Monday, October 18, 2010

10 video games that made my life gayer (#1): Bubble Bobble

I have a distinct--and rather fond--childhood memory of regularly running down to my hometown bowling alley to play a few rounds (or more) of Bubble Bobble.

Sure, said bowling alley sported a number of newer, more graphically impressive arcade games that I could have blown my allowance on, but for various reasons I almost always fed my handful of quarters to the establishment's beat-up Bubble Bobble machine instead.

Why? Well, it starred a so-cute-it-was-sick green dinosaur, for starters. Also, that dinosaur blew bubbles--and then used those bubbles to encapsulate the game's similarly cute-as-buttons enemies. Sealing the deal was that, when defeated, those formerly encapsulated enemies would transform into anything and everything edible--including bananas, cakes, martinis and sushi. (I've been a bit obsessed with such things ever since my first experience with Tōru Iwatani's fruit-gobbling Pac-Man.)

Bubble Bobble had more going for it than charming visuals, of course. It also had catchy tunes and tight controls. (The latter being a necessity given the game's challenging nature.)

For me, though, all of the above-mentioned "features" pale in comparison to the warm-and-fuzzy feeling of nostalgia that washes over me as soon as the game's start-up jingle begins to play.

See also: 'Bookmark this site, too (101videogames. wordpress.com)'

5 comments:

Starfighter said...

I love Bubble Bobble! I love cute games all together! It's just a plus if they're good. :)

Bryan Ochalla said...

Ah, it seems like we're similar in that regard, Starfighter :)

Viewtiful_Justin said...

YES! I adore that game. It would be on my top ten list, I think. And...sweets? Dude, enemies turned into VEGETABLES when popped, mostly. :-P

Bryan Ochalla said...

OK, you're right that there are plenty of fruit and veggies in the game, but there are plenty of sweets, too. I mean, what else would you call candy and cakes and ice cream sundaes? (Of course, there are french fries and martinis, too, so I guess the devs wanted to include anything and everything edible).

Bryan Ochalla said...

BTW, I just altered the post to be more accurate :)