Video Game / Bubble Bobble

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 platformer made by Taito and released in 1986. It features two cute bubble dragon critters named Bubblun (aka Bub) and Bobblun (aka Bob) 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.

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Bubble Bobble series

• Bubble Bobble (1986)
• Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (1987)
• Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III (TurboGrafx-16) (1991)
• Bubble Bobble 2 (NES, (1993) released in the west as Bubble Bobble Part 2, apparently takes place after Symphony
• Bubble Bobble Junior (Game Boy) (1993) released in the west as Bubble Bobble Part 2
• 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 since Bubby and Bobby use their parasols in the good and happy endings.
• Classic Bubble Bobble (GBC) (1999) released in Japan as Taito Memorial: Bubble Bobble
• Bubble Bobble Revolution (DS) (2005) released in Japan as Bubble Bobble DS, includes the same classic game's port as in 2002's Bubble Bobble: Old & New for GBA.
• Rainbow Islands Revolution (DS) (2005) released in Japan as New Rainbow Islands
• Bubble Bobble Evolution (PSP) (2006) released in Japan as Bubble Bobble: Magical Tower Daisakusen!!
• Rainbow Islands Evolution (PSP) (2007) released in Japan as New Rainbow Island: Hurdy Gurdy Daibouken!!
• Bubble Bobble Double Shot (DS) (2007)
• Bubble Bobble Plus! (Wii) / Bubble Bobble Neo (Xbox 360) (2009) the former released in Japan as Bubble Bobble Wii, approx. half a recreation of the arcade original
• Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure (Wii, Xbox 360) (2009)
• Bubble Bobble Double (iOS) (2010) which apparently includes the GBA/DS port as well as a new Retraux sprite filled game mode where the touch screen is used.
• Bubble Bobble 4 Friends (Nintendo Switch) (2019) / Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back! (Nintendo Switch, PS4) (2020) which includes a port of the arcade game; DLC/rerelease features the return of Baron von Blubba and one hundred new stages

It also spawned a spinoff, Puzzle Bobble, which has its own page. Tropes specific to that series should be added/moved there.

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Tropes used in the video games:

