{"id":20007,"date":"2020-04-03T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T00:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=20007"},"modified":"2020-03-20T05:09:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T05:09:20","slug":"bubble-bobble-4-friends-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/03\/bubble-bobble-4-friends-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubble Bobble 4 Friends (Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2026freaking\u2026love\u2026Bubble Bobble.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really remember seeing it in arcades, but boy I sure rented the HECK out of the NES version.\u00a0 Many years later, when my little brothers were old enough to play games, Bubble Bobble was one of the first games I introduced them to, and they loved it as well.\u00a0 And the main spin-off game, Puzzle Bobble\/Bust-A-Move<\/strong><\/a>, is one of my top three favorite puzzle games of all time.\u00a0 So I was super excited to find out about a new Bubble Bobble game for Nintendo Switch.\u00a0 Is it as good as previous titles?\u00a0 Well you\u2019ll just have to read the review to find out.<\/p>\n

The story is a little different here.\u00a0 It\u2019s all set inside a kid\u2019s bedroom, and bubble blowing dino Bub is just a plush toy on the bed, along with a stuffed wizard doll.\u00a0 Two magical bubbles float in the window and bring the two toys to life.\u00a0 The mean wizard doll bonks Bub on the head and uses his magic to trap Bub inside mazes with toy baddies that he has to get past.\u00a0 To do this, Bub will have to clear the rooms of enemies by blowing bubbles at them.\u00a0 Once an enemy is trapped in a bubble, you can then pop it and receive bonus fruit.\u00a0 And that\u2019s pretty much how you play the game!<\/p>\n

They did change up some things here, however.\u00a0 Long time players of Bubble Bobble will notice some physics changes with the bubbles right away.\u00a0 Bubbles are harder to push around and you can stand on them without popping them.\u00a0 Just press down if you do want to pop any below you.\u00a0 After every set of levels, you\u2019ll fight a boss.\u00a0 When you defeat it, you\u2019ll get a pair of goggles and gloves that Taito has had their dinos wear in recent games.\u00a0 Each set gives Bub and the others a special skill they can activate, like blowing thunder or bomb bubbles.\u00a0 But you have a limited number of uses so use them sparingly.\u00a0 If you can find and pop a bubble with a letter in it quick enough and spell EXTEND, you can level up one of the skills.\u00a0 And the kid\u2019s room also has an original Bubble Bobble arcade cabinet (lucky kid) so you can play the old arcade game as well, which almost makes it worth the price of the full game alone.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s pretty obvious that I like this game, but it does have a few problems.\u00a0 The original arcade game doesn\u2019t let you continue.\u00a0 I know that other home versions of the arcade game would let you do that, and I wish this one did as well.\u00a0 And even though in the new game you can play with four dinos at once, they kind of restrict you in that you can only join after one level is finished.\u00a0 And the enemies and stage layouts just aren\u2019t as imaginative as they could be.\u00a0 Also, even though after you beat the game you can unlock a hard mode with the same levels but with faster enemies and spikes in places to make it more difficult to traverse, there are still less levels here than in the old arcade version.\u00a0 In short, even though I love this game, I have had played better Bubble Bobble titles.\u00a0 You know what would be really cool?\u00a0 A Bubble Bobble collection!\u00a0 It could have Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories and even some of the puzzle spin-offs!\u00a0 Get on that, Taito!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Cartoon Violence.\u00a0 If you get hit, you just spin around and fly off the screen.\u00a0 Enemies get trapped inside bubbles and when you pop them, they turn into fruit.\u00a0 And that\u2019s about as violent as it gets.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for some of the menus and instructions, but not necessary just to play.\u00a0 IF you die too much on a round, you can opt to play the level again while invincible, so even the youngest players can enjoy this one.\u00a0 I can\u2019t stress enough how much fun I had playing Bubble Bobble with my little brothers, so I know this game is great for kids, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2026freaking\u2026love\u2026Bubble Bobble.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really remember seeing it in arcades, but boy I sure rented the HECK out of the NES version.\u00a0 Many years later, when my little brothers were old enough to play games, Bubble Bobble was one of the first games I introduced them to, and they loved it as well.\u00a0 And the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20009,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20007\/revisions\/20009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}