Bubble bobble is a much loved favourite from the Nes years and holds its adorable dinosaur charm in its new XBLA wrapper
The aim of the game is to defeat waves/levels of various colourful foes by firing bubbles and then in casing your enemy, you then must pop the bubble by head butting it or jumping on it, sounds simple right? Well it is until you reach harder levels, you will then have multiple enemy's on screen that are free and then ones you have trapped, it becomes quite a challenge to keep your little dinosaur alive but very addictive. A cute feature you will need to use to progress is, if you're stuck you must blow bubbles to bounce off to get out of hole or to reach unreachable areas, this just helps to fight of the very repetitive feel most arcade games have.
The levels are set out just like packman but with better graphics and a few different layouts, you can fall from the bottom of the screen to the top making it easier to jump on those floating foes but be carefull for free foes! You must also gobble as much fruit and food as possible to climb up those XBLA leader boards and beat your friends! You also have various power ups to munch to help you through the waves like fire balls, bubbles containing lightning bolts and other very random powers which are a life saver in later levels. You can also stumble across munch able objects that look like potions, eat one of these and you will be given a short amount of time to collect as many bonus objects as you can, which when over kills all enemy's and gives you a nice big point bonus and a even bigger bonus if you collect them all in one go.
There are three modes to choose from, Classic mode, Arrange mode and VS mode. Classic mode is the original arcade game itself with various levels to get through to save your princesses. Arrange mode is the same but with bigger levels as its supports four players in your sitting room, which is rare these days as most full titles don't support other players/friends on your screen at home but you will find that most XBL Arcade titles support online play and have the option to play with friends on one console, which has always been good fun. Sadly Bubble Bobble doesn't have online play but has four player co-op or VS; VS mode is battle royal of four different coloured dinosaurs fighting it out with bubbles and other random objects.
Overall its rather addictive with its bright colours and random madness or course keeps most of the fun feel from its Nes days, Bubble Bobble will most likely appeal to fans, girls and family's as it involves cute dinosaurs that blow bubbles, I'm not being sexist it's just most men/boys are not really into cute multi coloured dinosaurs that eat lolly's.... Though it is a lot of fun and challenging in a good way 800 MSP is a little pricey for something that doesn't have online capabilities and is, well like most arcade titles far too short. The choice is yours as always but if the price is not a problem it will make a welcome addition to your XBL Arcade collection.