A new video rental store had opened up a few blocks down from my uptown apartment in Manhattan around the summer of '87. My father wanted to check it out, bringing me along as an excuse to leave the apartment. I was around the age of six, so I didn't care where I was going, just relieved to escape from my room for twenty minutes. My father said he heard the store had a few arcade machines, giving me more reason to want to join him. Walking down the street I couldn't help but want to run in excitement to see what games they had. Anything would have been better than the games I had already beaten on my Atari2600 and Sega Master System.
As we entered the store the rumors my father had heard of arcade machines were in fact there, against the left hand wall. My eyes lit up as I read the machines marquee sleeves; Tetris, Guerrilla War and Bubble Bobble. My father gave me a dollar in quarters and released me to the games, but strongly recommended Bubble Bobble since it had cute little dragons that a child would enjoy. He was absolutely right.
Playing the left side controlled Bub, the green dragon and playing the right side controlled Bob, the blue dragon. Bob will forever be the best choice since his colours are baby blue and purple, resembling a zombie's complexion. So I chose the right side for my quarter's duration. The game starts with the dragon floating down from outer space inside a bubble and landing on the first stage. Three robot fiends come at the dragon as if they were going to eat him. Pressing the "Bubble" button made my dragon burp bubbles at the robots causing them to be locked inside the bubble. I assumed that the robots didn't breathe so they would have lived in the bubbles forever, so I burst their bubbles murdering them. But wait! I didn't murder the poor robots; I merely transformed them into food. They became carrots, ice cream, cake, beer and cigarettes (nay, I'm just kidding about the cigarettes).
As my dragon drank the beer, I had realized why my father suggested this game; this was the best game ever (until Contra a few months later…etc)!
I never had the chance to beat the game in the arcade, but soon owning its Nintendo version that I got for Christmas along with the system and Castlevania 2, its conclusion wasn’t as close as I expected.
Who in their right mind would play this game in the arcade for one-hundred rounds and on top of that try to defeat some green elf person thing? I would have if I had the cash. Eh. Oh well. I could easily beat the arcade version I have on mame, but it just wouldn’t feel the same.
Bubble Bobble is a classic game that is fun for the whole family! Wild food orgies, characters that get drunk (Willy Whistle), Stoned (Stoner) and flying dead whales (Barron Von Blubba) that stalk you with murderous thoughts are all perfect reasons to give this game a 4 out of 4! You must play this game, or be stalked by Barron Von Blubba!
-eep!
