GOTY 2019 - NUMBER SIX
Video version
Taito are back! And they’ve come up with a fool-proof new business model: Make games that cost more to purchase than produce. As long as I’m around, it’s a winning strategy.
Bubble Bobble is a very simple game, where you catch enemies in bubbles and pop them, but 4 Friends plays around with the fundamental mechanics in some creative and interesting ways. You could always bounce on bubbles to reach higher platforms, but now you might have to blow a series of bubbles to create a path. You’ll sometimes have to use the air flow to turn your bubbles into moving platforms. You’ll need to consider semi-solid platforms and enemy attack patterns. Some of these levels are tricky just to navigate your way through, but if you want to get a decent score, you’ll need to play with strategy and finesse.
What makes this attractive is how the game is broken up. Bubble Memories and Bubble Symphony both presented themselves as a relentless series of levels, growing more repetitive and meaningless as you pumped more credits in to charge your way through. 4 Friends breaks each set of 10 levels into its own world that you can replay at any point. There’s a boss at the end of each world, and you’ll get a ranking based on your score afterwards.
The game is also heavily marketed as a multiplayer co-op experience. Playing in multiplayer dramatically changes the levels, making them more forgiving, but also more casually fun. Borrowing from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, if you get hurt by an enemy, you’ll float in a bubble for a while before you actually lose a life. This allows teammates to rush over and rescue you. There’s also a couple of bosses in the game that spawn enemies all over the board. They’re shockingly tough to fight in single-player, but with a well-organized team of players, you can camp in each corner of the level and quickly neutralise each threat that appears. Some might call it unbalanced, but it changes the atmosphere from a tough series of platforming challenges, on par with Umihara Kawase, to a fun party platformer that’s welcoming to all ages. I think it nails what you’d want from the game in both scenarios.
As you progress through the levels, you’ll develop a better understanding and appreciation for the game’s simple mechanics. There might be spaces you need to crawl through, but you can’t blow bubbles whilst crawling. If you hold jump while bouncing on a bubble, you’ll jump higher, but letting go of jump will let you blow bubbles that you can reach more easily. The game really explores the potential of Bubble Bobble’s gameplay fundamentals, but doesn’t take away from the core appeal of these fun bouncing bubble dragons.
I’ve spent so much time talking about how good the game is, and how well it works, I’ve barely had time to talk about how charming it is, and how well it nails the atmosphere of lower-budget Japanese media from the mid-nineties. This stuff feels so much like 1996 Japan-only Saturn shit, man. The soundtrack carries all that Zuntata arranged soundtrack synthy bounce and weirdness. The CG intro and ending feature only two moving characters, using their in-game models and inhibiting some weird animation quirks that remind me of OVA credit sequences and Japanese advertisements for bicycle repair shops. Like Shenmue III, this doesn’t so much feel like Taito are going out of their way to represent the quirks of a bygone era – it’s so authentic, it feels like the developers never left it.
For a very, very specific audience, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is an incredible treat, but it works so well for kids and casual players in multiplayer too. It’s accidental, unrepeatable perfection. Making any aspect slicker, or more contemporary would have taken away from how rich its appeal is. It’s the Taitoest shit around. Ludicrous that it exists.
Video version
Taito are back! And they’ve come up with a fool-proof new business model: Make games that cost more to purchase than produce. As long as I’m around, it’s a winning strategy.
Bubble Bobble is a very simple game, where you catch enemies in bubbles and pop them, but 4 Friends plays around with the fundamental mechanics in some creative and interesting ways. You could always bounce on bubbles to reach higher platforms, but now you might have to blow a series of bubbles to create a path. You’ll sometimes have to use the air flow to turn your bubbles into moving platforms. You’ll need to consider semi-solid platforms and enemy attack patterns. Some of these levels are tricky just to navigate your way through, but if you want to get a decent score, you’ll need to play with strategy and finesse.
What makes this attractive is how the game is broken up. Bubble Memories and Bubble Symphony both presented themselves as a relentless series of levels, growing more repetitive and meaningless as you pumped more credits in to charge your way through. 4 Friends breaks each set of 10 levels into its own world that you can replay at any point. There’s a boss at the end of each world, and you’ll get a ranking based on your score afterwards.
The game is also heavily marketed as a multiplayer co-op experience. Playing in multiplayer dramatically changes the levels, making them more forgiving, but also more casually fun. Borrowing from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, if you get hurt by an enemy, you’ll float in a bubble for a while before you actually lose a life. This allows teammates to rush over and rescue you. There’s also a couple of bosses in the game that spawn enemies all over the board. They’re shockingly tough to fight in single-player, but with a well-organized team of players, you can camp in each corner of the level and quickly neutralise each threat that appears. Some might call it unbalanced, but it changes the atmosphere from a tough series of platforming challenges, on par with Umihara Kawase, to a fun party platformer that’s welcoming to all ages. I think it nails what you’d want from the game in both scenarios.
As you progress through the levels, you’ll develop a better understanding and appreciation for the game’s simple mechanics. There might be spaces you need to crawl through, but you can’t blow bubbles whilst crawling. If you hold jump while bouncing on a bubble, you’ll jump higher, but letting go of jump will let you blow bubbles that you can reach more easily. The game really explores the potential of Bubble Bobble’s gameplay fundamentals, but doesn’t take away from the core appeal of these fun bouncing bubble dragons.
I’ve spent so much time talking about how good the game is, and how well it works, I’ve barely had time to talk about how charming it is, and how well it nails the atmosphere of lower-budget Japanese media from the mid-nineties. This stuff feels so much like 1996 Japan-only Saturn shit, man. The soundtrack carries all that Zuntata arranged soundtrack synthy bounce and weirdness. The CG intro and ending feature only two moving characters, using their in-game models and inhibiting some weird animation quirks that remind me of OVA credit sequences and Japanese advertisements for bicycle repair shops. Like Shenmue III, this doesn’t so much feel like Taito are going out of their way to represent the quirks of a bygone era – it’s so authentic, it feels like the developers never left it.
For a very, very specific audience, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is an incredible treat, but it works so well for kids and casual players in multiplayer too. It’s accidental, unrepeatable perfection. Making any aspect slicker, or more contemporary would have taken away from how rich its appeal is. It’s the Taitoest shit around. Ludicrous that it exists.