A-H

• All There in the Manual: The storylines are not explicitly stated in the game itself.
  • 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: Character names are barely stated in the games. One must look at flyers or credits.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: 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 yellow sparkles. The bubble dragons' deaths aren't like this.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: For no apparent reason, the boxart of the Sega Saturn and PlayStation versions of Bust-A-Move 2 both have a bald guy shoving matchsticks into his eyelids. The cover in question.◊ Maybe it's because the game is "so addictive it should be illegal" (as per the blurb), so the bald guy still feels the urge to play the game despite needing sleep, and he uses the matches to keep his eyes open.
  • Allegedly this was due to a mixup at Acclaim (the game's international publisher) who confused the game's magazine ad for the cover art: both of them have the artwork awkwardly cropped on the box, and the advertisement in question shows a different cover art that would later be used for the European and Nintendo console releases. One still has to ask though who thought this was appropriate to advertise a game about cartoon dinosaurs shooting bubbles.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: According to story details, Bub and Bob from Bubble Bobble are not the playable characters in 2 NES or Symphony. Same goes for Peb and Pab, who are bubble dragon forms of the original girlfriends Betty and Patty in Bubble Bobble Plus!, although they are the spiritual successor of Kululun and Cororon, the bubble dragon forms of Kulun and Coron in Bubble Symphony.
• And the Adventure Continues: The good and happy endings in Bubble Symphony state that there's a new adventure waiting for them.
• Animorphism: A curse turns protagonists Bubby and Bobby into ... bubble dragons? Yup. (Throw in some Super-Deformed Incredible Shrinking Man for Bubble Memories, because Bubby and Bobby as humans are proportionally tall in that game.)
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Bosses. But hey, in Memories players can find an item that makes themselves big too.
  • To a lesser extent, the big enemies in normal levels of Memories.
• Badass Adorable: Most of these cute Dragon bubbles can trap enemies with their bubble powers.
• Balloon Belly: The player character in Bubble Bobble 2 NES while charging up to hover in the air.
• Become a Real Boy: 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.
• Beta Couple: Kululun and Cororon, the orange and magenta female companions (respectively) in Bubble Symphony. And Peb and Pab, their counterparts in Bubble Bobble Plus! (WiiWare).
• Big Eater: Player characters, judging solely by the number of enemies they turn into food by bubbling them. Food that bubbled-and-popped enemies turn into are as big as the player characters' size (except in 2 NES).
  • Candy cane items in Bubble Bobble will cause a giant food item to fall down the center of the screen once the level is complete (as well as turning the other bubbles into smaller versions of that food item).
  • Giant (mostly) food items (the only exception being the giant money bag) can appear in Rainbow Islands in one of two ways: By collecting a potion and completing a non-boss level (which will cause the usual assorted contents of the chest to all become one big version and many smaller versions of the same item), or by defeating a boss without collecting all seven small diamond colors on that island.
  • It goes even further with giant food items such as a tall hamburger and a HUGE honeycomb in 2 (NES)/Junior (Game Boy), as well as giant popsicles and cake in Bubble Symphony. These items are easily about 2-3 times the size as the player character, but they're gone in one gulp.
    • Ditto with the giant food items that are dropped by the giant enemies (or that double-layered bubbles can turn into) in Bubble Memories.
• Bland-Name Product: One of the random items that enemies turn into upon defeat are WcDonald's French fries (1000-point item).
  • In Bubble Memories, the container still has the well-known shape and colors, but the letter on the container is a P, presumably for "potato".
• Blank White Eyes:
  • When Bubblun or Bobblun die in Bubble Memories instead of getting their eyes crossed out literally.
• Blue with Shock: Popping an enemy that has been bubbled will cause this for enemies, as well as a player getting the Invincibility Power-Up.
• 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.
  • There are also three conventional bonus stages; reaching levels 20, 30 or 40 (or the next level afterwards if a level skip took you past the actual level) without dying caused the appearance of a door into a secret round. As well as loads of 10,000-point gems, these three rounds also contained encoded text giving hints on reaching the best ending.
  • Many more secret rooms are present in the SMS port, Final Bubble Bobble, some containing Plot Coupons.
  • Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories continue the trend of having secret rooms.
  • Arguably any stage that puts a bunch of Zen-chan in an easy formation to bubble/pop them all in a Combo could count as this. Level 45 of Bubble Bobble even non-subtly lampshades this by having the word "BONUS" carved into it. There are many other such levels that don't lampshade it quite as much that also may qualify as Breather Levels.
• Border-Occupying Decorations: Playing the Classic release on the Super Game Boy gives it a border filled with bricks, with the logo at the top as well as Bub and Bob on the sides.
• Boss Subtitles: "Manuke" in Bubble Symphony's Kiki Kai Kai world.
• Boss Warning Siren: Occurs with the battleship Yamato in Bubble Symphony and the Electric Fan in Rainbow Islands much like in Darius, and with each boss in Bubble Memories.
• Bouncy Bubbles: Bub and Bob can jump off the bubbles they shoot for some extra momentum.
• Bowdlerise: In the NES manual, 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. Yet in-game, the best ending shows the protagonists and all enemies credited with their original names anyway.
  • 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.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Those in the NES version of 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.
  • The game just hurts you because it loves you.
• 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.
  • And then the PC version cover of the first Puzzle Bobble game has Bubblun as a bubble dragon using a bubble straw to blow bubbles.
• The Cameo:
  • Bubble Symphony features character cameos from◊ other Taito games◊, such as Ptolemy from The Fairyland Story and the Space Invaders cannon.
  • Also in Bubble Symphony, the boss Manuke, from Kiki Kai Kai, mainly takes the form of Sayo with a tail.
• Cap: Rainbow Islands by default caps the player's score at 9,999,990 points until receiving end-game bonuses. A code must be entered to allow the score to climb higher than that before the end of the game. No matter what, the cap is 99,999,990 points (and the aforementioned code will indicate this amount).
• Character Blog: Bub got a YouTube channel in 2020, and in 2021 became a full blown VTuber (voiced by Etsuko Kozakura).
• Charged Attack: Players can hold down the bubble button for different effects in only the following games: 2 (NES), Junior (Game Boy), Bubble Symphony, and Bubble Memories. See also Forgotten Phlebotinum below.
• Checkpoint Starvation: Rainbow Islands does not allow continuing past the seventh island unless the Book of Continues is obtained in its secret room.
• Chest Monster: In Bubble Symphony's Treasure Desert world. In what may be a homage, the enemy is named Mimic.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: In Bubble Symphony, Bubblun, Bobblun, Kululun and Cororon become royalty only after they defeat Hyper Drunk, regardless of if they remain bubble dragons or not.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Not really arranged, but since Bubblun and Bobblun are green and blue, a new character is introduced in Double Shot: their cousin Bubu, a red/orange bubble dragon named.
• Circling Birdies:
  • In the arcade version of Bubble Bobble, when Bubblun/Bobblun dies after touching anything from being cursed, they spin out and fall backwards, having stars above their heads as their eyes follow dizzily. This is redone for one of the Bubbluns/Bobbluns in Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move (first installment only).
  • In Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move 4, Bub/Bob gets dizzy and falls forwards, having birds above his head. This also happens only to Bub in the Game Boy Color game Bust-A-Move Millennium.
  • In Space Puzzle Bobble, if Bob loses, he gets dizzy, spins around once before falling to the ground with stars circling above his head.
• Color-Coded Characters: 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 contains an enemy character from the main series, and 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). In Bubble Symphony, though players can choose which of the four they want, each have different stats.
• Continuity Nod: In the good and happy ending credit sequences for Bubble Memories, Bubblun/Bubby and Bobblun/Bobby use parasols. See also Mythology Gag.
• Covers Always Lie / Dinosaurs Are Cute Bubble Dragons: Regarding the NES cover,◊ these two are definitely not brontosauruses, although it does help fit in with the alliteration thing they've got going there.
• Cryonics Failure - When a hexagonal ice block forms around the character in Bubble Symphony, via contact with a snowball, it kills him/her right after the ice shatters shortly afterward.
• Cursed with Awesome: Blow bubbles to turn enemies into food! How cool is that?
  • Considering in Bubble Symphony you can do this even as humans, and, in general, once cursed you die too easily, there isn't really any advantage to being dragons. Especially because any other person who is transformed (other than the protagonists) is so scared or is outside of the Competence Zone that he/she doesn't even know how to or if they can use such a cool weapon. Just look at the people in Rainbow Islands and Bubble Memories.
• 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 Bubblun who doesn't bother to get himself away from it.

• Dark Is Evil: ZigZagged with Develon. Take either Bub or Bob, give them wings and make them Red and Black and Evil All Over. While he does intend to Take Over the World, he's also often a playable character and is mostly depicted as The Rival for Bub.
• Death Throws: If a player-character dies, they are thrown off the screen in Parasol Stars (every version), Bubble Bobble 2 (NES), Rainbow Islands (US/Japanese NES and Sega Master System version).
• Defeat Means Friendship: If one thinks about this Puzzle Bobble 2 ending◊ and/or one of the good endings of Bubble Symphony with the premise of having to bubble and pop these enemies to turn them into food and items and then move on... Okay, it's a Mind Screw.
• Degraded Boss: Super Drunk in the first Bubble Bobble returns in Bubble Symphony, a lot easier and the first boss. He appears in 2 (NES) as well, but only Save Scummers will ever know for sure.
  • According to this, the Super Drunk in 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.
  • In both cases, the room is a Disc-One Final Dungeon that is modeled after The Very Definitely Final Dungeon he had in Bubble Bobble.
• Diabolus ex Machina: In a bad ending for the NES/VC version of Bubble Bobble, after getting the suddenly-required crystal ball in one-player mode and defeating the final boss, both girlfriends are rescued... only to poof away when they reach the ground. Compare this to the arcade, where the player character's girlfriend is rescued, and the other remains in captivity.
• Directionally Solid Platforms: Particularly in the first game and the main series it spawned, where every tile is like that.
• Distaff Counterpart:
  • Bubble Symphony has Kulun/Kululun and Coron/Cororon to Bobby/Bubblun and Bobby/Bobblun. This general idea was kept for Bubble Bobble Plus! with Peb and Pab to Bub and Bob.
  • Symphony also has a female version of the Drunk enemy, named Dranko, whose beer bottles explode in a fiery manner instead of boomeranging, and it looks like an underage girl in a green cloak. Yes, an underage girl with booze...
• Dub Name Change: Bubblun and Bobblun are often shortened to Bub and Bob in localizations. Similarly, in Bubble Bobble Plus!, Pebblun was changed to Peb and Pabblun was changed to Pab.
  • Home versions tend to rename enemies, most notably Drunk and Super Drunk to Willy Whistle and Grumple Grommit.
• Dynamic Difficulty: There is an internally kept difficulty value that gets adjusted up or down depending on the player's performance. This affects enemy speeds and also the required counts on the game's internal counters to get special items to appear.
• 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.
• Easter Egg: Entering SEX as one's high-score initials resulted in them being censored to H !, but also in the first bonus item in the next game being a fork which releases showers of point-scoring items. (There are other high-score combinations which give different bonuses (and aren't censored), but this is the best-known one.)
• 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. It ends with "Good. Try the next level!"
  • Completing the 10-level training mode in Bubble Memories gives a similar message.
• Edible Collectible: There's about three dozen types of food. All bonus items worth 4000 points or less are food, while higher-value items are generally jewelry and other inedible objects. There are also giant bonus items worth tens of thousands of points; once again, the lower-value ones are food and the higher-value ones are jewels.
• Every 10,000 Points: The original Bubble Bobble provides extra lives at many different point plateaus. Rainbow Islands by default provides two point-based extra lives.
• Everything Fades: Items and dizzy-dead protagonists disappear, leaving the eight outward facing lines when it's been left alone. The protagonists are later shown to poof away into yellow sparkles, and items 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 Rainbows: Main weapon in Rainbow Islands as well as rainbow bubbles in other games.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Or: Everything is out there trying to walk into you, and kill you by doing so.
• Evil Counterpart: Warurin from Bubble Symphony, a purple red-eyed dragon mook who breathes X-Ray Sparks-inducing fireballs instead of bubbles.
• Excuse Plot
  • An implied Sick Episode in Bubble Bobble Game Boy port and Game Boy Color game, due to them being single-player. Bub looks for the Moon Water "so [he] can help [his] brother" instead of rescuing his girlfriend, because trying to leave in a plot that requires two players to finish on a single-player portable was too hard back then.
  • The arcade version of the first Puzzle Bobble game pretty much ends with Bubblun and Bobblun (or Bubblun's clone?) packing up and sleeping in a bush while the various enemies lay in a pile defeated.

