Now, it is the beginning of a fantastic story! Let us make a journey to the cave of monsters! Good luck!
Bubble Bobble is a classic arcade game made by Taito and released in 1986. It features two cute bubble dragon critters named Bubblun and Bobblun who spit/blow bubbles to trap and pop a wide variety of weird but also cute enemy creatures (including wind-up toys) that kill them in one hit.But here's something people should already know: They're really two human boys named Bubby and Bobby who are cursed with a transformation into bubble dragons and they have to rescue their human girlfriends (Betty and Patty, respectively) from a green-hooded giant named Super Drunk.It spawned a lot of Non-Linear Sequels which may leave a person confused as to what the second installment is supposed to be or when each installment takes place.
Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES, Game Boy) (1993) also known as Junior on Game Boy, apparently takes place after Symphony
Bubble Symphony (aka Bubble Bobble II) (1994)
Bubble Memories The Story of Bubble Bobble III (1995) which apparently takes place before Symphony but after Parasol Stars because Bub and Bob use their parasols in the good and happy endings.
Bubble Bobble Double (iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone) (2010) which apparently includes the GBA/DS port as well as a new Retraux sprite filled game mode where the touch screen is used.
And it spawned a spinoff which has its own sequels:
Exceptions: The Story heading in the Bubble Symphony flyer is misleading and self-contradictory; a plot point on the inside left of the flyer has also been contradicted by the Precap. Also, don't just rely on the NES version's manual.
All There in the Script / Who Is This Guy Again? - Character names are barely stated in the game itself. One must look at flyers or credits. In the case of Pab and Peb, the Bubble Bobble Plus Title Operations Guide on the Wii Shop Channel was consulted.
Ambidextrous Sprite: A lazy example in Bubble Symphony. When the human characters die and spin out, three of their sprite frames are flipped, making it seem like, while they are dizzily spinning out dead, they hop to their other foot and then back, twice, before they fall backwards and poof away into magic dust. The bubble dragons' deaths aren't like this.
Animorphism: A curse turns protagonists Bub and Bob into ... bubble dragons? Yup. (Throw in some Super-DeformedIncredible Shrinking Man for Bubble Memories, because Bub and Bob as humans are proportional in that game.)
ImpliedVoluntary Shapeshifting: Part 2 (NES)'s intro shows the protagonist seemingly turning himself into a bubble dragon after his girlfriend is captured.
Giant Mook: Some enemies in Bubble Memories. Also, in Bubble Bobble, the captured-in-bubbles girlfriends get escorted by Giant Mooks throughout the levels.
Beta Couple: Cororon and Kululun, magenta and orange female companions (respectively), in Bubble Symphony. And Pab and Peb, the new magenta and orange females in Plus (WiiWare).
Big Eater: Player characters, judging solely by the amount of enemies they turn into food by bubbling them.
Bland Name Product: One of the random items that enemies turn into upon defeat are WcDonald's fries (1000-point item).
Bonus Stage: Getting a certain item in Bubble Bobble to make all enemies disappear and put the player(s) in a race against the clock to get all or most of another type of item.
Brutal Bonus Level: Those in the NES version of Part 2 (after a world boss is defeated) are outright stated as bonus games along with the word "bonus" in the font of Bubble Bobble's secret rooms. However, they're excruciatingly hard Mini Games.
Bowdlerize: In the NES version, the Drunks and Super Drunk were respectively called Willy Whistle and Grumple Gromit because Nintendo didn't want the references to drunkenness in the game.
In Bust-A-Move 4 the storyline and unlockable Drunk is named Dreg. He also appears in the Game Boy Color game Bust-A-Move Millennium.
Bubble Gun: Exhale/blow outward if you're a bubble dragon. Or, if you're human and you have it, blowing through a bubble straw.
Charged Attack: Only in Part 2 (NES and Game Boy versions), Bubble Symphony, and Bubble Memories. See also Forgotten Phlebotinum below.
