So... This game. It just recently got ported over to Steam and I finally got to give it a shot after 2 years. My overall feelings were rather... mixed to say the least.
For starters the graphics aren't bad, but could've been better. The bedroom environment the game takes place in looks pretty good. But the character designs look rather bland. I know they're supposed to look like toys but still. The enemy designs however are much worse, with every one looking like simple shapes that somebody could replicate in Blender in seconds. And one of the enemies are just a smaller version of the main antagonist. The simple graphics however do give the game really good performance on almost any machine. While I was able to achieve a constant 144fps on my computer, a recent patch capped the game to 60fps.
Looks can be deceiving, but the gameplay is surprisingly decent. It's the same Bubble Bobble action from yester-year but tuned to play much better. While in the original game most levels consisted of destroying everything in sight, most of them here are puzzle-like, figuring out the best route to achieve as many points as possible to achieve a 3 star rating. The control in the game is probably the best in the series period. Being able to stop on a dime and jump on bubbles much more easier makes it really fun to play on top of the puzzle-like levels. I played with a SNES controller hooked up with a dongle, so your experience might vary. Even though power ups are now selected from the start and are permanent, it allows players to beat levels with different methods. And while the scoring system was absolutely useless in previous versions of the game, they now serve a purpose in the game's level editor where things are unlocked as you get good scores on levels. Oh yeah multiplayer is really fun too. Even though there's no online multiplayer at all or no Remote Play either (which likely drove tons of people away), Parsec works just as fine and ran really dang good.
The big new addition here is the level editor. By unlocking objects by getting good scores in the main game, levels can be created and submitted to the Steam Workshop. While this does give the game lots of replay value now, it's unfortunately barebones for me at least. Some level and enemy gimmicks such as level backgrounds and enemy move timers that are in the main game cannot be created in the editor. And remember when I said stuff is unlocked through good scoring, we'll get back to that soon.
The original arcade game is also included too. And the emulation from what I experienced is fine with no major problems. Save states would've be a nice addition however. But to be honest, I'd still recommend playing it on MAME or on Fightcade if you want to play it with a buddy.
While the difficulty of the game is rather really easy just trying to beat the normal mode, everything else is pretty damn hard. One of the things I describe the game is "too arcadey" for this reason alone. The game features tropes that were common in the arcade days which don't age well today. Even something simple as resetting your score back to zero after continuing is now a huge determent with the new level editor. You're now forced to finish levels without getting a Game Over if you want to unlock level editor objects while also playing well on top of that. This is now even worse with the game's hard mode and "The Baron is Back" DLC. Hard mode while just being rehashed levels and bosses from normal mode are actually very hard. And "The Baron is Back" requires players to finish 100 levels which range from rather simple to "What in the actual fuck?" with 10 lives and NO CONTINUES. And level editor content is also locked behind this mode too. This results in game time being padded out by the ridiculous difficulty of these modes.
If you don't mind the level editor and just want to beat the game. It's really short. Around 2 hours to finish the normal mode and around double that to finish hard mode. "The Baron is Back" is more of a side mode however due to how hard it is though. And to top this all off, the game is FORTY DOLLARS.
Despite the content and replay value, the value of the game itself is just overpriced and not worth it. And even though I'm a fan of the series and it's a really fun game, I simply cannot recommend this game from the value alone to anybody unless it's on a decent sale.
Also it has Mog. I made a level themed after her for an official leveling contest. I won.
For starters the graphics aren't bad, but could've been better. The bedroom environment the game takes place in looks pretty good. But the character designs look rather bland. I know they're supposed to look like toys but still. The enemy designs however are much worse, with every one looking like simple shapes that somebody could replicate in Blender in seconds. And one of the enemies are just a smaller version of the main antagonist. The simple graphics however do give the game really good performance on almost any machine. While I was able to achieve a constant 144fps on my computer, a recent patch capped the game to 60fps.
Looks can be deceiving, but the gameplay is surprisingly decent. It's the same Bubble Bobble action from yester-year but tuned to play much better. While in the original game most levels consisted of destroying everything in sight, most of them here are puzzle-like, figuring out the best route to achieve as many points as possible to achieve a 3 star rating. The control in the game is probably the best in the series period. Being able to stop on a dime and jump on bubbles much more easier makes it really fun to play on top of the puzzle-like levels. I played with a SNES controller hooked up with a dongle, so your experience might vary. Even though power ups are now selected from the start and are permanent, it allows players to beat levels with different methods. And while the scoring system was absolutely useless in previous versions of the game, they now serve a purpose in the game's level editor where things are unlocked as you get good scores on levels. Oh yeah multiplayer is really fun too. Even though there's no online multiplayer at all or no Remote Play either (which likely drove tons of people away), Parsec works just as fine and ran really dang good.
The big new addition here is the level editor. By unlocking objects by getting good scores in the main game, levels can be created and submitted to the Steam Workshop. While this does give the game lots of replay value now, it's unfortunately barebones for me at least. Some level and enemy gimmicks such as level backgrounds and enemy move timers that are in the main game cannot be created in the editor. And remember when I said stuff is unlocked through good scoring, we'll get back to that soon.
The original arcade game is also included too. And the emulation from what I experienced is fine with no major problems. Save states would've be a nice addition however. But to be honest, I'd still recommend playing it on MAME or on Fightcade if you want to play it with a buddy.
While the difficulty of the game is rather really easy just trying to beat the normal mode, everything else is pretty damn hard. One of the things I describe the game is "too arcadey" for this reason alone. The game features tropes that were common in the arcade days which don't age well today. Even something simple as resetting your score back to zero after continuing is now a huge determent with the new level editor. You're now forced to finish levels without getting a Game Over if you want to unlock level editor objects while also playing well on top of that. This is now even worse with the game's hard mode and "The Baron is Back" DLC. Hard mode while just being rehashed levels and bosses from normal mode are actually very hard. And "The Baron is Back" requires players to finish 100 levels which range from rather simple to "What in the actual fuck?" with 10 lives and NO CONTINUES. And level editor content is also locked behind this mode too. This results in game time being padded out by the ridiculous difficulty of these modes.
If you don't mind the level editor and just want to beat the game. It's really short. Around 2 hours to finish the normal mode and around double that to finish hard mode. "The Baron is Back" is more of a side mode however due to how hard it is though. And to top this all off, the game is FORTY DOLLARS.
Despite the content and replay value, the value of the game itself is just overpriced and not worth it. And even though I'm a fan of the series and it's a really fun game, I simply cannot recommend this game from the value alone to anybody unless it's on a decent sale.
Also it has Mog. I made a level themed after her for an official leveling contest. I won.