Bust-A-Move

Genre:

Puzzle

Year:

1997

Developer:

Taito

Publisher:

Taito

Perspective:

Side-view

Releases:

SNES (1995), 3DO (1995), Game Gear (1996), DOS (1997)

Also known as:

アケアカNEOGEO パズルボブル, パズルボブル, AkeAka NeoGeo: Puzzle Bobble, ACA NeoGeo: Puzzle Bobble, Bubble Buster, Puzzle Bobble

Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble) is a game in which your task is to destroy the colored balls that appear at the top of the screen. At the bottom you have a cannon from which you shoot bullets and you have to form groups of three or more balls of the same color. After a few balls fired, the line will move down a bit and your task will be more difficult. The ultimate goal is to clear the entire screen of balls. The single player puzzle mode consists of 90 puzzles. Many of the levels are direct adaptations from the SNES, but without any of the special bubbles like explosive or lightning bubbles. There also is no bonus for quick level completion or making many bubbles fall at once. A password feature allows continuation from the last level played. The objective of the game is to clear all the bubbles from the arena without any bubble crossing the bottom line. Bubbles will fire automatically if the player remains idle. After clearing the arena, the next round begins with a new pattern of bubbles to clear. The game consists of 32 levels. The fired bubbles travel in straight lines (possibly bouncing off the sidewalls of the arena), stopping when they touch other bubbles or reach the top of the arena. If a bubble touches identically-colored bubbles, forming a group of three or more, those bubbles—as well as any bubbles hanging from them—are removed from the field of play, and points are awarded. After every few shots, the "ceiling" of the playing arena drops downwards slightly, along with all the bubbles stuck to it. The number of shots between each drop of the ceiling is influenced by the number of bubble colors remaining. The closer the bubbles get to the bottom of the screen, the faster the music plays and if they cross the line at the bottom then the game is over.