Chest Monster: in Bubble Symphony's Treasure Desert world. In what may be a homage, the enemy is named Mimic.
Chromatic Arrangement: Not really arranged, but since Bub and Bob are green and blue, a new character is introduced in Double Shot: a red/orange bubble dragon named Bubu.
Circling Birdies: In the arcade version of Bubble Bobble, when Bub/Bob dies via being Cursed, they spin out and fall backwards, having stars above their heads as their eyes follow dizzily. This is reused for one of the Bubs/Bobs in Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move (first installment only).
In Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move 4, Bub/Bob gets dizzy and falls forwards.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the Bubble Bobble series, root for green and blue! And magenta. And orange. Also, each bubble in the Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move games is sorted by color like in Tetris.
Color-Coded Multiplayer: Especially in the Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move games, player 1 has to play as Bub (green) and player 2 has to play as Bob (blue).
However, in Bubble Symphony, players can choose which of the four they want.
Continuing Is Painful: In Space Puzzle Bobble/Space Bust-a-Move, when you continue, you start from the first of the group of five levels all over again. This is different than other Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move games. And out of all available reviews, only Nintendo Power's Sept 2009 issue is most outright in pointing out that flawed change.
To a lesser extent, continuing in Puzzle Bobble [1,] 2, and 3 will reset the score to 0.
Continuity Nod: In the good and happy ending credit sequences for Bubble Memories, Bub and Bob use parasols. See also Mythology Gag.
Cryonics Failure - Having a hexagonal ice block forming around the character, via contact with a snowball, in Bubble Symphony kills him/her right after the ice shatters shortly afterward only because touching anything is fatal.
Cursed with Awesome: Blow bubbles to turn enemies into food! How cool is that?
Cutscene Incompetence: Compare the VS CPU mode cutscenes of Puzzle Bobble 2 (arcade) with gameplay in the regular series. For example, Mighta shoves a boulder against Bub who doesn't bother to get himself away from it.
Death Throws: Parasol Stars (every version), Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES version), Rainbow Islands (US/Japanese NES version).
According to this, the Super Drunk in Part 2 NES round 79 seems to get his power off an antenna on his head because this one's a robot. The purple tinge doesn't count. He acts the same way and throws balls in the same formation as the bottles are thrown.
Early-Bird Cameo: Mighta/Stoner and Monsta/Beluga (the white-hooded boulder roller and floating purple head respectively) were the main enemies in Chack'n Pop, an earlier Taito game.
Early Installment Weirdness: Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move is the only game in that spinoff series to have twin Bubs/Bobs. The pointer machinery has been kept throughout, though.
Easy Mode Mockery: Sort of. There is a three-level-only mode in Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move 2 and PB/BAM3 (arcade, Game Boy). This is the only mode that the pointer line stays throughout.
Everything Fades: the eight outward facing lines when a dizzy-dead protagonist or an item that's been left alone disappears. The protagonists poof away into magic dust and items poof into a cloud of dust that quickly dissipates, as shown in Symphony. Maybe it's because the 8 outward facing lines in Bubble Bobble and its remakes as well as the Game Boy games are so ambiguous.
Everything's Better With Spinning: When anyone, be it protagonist or cute baddie, dies. Most previous Taito games did not feature anyone spinning upon death.
There is one very open level in Symphony after getting the required Plot Coupons where players must carefully bounce on bubbles across certain wind currents from one tiny platform on one side to another on the other side. They also have to avoid falling or touching any enemy.
Round 6 ofPart 2/Junior (Game Boy) starts you off inside a pit with tall walls. There are a few spike-filled levels inPart 2 (NES). Players either have to jump on bubbles or hold down the bubble button in order to float past these obstacles. Problem is, players may not know they can hold down the bubble button...
Gratuitous English / Blind Idiot Translation: The secret rooms in Bubble Bobble, intros/endings in Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, and Bubble Symphony (Symphony's endings have the characters saying "year" for "yeah".), and some text in Bubble Memories.
Bubble Bobble also has the introductory quote that's featured at the top of this page. It has been fixed in the DS and WiiWare re-releases by including the first "the".
Symphony: "Let's try and challenge". Also results in a really odd moment in a Downer Ending: The protagonists are back as humans but they come across a bunch of boarded up doors. Bob (according to the Japanese version's speech order) says "Year, but will [sic] can't go back to our own world!"
Memories: "The only way to get to a boss"... You're already at the boss when you're reading that, aren't you?
The wall-of-text intros upon starting the game (in either Normal or Super Mode). What does "supplicating" mean anyway?
Most Gratuitous English examples in the games can be found at ZanyVGQuotes.com under "Bubble _________" and "Puzzle Bobble 3" and "Bust-A-Move 4" (the latter two are in the same series).
Puzzle Bobble 4 / Bust-a-Move 4 gets overloaded with bad translations especially when comparing the Attract Mode how-to-play screens of PB4/BAM4 with earlier installments, which were perfectly grammatically fine before. Bubblun and Bobblun are named Bubblen and Bobblen, effectively (re)naming one of them after the Giant Mecha Boss of PB2/BAM2.
The end-of-level boss for one of the Rainbow Islands was a spaceship called... Electric Fan!
Grievous Bottley Harm: Super Drunk throws a Spread Shot of beer bottles forwards. The smaller Drunk enemies have a beer bottle that acts like a boomerang.
Guide Dang It: In every single game. Please memorize a strategy guide before starting.
Hijacked by Ganon: In the VS CPU modes of Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move 2, 3, and 4, a enemy named Drunk (the green hooded beer-drinking enemy) has been inside, respectively, a giant robot Mecha named Bubblen (one letter shy of Bub's long bubble dragon name), a giant fake bubble dragon named Debblun, and a spaceship face named Madam Luna.
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Bubble _________ and/or "The Story of Bubble Bobble (confusing installment number)".
Inexplicable Treasure Chests: A huge chest drops down at the end of each level in Rainbow Islands and after defeating a world boss in Bubble Symphony and Memories. Another chest is the basis of one of Symphony's bad endings.
Instant Ice, Just Add Cold: In Bubble Symphony upon contact with a snowball, a hexagonal shape, rather than an ice block, forms around a Cursed protagonist.
The Secret Rooms have their own minion(s): A gray jelly bean face guy named Rascal (named Rubblen in Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move SNES, VS CPU mode), who appears without the "Hurry up!" warning.
Jaw Drop: Bubble Memories normal mode good ending; Space Puzzle Bobble when Bob(blun) is used and the board is almost full. Both are used in conjunction with Blank White Eyes, mainly used in death sprites in Memories.
King Mook: The Bubble Bobble series has many bosses based upon the Mighta and Monsta enemies, not to mention the Super Drunk at the end of the very first game (a giant version of a regular Drunk), and the Hyper Drunk from Bubble Symphony, and also the True Final Boss of Rainbow Islands: a gigantic Skel-Monsta.
Lamarck Was Right: the characters in Symphony are just as capable of action as the characters in Bubble Bobble are.
Late Arrival Spoiler: Arcade sequels to Bubble Bobble show that the characters are humans in their Attract Mode or first round. They were already humans in the first place, but the game writers use...
The Law of Conservation of Detail: If a person's just going through an arcade somewhere and sees the first Bubble Bobble and chooses to play it, they wouldn't know Bub and Bob are really human and have girlfriends to rescue. Especially if "it is [the] beginning of a fantastic story! Let's make a journey to the cave of monsters!" Well, about 20-30 or so levels later in the arcade (never the NES/Virtual Console), the two captured girls are screaming for help while being escorted by Giant Mooks. That's one plot revealed.
getting electrocuted from small un-bubbled electricity when it should be a tingle (Bubble Symphony only).
Match Three Game: Puzzle Bobble aka Bust-A-Move and its own sequels.
