Review: Puzzle Bobble: Everybubble!

Mebubble. Yoububble. Nobubble. Somebubble. Everybubble!

I was cheerful in my agreement to review Puzzle Bobble: Everybubble! because I love Puzzle Bobble very much and I want to kiss its face. The game has been a part of my life for a long time, all the way back to emulating the SNES version (the only game my mother has ever finished), then playing Bust-a-Move 4 on PlayStation, Puzzle Bobble Galaxy on DS… even the tremendous Neo Geo Pocket version. And I loved them all, so of course I wanted to review the new Puzzle Bobble! But then something occured to me – what the dink am I supposed to say about it?

It’s Puzzle Bobble! You shoot colourful bubbles at other colourful bubbles, and when they match they pop. You all know that, so what is there to say? It’s a compelling version of the game that feels a little like it has been made for the mobile gaming generation; every stage in the Story Mode rates you out of three stars like it’s Cut the Rope or summat. Essentially it’s machine-gunning puzzles at you and urging you to solve them as quickly as possible, which can be done either alone or with friends – hence Everybubble. Well, I assume that’s why they called it that.

And it’s good, you know? It plays a good game of Puzzle Bobble, though the ability to perfectly centre the launcher and make minor adjustments with the shoulder buttons seems to be entirely missing. This is a little odd, but the game generally seems to be a little more generous with bubble shots anyway – at times the bubbles almost seem magnetised to the right spots, but in a way that benefits the player rather than babying them. It’s just nice and smooth. It’s a good Puzzle Bobble experience, and there’s really nothing else I can say about the gameplay. There are gimmicks introduced as you make your way through the Story Mode (unlocking tougher EX stages as you go), but in the end it all comes down to that same rock-solid foundation of pure puzzling. It’s.. good!

There’s another mode here, Puzzle Bobble vs. Space Invaders, which is initially an engaging little mash-up of both classic Taito jobbies, with your chosen dinosaur throwing the bubbles straight up in order to defeat the titular Invaders, possibly from Space. It’s quite basic and not really that interesting, but it is a decent little bonus. And there, again, is the rub – you can’t really bolt things onto a game as pure as Puzzle Bobble without ultimately worsening it, as seen in Bust-A-Move 4 with its confusing chaining system, or Bust-A-Move DS with its awful slingshotting of bubbles.

So there we have it. Puzzle Bobble: Everybubble! is a perfectly good version of Puzzle Bobble, and if you buy it you will have a perfectly good version of Puzzle Bobble on your Switch or whatever. And there’s nothing wrong with that, right? Shoot bubbles at other bubbles. Bring your mates. Good fun! It’s Puzzle Bobble! What else is there to say!?

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