• Fire, Ice, Lightning: The three types of elemental bubbles in both the original Bubble Bobble and in the Super NES port of Puzzle Bobble are fire, water, and lightning. There is also an elemental book that will cause an earthquake, and the SMS port adds an elemental ice book. Later Bubble Bobble games add other elemental bubbles that are a bit less to much less stock such as wind, rainbows (ala Rainbow Islands), and music notes.
• Floating in a Bubble:
  • The players' main mode of transportation between levels. It can somehow go through walls.
  • Enemies are trapped into bubbles which can be carried along wind currents.
• Flunky Boss: The giant Space Invader in Bubble Symphony, which has updated sprite versions of the invaders and the Flying Saucer alongside it.
• Forced Transformation: The bubble dragons are actually humans who get turned into dragons thanks to a curse.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: Holding down the bubble button to: Inflate oneself to float^{Occurs in...} Bubble Bobble 2 and Bubble Bobble Junior, for NES and Game Boy, shoot bubbles in a pattern^{Occurs in...} Bubble Symphony, or shoot giant bubbles.^{Occurs in...} Bubble Memories Each of these only applies to one game with any given title in the 1990s, no more.
• Friendly Fireproof:
  • Partially averted with fire and lightning bubbles. You can get hit by the lightning or flames inside, however this only stuns and will not kill you.
  • Played straight with the red magic cross: Getting it and blowing fireballs will not affect the other player character.
• Generation Xerox: As implied in Bubble Symphony, no one in the protagonists' families is safe from becoming cursed into bubble dragons. Also, at least two of them will be a green bubble dragon and a blue bubble dragon Because Destiny Says So.
• Giant Mook: Some enemies in Bubble Memories are larger than normal. Also, in Bubble Bobble, the captured-in-bubbles girlfriends get escorted by Giant Mooks throughout the levels.
• Gimmick Level
  • 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 of Junior (Game Boy) starts you off inside a pit with tall walls. There are a few spike-filled levels in 2 (NES). Players either have to bounce off 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...
• GIS Syndrome: There are digitized photos in Bubble Memories that serve as level backgrounds.
• Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: Applies to all characters, though does not apply to Bubby and Bobby (as humans) in Memories.

• 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 makes a Downer Ending a bit odd: 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?
    • And "DANGER! The room guarder Koornt or Kligan or Waffulfl etc. is approaching fast". Or maybe it's the Final Boss, the "Super Dark Great Dragon".
    • 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. The female Dranko in Bubble Symphony uses a Molotov Cocktail instead.
• Guide Dang It!: In every single game. Please memorize a strategy guide before starting.
  • The PC port by NovaLogic plays this trope as well- if you want to use any audio source other than the PC speaker, you need to start the game with a particular option switch. Most other games of that era uses a config.exe or setup.exe program to change sound device options. People who got the game second hand without the manual are stuck with PC speaker sound because the instructions to change the sound device are in the manual, and this was the era before the internet, so you can't just look stuff up online.
• Harmless Freezing: Subverted. in Bubble Symphony, the same events happen with the freezing and ice shattering, but since the player characters are cursed, they die.
• Hijacked by Ganon:
  • Bubble Bobble games: Skel-Monsta/Baron von Blubba in some form or other is always the final boss, but Rainbow Islands and Bubble Memories pull this off the most egregiously. A giant armored Bubble Dragon with wings turns all the humans into Bubble Dragons to propagate his own kind. A cute and interesting character in its own right, until it starts pulling disturbing faces. And then, under the right conditions, as if on-cue, you're fighting the Baron, again.
  • Puzzle Bobble games: In the VS CPU modes of PB/BAM 2, 3, and 4, a enemy named Drunk (the green hooded beer-drinking enemy, named Dreg in some releases) has been inside, respectively, a giant robot Mecha named Bubblen (one letter shy of Bubblun), a giant fake bubble dragon named Debblun, and a spaceship face named Madam Luna.