Mirror Match: They're not fighting against themselves, but in the first Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move, twin Bubs or Bobs blow-shoot and carry bubbles, and turn the crank respectively. And if you lose... one spins out and dizzy-dies as in Bubble Bobble, the other gets stunned.
Bubble Bobble: Want to see the real ending? Then you'll have to beat it with a friend! Sorry, soloists playing the NES/Virtual Console or arcade versions!
For the NES/Virtual Console version: Trap Super Drunk in a bubble, press Start to pause the game, Select to give P2 one of your lives (if you have any left in game), Start to unpause the game, then pop the bubble. Instant HAPPY END.
For the arcade if the machine lets you, just insert a coin/credit and press P2 Start before you pop Super Drunk's bubble.
Bubble Symphony: Taken literally. A lone player doesn't have to beat it with a friend but players can go through multiple paths/worlds and see a world-exclusive ending if they don't get the stuff needed.
Bubble Memories leans onto Extended Gameplay: the Final Boss escapes to another tower, in which he will reveal his true form if the players reach him there.
Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move 2: Joke endings are assigned to each letter at the end of the triangle path map of rounds.
Musical Assassin: Bubbles that unleash music notes can help fight enemies.
Mythology Gag: In the Game Boy Color version of Rainbow Islands, Bub and Bob are depicted as using parasols outside of gameplay.
Bubble Bobble: The NES/Virtual Console version has an objective required for a good ending that is not in the arcade version. And there is a very thick wall in the way.
Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move: The SNES version has 100 levels and the Final Boss Super Drunk to face as opposed to 30 levels in the arcade and subsequent arcade installments.
In Part 2 (NES)'s final level, according to this, of the three skull brothers, the one channeling Hellfire is invincible at first. Once the other two are defeated, he then unexpectedly grows giant and gains a skeleton body.
There is also a case in Rainbow Islands and Bubble Memories in which the final boss will reveal his true form after being defeated once.
Coro and Bob (respectively) who are always beside each other in Symphony's cutscenes. Extended with green boy Bub and orange girl Kulu.
Likely subverted in the DS game Bubble Bobble Revolution. An unlockable character, Lovelun, is pink, and his gender is unknown but he doesn't wear a bow.
Pinocchio Syndrome: The quest to turn back into humans is made more apparent in Bubble Symphony in which one of the hidden objectives for a good ending is to turn back human while you travel, and Memories in its Attract Mode storyline and when the game begins.
Plot Coupon / Gotta Catch Them All : Big diamonds and mirrors in Rainbow Islands. Symbol cards in Parasol Stars. Keys, music note cards, and a rod in Bubble Symphony. Potions in Bubble Memories. A bunch of stuff in Bubble Bobble Plus/Neo's "Arrange mode". Another bunch of stuff in Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure. You need them, and they do exist.
Plot Tailored to the Party: Double Shot has certain enemies that can only be bubbled by a certain color (of three) or a combination.
Plot Tumor: The DS games Bubble Bobble Revolution and Double Shot keep the "living as bubble dragons in the first place" background introduced by the discontinuous NES manual's comic, or at least give absolutely no indication of them ever being human once. The Puzzle Bobble / Bust-A-Move series scrap the human-character-background completely, because everyone loves the bubble dragons more.
Point of No Return: Aside from kicking players to the next level automatically after a few seconds, players will miss any available items or Plot Coupons after defeating all enemies because they can't go back.
Poison Mushroom: The highly obstructive death bubbles (red bubbles with skulls) in Part 2 (NES).
Possession Implies Mastery: The protagonists can easily blow bubbles; even as humans they found a way to do it. Not so much for other people who get cursed and turn into bubble dragons, like in Bubble Memories.
Power Floats: The player can hold the bubble button to float, but only inPart 2 (NES) and Part 2/Junior (Game Boy). The protagonist(s) in the NES version inflate his body, potentially hurting himself (because his eyes get crossed out by a literal black line while inflating), while the protagonist in the Game Boy version forms a smaller-than-usual bubble around himself. There is a Charge Meter only in the Game Boy game.
