracket.

Bubble Bobble is one of my favourite games ever. First played it on the arcade in Ireland and I was blown away with its addictive gameplay, catchy music and most of all its cuteness (well I was only a wee lad) so imagine my excitement when I discovered this game for the Spectrum for only 4 quid. This was a great effort from Firebird which unfortunatley falls just a bit short.

Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is still the same as the arcade version and just as addictive and there's a nice rendition of the main tune during the game, although the game was glitched in that at times (for me most times) it played without the music. And the graphics are nice but could have been more colourful I feel, especially with a game like Bubble Bobble. Unfortunatley, our main protagonists Bub and Bob don't look as cute as they do in the arcade game, I remember thinking "they look kinda creepy don't they". If they could add the colour to everything else in the game, why leave our heroes with no colour.

If you loved the arcade game, you'll want to give this a go. It's just as addictive as its arcade counterpart with its only blemish being the lack of colour on our heroes.

For me Bubble Bobble is one of the best games ever made for any platform , although the Spectrum version -somehow- lacks many of the wonderful features that make this title so memorable. :(

3,5 / 5 .

At first glance the Spectrum version of Bubble Bobble looks like a truly hideous attempt that has proved well beyond the capabilities of the Speccy. Actually, it plays quite well.

Graphically, seeing Bub and Bob rendered with just a white outline is at first rather depressing but the cute flick of their tail as they bounce around does enough to convey their cheerful demeanour (Classic bubble blowing dinosaur character trait, always cheerful even when fighting to the death to rescue their girlfriend, Ed).

Despite all this the gameplay is just about present and correct and it’s high rating on World of Spectrum is testament to it’s playability. It also plays faster than the C64 version, which makes a difference to the tactics you use when you play the game.

However, if the screen fills with bubbles, as it is wont to do, there is a quite severe slow down in speed. It’s by no means insurmountable but perhaps the slower gameplay on the C64 is the price you pay for extra stability and consistency.

Whether you can get over the sound effects is another matter. It’s disturbing to think that anyone thought what comes out of the speakers was ever acceptable as sound effects but I’ll admit to finding something cute about the burps and whines that come out of the system as it attempts to provide an authentic arcade experience. Musically it holds it’s own better than many 48k tunes.

Turning to the completeness of the port, the Spectrum version of Bubble Bobble does appear to lack some features from the arcade version that made it to the other 8-bit ports.

The most noticeable for myself, based on the way I play the game, was bursting a huge collection of bubbles and discovering they don’t turn into collectable objects like fries or lollipops. Likewise killing an enemy with water or fire doesn’t leave you a high scoring diamond as a reward.

Despite the lack of a few elements within the game the central components of are all present and correct. It is a valiant attempt to port the arcade classic into 48k of memory and it obviously didn’t put me off back in the day as I spent many hours waiting for it to load and many more playing it.

Taken from my website www.zombiesatemyxbox.com

1987 Firebird Software (UK)
by Mike Follin, Andrew Threlfall and Tim Follin

Surely an above average conversion of a great arcade classic.
The Speccy version has it all, the playability, the cuteness, the addictiveness and even good sound, but somehow it fails on capturing the original version magic.
Don't know if its because of the ugly graphics (the game's biggest letdown) or anything else, but it gets a little repetitive after awhile, the levels start to seem all alike.
Of course if you only played the Speccy version I bet you surely had lots of fun with it.

Mike Follin did a great job converting Bubble Bobble. It brought together much of the coin-op arcade in a very efficient way and successful.
Few elements from the coin-op are dropped.

Only one real flaw is what affects the game. And this is the control response. It feels a tad more rigid than coin-op. If it weren't for this stiff response to controls, the game would be a masterpiece of conversions.

Ugh! What ugly graphics!
Luckily the game plays well it's just a shame about the terrible graphics and sound. There's supposed to be 128K music but if there was, I couldn't find it.

A fun conversion, although the bubble spitting dragons look rather sad.
4/5

Bubble Bobble could and should have been a great arcade port and fair enough the gameplay alone merits it being so, but the game's ugly graphics let it down badly. Also the sound when you jump is horrible too, it sounds like our protagonist is suffocating and gasping for air. And Tim Follin's rendition of the classic theme is nice but one of the sound channels is hideously off key which today makes it hard to listen to, back then you didn't notice nor cared but it's noticeable now. I shouldn't knock the graphics too much, but nicer looking games exist and one of them should have been Bubble Bobble.

Bubble Bobble from Taito, the typical japanese arcade, plays very well.

It 's a lovely conversion, maintaining the good points of the arcade machine.

I was in big doubt either its rating was more 3 than 4. But it deserves very high consideration nonetheless. I would give it like 7.5 / 8 out of 10 or so.

Just give it a try, because there is not much more great conversions from Japan in Spectrum.

Bubble Bobble rocks and feels very close to its original, having in mind the limitations.