I-Q

• Idle Animation:
  • The player characters wag their tails up and down at a constant split-second rate, except in both Bubble Bobble Part 2 games (NES and Game Boy). In Bubble Memories, Bubblun and Bobblun don't have the constant wagging-tail rate but still do it.
  • Bubble Symphony gives the four player-characters some idle animations based on their gender. If you leave your character alone some more, he/she will do something else. Bubblun or Bobblun will sleep, and Kululun or Cororon will sit down, shake her head as she takes out a mini-mirror out of Hammerspace and look at herself through it. When they're human, their actions are different. They all blink at the constant split-second rate. Bubby or Bobby will stop blinking, then blink quickly a few times, sit down and take out his straw he blows bubbles with. He blows through it a few times, but it doesn't work, so he blows so hard he shakes around, and then sits down facing the player, closing his eyes. Kulun or Coron will happily put her hands to her mouth and do a little cheer to the left and right before facing toward the player, sitting down and closing her eyes.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Bubble _________ and/or "The Story of Bubble Bobble (confusing installment number)".
• Improbable Weapon User: Bubbles, rainbows, and parasols.
• Inconsistent Dub: The English manual for the NES version of Bubble Bobble Part 2 identifies the protagonists as Bubby and Bobby, while the back of the box establishes them as Bubby's descendants, Cubby and Rubby. The latter story is more consistent with the Famicom version.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: A huge chest, usually containing food items, 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 protagonist.
• Invincible Minor Minion: The floating skull named Skel-Monsta/Baron von Blubba that comes with Stalked by the Bell. He has been promoted to Sequential One-Winged Angel True Final Boss status in two games. There can be up to two Skel-Monstas at a time depending on the number of players.
  • 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.
• Invincibility Power-Up: 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).
• Jaw Drop: Occurs in the Bubble Memories normal mode good ending and in Space Puzzle Bobble when Bob is used and the board is almost full. Both are used in conjunction with Blank White Eyes.
• Kid Hero: Bubby and Bobby, and anyone accompanying them or taking their place. Any older than teenage years, and children/descendants come around - as implied by Bubble Symphony's intro and a back cover for Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES). (See here)
• Kill It with Fire:
  • Fire bubbles kill enemies and stun protagonists, enemy fireballs/lasers incinerate protagonists. Obviously, don't touch the latter!
  • Some bosses are killed with Fire Bubbles. To list:
    • Memories Has Maita P.
    • Plus! has Expert-2's boss.
• Kill It with Ice:
  • The player characters via contact with a snowball.
  • The Master System version of Bubble Bobble features an exclusive book item that will turn all of the enemies on screen into ice cubes that can be collected for points.
• Kill It with Water: Water bubbles kill enemies and carry (and/or visibly stun)^note Bubble Bobble 2 NES as well as the GBA and DS classic modes of Bubble Bobble— something that isn't in the arcade. protagonists. The blue cross item in Bubble Bobble floods the room and drowns all enemies. However, in Rainbow Islands, water kills protagonists. However again, in Bubble Memories, just being in water isn't sufficient enough to kill or stun anyone.
• 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, being introduced as the children of the protagonists in Bubble Bobble, are just as capable of action as they 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.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: If a person's seeing the first Bubble Bobble somewhere and chooses to play it, they wouldn't know Bub and Bob are really human and have human girlfriends to rescue. Well, this is no mere "journey to the cave of monsters": 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.
  • Game Boy version(s): What is Bub supposed to help his brother Bob from? Is Bob sick? Because a river outside is dried up? Really?^{Occurs in...} Bubble Bobble's Game Boy version. If Bob's sick and can't participate, why would he be transformed?^{Occurs in...} Classic Bubble Bobble, for Game Boy Color. ...Or not.^note Game Boy version, again. And anyway, what is the Moon Water? What is it supposed to do? Does it turn out to be an Unreveal, or an Ass Pull?
• Lesser Star: Unfortunately, Bobblun, the blue bubble dragon, has not been in as many games and ports as Bubblun, the green bubble dragon, is.
• Level Editor: The upcoming Steam version of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, "The Baron's Workshop", will feature an exclusive Workshop Mode.

• Locked Door: Coming across one with no way to open it basically forces the player to start from the beginning. Some appear in Parasol Stars and Bubble Symphony with a cutscene related to them in the latter.

• The Many Deaths of You: A bubble dragon or their human form can die in rather exaggerated ways, by:
  • Coming into contact with anything, which (arguably completely) numbs them out causing them to gain a literal black line across their eyes and die,
  • Total incineration to dust from a small laser bolt,
  • Getting INSTANTLY frozen from a snowball (Bubble Symphony only), or
  • Getting electrocuted from small un-bubbled electricity (Bubble Symphony only).
• Man on Fire: If a player character is hit by enemy weapons such as the Invaders' lasers, Hidegons's fire breath, or a fire-based weapon from the multitude of Bubble Symphony's enemies^note Such as Japanese lanterns, spaceships with Invaders' lasers, robot fish missiles, and female Dranko's molotovs, they will be incinerated on the spot.
• Meaningful Name: One of the enemies that appears in Bubble Bobble Junior is a dinosaur-like monster that throws hammers. He's appropriately named Thor, after the Norse God that uses a hammer as a weapon.
• Mercy Invincibility
  • After the player loses a life, they are immune to damage for a few seconds in the main games, although they are sent back to the corner, making it less effective than one would think.
  • In Bubble Bobble Junior (Game Boy), this applies, but only for about a second, which seems shorter than it should be.
• Mook Maker: In Bubble Bobble Junior, Invader Crates and Hermit Tanks spawn Invaders and Hermits, respectively. And one of the bosses, Scarecrow, spawns Crows, a unique type of mook that appears only on level 40.
• Moon Logic Puzzle: Rainbow Islands Extra Version's codes are not only in Wingdinglish and different from those in the standard version, the wingdings themselves are obscured by colored hearts. Only the first character and one of the last seven in each code will be shown. Which one of the last seven is shown is determined by the color of the last small diamond picked up in that world before entering the secret room. The only way to learn even that bit of knowledge though is through very astute observation, or to decipher another rather cryptic hint that can only be gotten near the end of the game! If you can get there; the Extra Version is an even tougher version of a game whose original was not exactly easy. An alternate way of displaying the password temporarily, for all of about five seconds, is by collecting the giant golden key power-up. Unlike the standard version though, the giant power-ups do not appear in a set order; they are determined in the same fashion as above; by the last small diamond collected in the world.
• Moveset Clone: Bubblun and Bobblun, once just mere Palette Swaps. They soon underwent Divergent Character Evolution, being fleshed out with different personalities and stat differences later on. The personalities are only stated in the Symphony arcade flyer and the Memories Attract Mode. Stat differences, such as movement speed and bubble-blowing distance, only apply to Symphony.
• Multiple Endings: Trope Maker. Mostly Downer Endings... for a game (series) that's supposed to be happy!
  • 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!
  • 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 defeat him there.
• Musical Assassin: Bubbles that unleash music notes can help fight enemies.
• Mythology Gag: In the Game Boy Color version of Rainbow Islands, Bubby and Bobby are depicted as using parasols in the cutscenes even though RI is set before Parasol Stars.
• New Game Plus: Super Mode. With some games it just swaps which enemies are in the level with the layout staying the same, but some games do more:
  • In Bubble Memories, Super Mode is an entire alternate level pack. Even the training mode has an alternate Super Mode level pack.
  • Final Bubble Bobble, the SMS port of the original game, does not have a separate Super Mode. It instead has an enhanced "second loop" of sorts consisting of levels 101-200 that begins after a cutscene after level 100. This can only be reached if the player got required Plot Coupons in the first 100 levels. Most levels in the second 100 are a simple enemy swap of level x-100, but some levels have their layout completely changed (some layouts are borrowed from other ports). The latter half of the game itself has its own set of secret rooms and Plot Coupons to collect for the true ending.
• Nintendo Hard: The Nintendo versions are hard indeed:
  • 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 and a lot of enemies in the way.