The Power of Friendship: A major theme, quoted several times throughout the first game (if you know where to look) and the key behind this game's Multiple Endings.
, Bubble Memories, and Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move 2.
Prop Recycling (sort of): Curiously, the bubbles around the player characters (used for level transitions) in the two games Part 2 (NES) and Part 2/Junior (Game Boy) are the same size in pixels, even though the characters themselves are of different sizes.
Randomly Drops: The rare items such as the Super Star heart, magic crosses, umbrellas, etc. that appear out of nowhere.
There's a chance that HUGE food items may fall when one completes a level in Part 2/Junior (Game Boy). See also Big Eater above.
Actually totally, utterly, brilliantly averted in the first game. The only powerup that appears randomly in Bubble Bobble is the hyper-rare Fireball Bubble (1 in 4096); everything else is manipulatable by a whole series of in-game counters. Umbrellas? Burst 15 water bubbles and you'll get a brolly on the next level.
Ryu and Ken: Bub and Bob, once just mere Palette Swaps. They soon underwent Divergent Character Evolution, being fleshed out with different personalities and abilities later on. The personalities are only stated in the Symphony arcade flyer and the MemoriesAttract Mode. Abilities are only featured in Symphony.
Selective Gravity: Characters fall slowly. Also, in Bubble Symphony, players can very slightly alter their falling speed by holding up or down.
Shock and Awe: Lightning bubbles regardless of size (compare giant lightning bubbles in Bubble Memories) used by protagonists will kill enemies but can also stun themselves. Lightning of any size summoned by enemies can simply-kill (BB Part 2 NES) or electrocute protagonists (Symphony).
Shout Out (these result in Nostalgia Levels). It's one of the first video game series with massive shout outs scattered throughout the levels.
Bubble Bobblerecreates◊ a stage◊ from an earlier game, Chack'n Pop. It also features the title character on the Super Star item stated below and in various games including in the Puzzle Bobble games.
Rainbow Islands features worlds based on Arkanoid, Fairyland Story, Darius, and Bubble Bobble itself.
Bubble Memories' practice mode features "Ready, go!" and level completion music from Puzzle Bobble 2, released the same year. Bub and Bob also look the same in both games.
In all Bubble Bobble games in general, whatever the enemy roster is, it will almost always include an Invader (aka "Super Socket") from Space Invaders. This is more pronounced in Bubble Symphony, as one of the boss battles pits you against a giant version of the standard Invader enemy used in the Bubble Bobble games, while you are additionally being swamped with normal enemy Invaders of all three designs and even the UFO, all graphically redesigned to fit with the new sprite style of Symphony. If you do hit the UFO, it falls to the ground and its top comes off to reveal a yummy dish.Just... don't let the Invaders incinerate you.
Retraux: Classic sprites appear at each last stage of the single-player mode of Puzzle Bobble 2, the stage map of Puzzle Bobble 3, and in the background of DreamCat1's world in Space Puzzle Bobble/Space Bust-A-Move where retro Zen-chans are being remade into a newer style in a factory.
Sins of Our Fathers: Bubble Symphony: The four protagonists are the children of the two original heroes of the first Bubble Bobble. In two separate Attract Mode sequences, the True Final Boss, and then Super Drunk, targets them for what their parents did to him. Weird because Super and Hyper Drunk are supposed to be two separate entities. But then again there's Bub and Bob's Strong Family Resemblance, which can make new or uninformed players think they've been the same Bub and Bob.
Thinking about children, though, one can assume Bub and Kulu are first-Bub's children, and Bob and Coro are first-Bob's children, as the two of each group are always beside each other in cutscenes.
