Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! is another stretch on a once classic arcade game, untouchable in the arcades and the halls of nostalgia, but now a kawaii chibi adventure for all with lots more fun, stories and cuteness. Blaaaargh! However… as a fan of the original, and the subsequent evolution of the series where gameplay drops platforming for a Peggle-like experience, surely this is a no-brainer, safe option?
From arcade legends Taito (the original NewZealand Story), you play one of a billion cute lil’ characters that must rescue a series of other cute lil’ characters that are unfortunately helpless and need saving through some bubbilicious strategies. As a big fan of the classics like Tetris, Arkanoid variants, Columns, and more, I couldn’t help but have flashbacks to life in Japan, where I used to play a similar game whose title I didn’t know until a retro hunt later. Overseas, you may know it as BUST-A-MOVE. If that rings a bell, that’s this, but with tons more bells and whistles.
As a narrative-driven bandit, I jumped straight to the very meaty Story mode, though I suffered immediate bouts of nausea with all the cuteness and formulaic storytelling. That’s ok, I’m here for the gameplay, as I told myself. However, endless stages of getting top ratings without breaking a sweat made the experience feel very mundane and a chore. I’m simply steaming through without any challenge. I’ll try the EX mode in a moment, but is this it? Famous last words.
While that doesn’t insinuate Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! becomes double-hard in a New York Minute, it has an uncanny ability to introduce new mechanisms/style of gameplay that feels fresh every single time without being a rehash or recycling of previous strategies. The objectives are simple: rescue your friends, beat the clock, do it as fast as you can for a full three-star ranking so that you can unlock more goodies, and look like you’ve got it all under control.
Your hero will throw a bubble skybound to connect with a similar colour, with three matching colours and above popping them, revealing access to other bubbles, dropping special tools, and ultimately freeing your friends. The time factor, as you progress, is a challenge in itself. I never felt I was running out of time for the stage, but to get three stars consistently is a challenge and may unleash the perfectionist in you. What I found harder was when the bubbles dropped as if playing Space Invaders. Coincidentally, a bonus mini-game, which is bloody marvellous.
So, the bubbles connect and pop, and you move forward. However, new tools are continually introduced from paint, that changes the colour of bubbles to create large chains of ‘pops’, to bombs that explode on impact or that can be used as an on command action if it drops from a pop (I like that line), through to temporary guidelines that show the trajectory of your aim so you can bounce off the sides to reach elusive bubbles.
To counter that, there are bubbles in Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! that are invincible unless you pop all the colours surrounding it, to crates that can only be destroyed if a bomb is thrown or the bubbles supporting it are popped, forcing it to drop. The introduction of new mechanics means that the core gameplay of Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! never feels stale and genuinely injects so much challenge. And, if that’s child’s play for you, the EX modes add to the fun.
The Story mode is a large factor of the experience, with so many worlds and extras to unlock, but there’s also an excellent Vs mode, which – let’s face it, is arguably the best thing about these games. While Tetris on the Game Boy solo was the best, Puyo Puyo was always better with two vertical split-screens, which we see here. It needn’t be local play either, as there’s an online mode which includes password-protected games to keep out the riff raff. And again, Space Invaders included? Come on, it’s Taito – this is the arcade elite.
I’m mindful there hasn’t been enough cringe wordplay, so let’s just end this by saying that the bubble hasn’t popped for the Bubble Bobble universe as Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! is excellent and will keep you on your toes with such entertaining gameplay and urgency that you may even pop. This would be an excellent addition for your Steam Deck library (or the big telly for when you get your Steam Machine).