• Ominous Chanting: Symphony's True Final Boss theme, featuring a choir of children.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Bubblun/Bubby and Bobblun/Bobby (and any other player characters) will die if they touch anything.
  • Subverted in 2 (NES) because the player only has one heart per life, but can find more hearts.
  • Averted in Junior (Game Boy) and Revolution (DS) because the player has three hearts per life.
  • Even after they turn back into humans, they still die by touching anything. Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars take place after Bubble Bobble, and there's turning into humans in the middle of the game in Bubble Symphony. Such may be the way of The Curse.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • In 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 are also cases in Rainbow Islands and Bubble Memories in which the final boss will reveal his true form after being defeated once.
• Orchestral Bombing: Bubble Symphony has generally orchestral background music and starts with a fanfare on the title sequence. With a secret code, an orchestral version of the Bubble Bobble music can be heard as background music.
• Parasol of Pain: In Parasol Stars, Bubby or Bobby can use his parasol to pick up and throw enemies at other enemies, and bubbles that flow like water droplets.
• Parasol Parachute: Bubby and Bobby use umbrellas to float down softly in Parasol Stars and the good endings of Bubble Memories.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy
  • Coron/Cororon and Bobby/Bobblun (respectively) who are always beside each other in Symphony's cutscenes. Extended with green boy Bubby/Bubblun and orange girl Kulun/Kululun.
  • 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.
• Playing with Fire: The red cross allows a protagonist to blow fireballs for the current level. Which thankfully don't incinerate the partner.
• Plot Coupon: Big diamonds, then mirrors in Rainbow Islands. Crystal orbs, a candle, and mirrors in the SMS port of Bubble Bobble. Star cards for a key in a particular world in Parasol Stars. Music note cards for giant keys, and a rod in Bubble Symphony. Potions in Bubble Memories. A bunch of stuff in Bubble Bobble Plus!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. Luckily, the three bubble dragons in that game can tag in and out.
• 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 2 (NES).
• Portal Book: Bubble Symphony: Implied by the arcade flyer, the intro where the protagonists are seen reading books off a shelf, and the rather fantasy nature of the worlds they travel to.
• 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 in 2 (NES) and Junior (Game Boy). The protagonist(s) in the NES version inflate his body, potentially suffering some pain (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 the first game's Multiple Endings.

• Primary-Color Champion: Bob has blue skin, red hands and feet and yellow spikes.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The final boss battle against Super Drunk is a rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee".

R-Z

• Random Drop: The rare items such as the invincibility 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 2 (NES)/Junior (Game Boy). See also Big Eater above.
  • However, collecting a cane/staff in Symphony can force a giant food item to appear upon completing the level.
  • 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.
• Rhyme Theme Naming: The two main characters are named Bubblun and Bobblun. Their girlfriends are named Betty and Patty.
• Rhyming Title: Bubble Bobble.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Bubblun and Bobblun. And Kululun/Peb and Cororon/Pab. And basically all those random baddies. Not so much in Revolution (DS) as the characters' in-game appearances have gotten a bit hardcore.
• Rise to the Challenge: In Rainbow Islands, water will start rising from the bottom of the screen after the "Hurry up!" text and sped-up music if the player spends too long on a stage, which will kill the player if touched. This is replaced by blood in the final boss room, which will cause an instant game over if touched.
• Robot Me: An unlockable character in Revolution (DS), named Robolun. ...who can still get hurt when he touches anything.
• Rule of Cute: Essence, origin and justification of the entire series. Players (and the Puzzle Bobble games' developers) seem to prefer bubble dragons over their human form counterparts.
• Screen Crunch: Bubble Bobble was yet another SMS to GG conversion, this time for Final Bubble Bobble. Instead of replicating the Game Boy version's scrolling, the developers simply created mini versions of the levels making the game feel rather cramped.
• Secret Level: The secret rooms in most (if not all) Bubble Bobble games. Not like anyone's gonna last long enough to get there; the first secret is 20 rounds away, and dying even once prevents further entry.
• 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 (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 Bobble recreates◊ a stage◊ from an earlier game, Chack'n Pop. It also features the title character on the Invincibility Power-Up item 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 Symphony bases some of its Adventure Towns off some of Taito's other properties. The aforementioned Chack'n Pop level appears again. It also features cameo appearances; see The Cameo above.
  • Bubble Memories' practice mode features "Ready, go!" and level completion music from Puzzle Bobble 2, released the same year. Bubblun and Bobblun 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.

