One of my top three favorite puzzle games is Puzzle Bobble, also called Bust-A-Move in the US, although I prefer the former name.  My other two favorites are Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and plain ol’ Tetris.  Anyway, in Puzzle Bobble, you aim and fire colored bubbles to the top of the screen to match three or more so they’ll disappear.  If that sounds familiar, it’s because the game is also one of the most copied puzzlers on mobile devices.  Makes me wonder if Taito wishes they would’ve gotten a stricter copyright on their creation.  Anyway, while you see many imitators on mobile devices, you don’t really see any on consoles.  But now there is one with Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure.  It’s available on Switch and Xbox One, but reviewed on Switch here.  Help the good pirate bird Rusty Spout stop the evil demon pirate from kidnapping children from Rusty’s home village…by popping bubbles.  Yeah these kinds of games really don’t need a story, do they?

If you’ve played one of these types of games before, you’ll know what to expect here.  Fire bubbles from a cannon on the bottom of the screen to match three or more of the same color at the top.  With precise aiming, you can bounce bubbles off walls and perform chain reactions where you can send more bubbles away.  There are also special bubbles to help you clear out a bunch at the top and whatnot.  The longer you take to clear a level, the more the top of the screen creeps down.  If the bubbles reach a line at the bottom, it’s Game Over.

There’s a Story Mode, where you go through levels one by one.  Only problem with this is that you only get three credits to continue, and after that you must start over at the beginning.  Yeah, no thank you.  Why you can’t continue where you left off or at least let you save after a cluster of stages is beyond me.  There is also an Endless Mode where you keep popping bubbles until they reach the bottom and you try and get as high of a score as you can.  There are also Vs. and Challenge Modes for two players, but you can’t have the other player be the CPU, which is a shame.  You can save your high scores, though.  And that’s pretty much it.  As a Puzzle Bobble imitator, this one isn’t that great.  I’ve certainly played better ones and it makes me just rather play the original title instead.

Kid Factor:

Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Language.  I really didn’t notice any bad language, so it must be used sparingly.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews