Puzzle Bobble EveryBubble! Review (Switch)

 

It seems hard to believe that Puzzle Bobble (or Bust-a- Move as it’s otherwise known), has been around now since the days of the Super Nintendo and first released in 1994. Since then, we’ve had releases across various platforms including the Playstation and Saturn where it arguably fully established itself as a franchise to rival the Tetris’ and Magical Drops of the world.

Unfortunately, for many of those years most of the games have been somewhat inaccessible to us due to the colour coded nature of games. Admittedly, we aren’t sure when it started but Everybubble has addressed this by making sure that each colour also has a unique pattern attached to it. This means you can match up the bubbles easily even if you are colour blind and is a welcome addition that works excellently.

Accessibility aside, Everybubble comes packed with a host of different modes. There’s a multitude of multiplayer options both local and online where up to four people can either team up or compete against each other. There’s also a fun little diversion which effectively mixes Space Invaders into the puzzle fun with the invaders filling the bubbles.

Aside from multiplayer fun there is plenty for lone players to do as well. There’s a story mode which sets you up against numerous arrangements of bubbles and gradually drip feeds new features and skills to you throughout to keep things interesting. This can be played with up to four players as well and adjust the levels accordingly to keep it interesting. You can also play with bots but we found this be a frustrating experience as they caused more problems than it was worth most of the time. To top it off there is also the Baron’s Tower which is the games version of an endless mode where bubbles continually come at you until they eventually overwhelm and cause the game over.

In keeping with the Bubble Bobble ethos the visuals are clear, bright and cheerful throughout. The bright colours help to keep things easy to see during game as well as also providing a cartoon-like aesthetic to cheerfully guide you through the story cut scenes.

Aesthetic aside, a puzzle game is only ever as good as its gameplay loop so we are pleased to report that Puzzle Bobble judges this just about right. It’s a mix of slight panic and zen like relaxation that works well. A lot of the levels can seem pretty straight forward but you are never one hundred percent sure where your bubble is going to land or what it might stick to so there is always the nagging doubt that the next shot might cause complete disaster.

Overall, Puzzle Bobble Everybubble is a well judged and welcome return for the franchise. It’s packed full of content and things to do and the core gameplay remains as enticing as ever. The accessibility concessions mean even more people can enjoy the fun and if you are into cute dragons chucking balloons up a screen it’s hard to see how are going to go wrong with this.

Overall 8/10