• Sinister Minister: While not explicitly stated to be one, Hyper Drunk certainly has the appearance of one, with the large mitre he wears and the church-like arena he's fought in.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Bubble Symphony states that the protagonists are the children of the two original heroes of the first Bubble Bobble. In two separate Attract Mode sequences, the True Final Boss Hyper Drunk, and then Super Drunk (boss of the first game), targets them for what their parents did to him. This is weird because Super and Hyper Drunk are supposed to be two separate entities. But then again there's Bubby and Bobby's Strong Family Resemblance, which can make new or uninformed players think they've been the same Bubby and Bobby.
  • Thinking about children, though, one can assume Bubby and Kulun are first-Bubby's children, and Bobby and Coron are first-Bobby's children, as the two of each group are always beside each other in cutscenes. However, it's only implied that the girls are related to the boys; later sources claim that they are their childhood friends.
  • 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 and implying he would change the four into bubble dragons this time.
  • According to the back cover, the NES Bubble Bobble Part 2 game introduces another pair of dragons named Cubby and Rubby, who are also descendants of Bubby, while the Game Boy game features a lone dragon named Robby.
• Socialization Bonus: The original game. In order to get a 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... This is also possible in the NES/Virtual Console version by having player 1 pause the game and press Select to give an extra life to whoever's missing (since Select and Start only worked on P1's controller at the time).
  • Averted with some ports and sequels, including the SMS port, which simply require the player to collect Plot Coupons instead. Rainbow Islands does this necessarily due to 2-player play being alternating rather than simultaneous.
• Songs in the Key of Panic: Hurry (Up!) Music in (at least mostly) every single Bubble Bobble game.
• Spectacular Spinning: When anyone, be it protagonist or cute baddie, dies. Most previous Taito games did not feature anyone spinning upon death.
• Spelling Bonus: E-X-T-E-N-D for an extra life.
  • R-O-D in Bubble Symphony to turn back into a human.
• Spell My Name With An S: In the original game, Mighta is known as "Maita" in the Super Bubble Bobble mode's credits.
  • Bubby and Bobby are known as "Bubbie" and "Bobbie" on the Bubble Memories arcade flyer.
• Spikes of Doom: 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 (or at least lose a heart).
• Spin-Off: Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move, a game series involving matching colored bubbles.
• Spread Shot: In Bubble Symphony, each character has their own spread pattern when blowing bubbles, but only after it has been charged up.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: Bubble Bobble Plus! uses 2D graphics for the foregrounds and 3D graphics for the player characters and enemies.
• Squashed Flat
  • In the intro for Kligan^note Bubble Memories and Puzzle Bobble 2 share similarities already, and both games feature a giant round rock face with something on top. in Puzzle Bobble 2, Kligan himself squishes Bubblun flat. But he did unflatten.
  • It's possible for bubbles to squish the player characters against walls when he/she is facing them. There are also unused sprites for being squished downwards in Bubble Bobble and Bubble Memories; instead, bubbles get popped against the character's top horn.

• Story Breadcrumbs: In the first Bubble Bobble with Super Drunk's Gratuitous Wingdinglish messages in the secret rooms.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Bubby and Bobby as seen in Bubble Symphony's intro and human gameplay look just like Bubby and Bobby of Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars, with a hair color change.

• Super Not-Drowning Skills: No protagonist or mook drowns in water in Bubble Memories.
• Super Title 64 Advance: Bubble Bobble Double Shot.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: The Super Dark Great Dragon. When you see him for the first time, he doesn't look much different from Bubblun apart from the wings (and armor), looking like a cute, if enormous, dragon. Then he starts pulling one Nightmare Face after another.
• Sweat Drop: Flying sweat drops when anyone is stunned or killed. They are often in pairs, but go by really quickly. They are 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 (Kulun and Coron 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 doesn't really apply anymore, as Kululun and Cororon have no tooth compared to Bubblun and Bobblun, and later Peb and Pab, who have a tooth.
  • The Bubble Bobble Plus! website shows Bub and Bob each with a two-bump tooth (based directly on the original arcade flyer, as seen at the top of the page), and 3P and 4P each with a one-bump tooth. If not for Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move SNES's depiction of Bubblun and Bobblun each with a flat tooth, the first description would be fully canonical.
• Theme Twin Naming: Bubby/Bubblun and Bobby/Bubblun. And Kulun/Kululun and Coron/Cororon. And Betty/Peb and Patty/Pab.
• Timed Mission: Played with. Taking too long to complete a level won't make you automatically lose a life, but a Skel-Monsta will appear and hound you until you either complete the level, or lose a life. Differently from what happens in most games where this trope is in play, there is no timer on the screen, and you don't know how long it will take for the Skel-Monsta to appear.
• Title Confusion: Three second-installments and two third-installments, and the release orders and chronological story orders don't even match. Here are the sequels' titles:
  • Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble II, Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III
  • Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES and Game Boy; the former is also named Bubble Bobble 2 and the latter is also named Bubble Bobble Junior)
  • Bubble Bobble II aka Bubble Symphony, Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III

• Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: There are large treasure chests in Final Bubble Bobble (the SMS port of the original game), Rainbow Islands, Bubble Symphony, and Bubble Memories.
• Trick Boss:
  • Parasol Stars has a dark hooded staff-wielder in the final secret world.
  • Symphony downplays this by having a puppet version of Super Drunk (the first boss of Symphony), with low health and obvious puppet strings from the top of the screen. Then 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 in 2 (NES)'s really hard bonus games, where whoever loses the point to his opponent turns red.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: The initial run of the North American release of 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 empty room and had no way of progressing. Reviewers were not amused. Oddly enough, this mistake does not exist in other regions.
• Unstable Equilibrium: Bubble Memories. Complete the game with only one credit or else it's No Final Boss for You, and get a bad ending.
• Unwinnable by Design: Bubble Memories and Puzzle Bobble / Bust-a-Move (SNES) because you die/lose too frequently.
• 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.
  • The original is remade for WiiWare, with the characters rendered in 3D, and brand new levels with four player support. The female Beta Couple, Peb and Pab, may or may not be Kululun and Cororon.
• Villain Decay: Super Drunk goes from being the final boss of Bubble Bobble to being the first boss of Bubble Symphony, and he lost his one attack and now just moves around the room. That is, assuming he and Hyper Drunk aren't the same person, which the game is sort of unclear about.
  • The bosses (and enemies) are in a different order in Rainbow Islands Extra Version compared to the original, and their difficulties are rebalanced accordingly. The bosses that get moved from late in the game to early get weaker. The opposite holds true as well.
• Visible Sigh: In the arcade version of Bubble Bobble when Bubblun or Bobblun gets burned and thus incinerated before he collapses into (orange) ash. It goes by very quickly though, and sometimes it doesn't show up correctly.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Implied in 2 (NES)'s intro, which shows the protagonist seemingly turning himself into a bubble dragon after his girlfriend is captured. However, it could have been an effect of being painfully^note (His eyes get crossed out.)◊ thrown into a midair hover.
• Warp Zone: They exist, but using them to skip past any rounds will cause the player to miss out on Plot Coupons.
  • Rainbow Islands: The secret room on island 5 has two doors that can optionally be taken. One will warp the player to island 7, and the other will warp the player to island 8. If the player exits the secret room without taking either door, then they will simply continue to island 6 (and will not miss out on the chance to obtain the Plot Coupon from that island).
  • Bubble Memories: The secret room gotten from the door of round 37 takes the place of round 38. After grabbing all of the treasure, two doors will appear: One that takes the player to the next round (39), with the other going to round 59. The player will not miss out on any Plot Coupons by entering this secret room if they choose to go to round 39.
• Wingding Eyes: In an exaggerated variant, characters die (or get stunned) with their eyes getting crossed off by a literal black line. Yes, even after they become a pile of ash from incineration. ^{The latter occurs in...} Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories
  • However, in Bubble Memories, a dying protagonist has Blank White Eyes instead. Aside from that, Bob is shown with + eyes on Memories's game over screen when the player quits or gets a bad ending.
  • Rainbow Islands' backstory and Symphony's multiple endings imply characters can also get their eyes crossed out by being sleepy or upset.
• Wingdinglish: The secret rooms have some encoded text in Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, and Bubble Symphony. They are nice enough to put the text in un-encoded in Bubble Memories.
  • Rainbow Islands Extra Version takes this up to eleven; see Moon Logic Puzzle above.
• X-Ray Sparks:
  • Bubble Symphony: A little voltage is required to kill a player character, as some enemies' attacks demonstrate.
  • A cutscene in Puzzle Bobble 2 (arcade)'s VS CPU mode before facing off against a giant lightbulb thing has the player character getting fried/zapped.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Collecting a potion item usually clears all the enemies off screen and places items in the open space of a level, with the player getting a bonus for collecting all of them. Some levels don't have enough open space to display these items, so the completion bonus is just awarded immediately after collecting the potion.
• Zillion-Dollar Bill: Parasol Stars features a giant 100,000-yen coin as a special item. This will max out the player's arcade-style credits at 99 (as opposed to the more frequent 100-yen coins which add one credit). Each coin is also worth their yen value in points. Ironically, the game never was released in arcades; Word of God has denied there ever was an arcade game prototype.

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But this is not a true ending! Come here with your friends!

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