The flyer's Story section is (self-)contradictory on this one. The aforementioned inside left side says that "a long time ago, four old men confined the evil Superdrunk in the book. As [the four of them] started to read the book, they freed Superdrunk who changed the children into bubble dragons and trapped them in this magical book world." And then Hyper Drunk's profile on the opposite page says that he was the one who banished the four. Then the Precap showed Hyper Drunk's silhouette. Then another sequence, a Red Herring, has Super Drunk swearing revenge.
Bubble Bobble Part 2: Even more descendants of the first two heroes according to the NES box back named Cubby and Rubby (or Robby according to the Game Boy version's intro). The manual inverts itself off this one however, and says it's the Bub and Bob of the first game. This might be a case of Covers Always Lie...
Socialization Bonus / Golden Snitch: The original game. In order to get the good ending, you have to beat the Final Boss with two players. Of course, you can subvert this if you give player 2 a continue before you land the final blow...
Spikes of Doom: Part 2, NES: Several levels have them. Also, when a protagonist walks above a certain enemy, it shoots its needle hat onto him, causing him to over-inflate, then deflate to normal and then die.
Super Star: The flashing multicolor heart in later levels. In Memories, there is an item that makes the players big yet unable to fire bubbles (yet they still exhale as if they are blowing bubbles).
Sweat Drop: Flying sweat drops when anyone is stunned or killed. More apparent (both flying and dripping sweat) in Symphony's cutscenes, which are Anime-styled.
Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Basically any female character wears a large or small bow across the top of their head (Coro and Kulu of Bubble Symphony), on one side of their head spike (Peb and Pab in Bubble Bobble Plus (WiiWare)) or straight on, on the corner of their heads (three of the eleven Alcatraz victims in Rainbow Islands). Whether the characters in question have a tooth or not (Coro and Kulu have no tooth compared to Bub and Bob, and later Pab and Peb, who have a tooth) doesn't really apply anymore.
The Bubble Bobble Plus website shows Bub and Bob each with a two-bump tooth (or however one calls them; based directly on the original arcade flyers (the picture at the top), and 3P and 4P each with a one-bump tooth. If not for Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move SNES's depiction of Bub and Bob each with a flat tooth, the first description would be fully canonical.
Theme Tune Cameo: The Bubble Bobble theme appears in most sequels for both the main and spinoff (Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move) series and newer games.
Theme Twin Naming: Bub(blun/by) and Bob(blun/by). And Coro(ron/n) and Kulu(lun/n). And Pab and Peb.
Title Scream: Bubble Symphony aka Bubble Bobble 2 (arcade).
Food Is Bigger In Fiction: Food that bubbled-and-popped enemies turn into are as big as the player characters' size (except in Part 2 (NES)), but it gets more ridiculous in Part 2/Junior (Game Boy). See also Big Eater.
Trick Boss: Symphony has a puppet version of Super Drunk (the first boss of Symphony) before Hyper Drunk shows himself.
Turns Red: Enemies who don't get bubbled before "Hurry up!" appears or who have escaped from being bubbled. Or the last one standing when the other enemies have been bubbled and popped.
Inverted inPart 2 (NES version)'s really hard bonus games, where whoever loses the point to his opponent turns red.
Unwinnable by Mistake: Bubble Bobble Revolution on the DS had a game-ending glitch that caused the Level 30 boss to never show up. You were stuck in the room and had no way of progressing. This had been reportedly fixed in later printings of Revolution, however.
Video Game Remake: The classic has been remade for the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS. Bubble Bobble is also featured in Taito Legends, and Symphony in Taito Legends 2.
Bubble Bobble/Rainbow Islands/Parasol Stars: Both Bub and Bob have red hair. The weird hair (and skin) colors in the NES/Virtual Console versions do not count, because due to NES limitations, Bub and Bob already had those colors in their bubble dragon forms in that particular version.
Bubble Symphony: Bub has light brown hair. Bob has dark brown/black hair. Coro has pink hair. Kulu has blonde hair.
Bubble Memories: Both Bub and Bob have dark brown hair.
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