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[Aquin]

There were a lot of follow-ups in the Bubble Bobble series.  I take a look at my favourite ones and a quick glance at the origins of Bubble Bobble.

http://www.dreamofwinds.com/lonely/?p=889



The post in the link above features the following titles:

Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES)
Bubble Symphony (Saturn)
Parasol Stars (PC-E)
Fairyland Story (Arcade)
Chack'n Pop (Arcade)
Bust-A-Move (Various)

Don't forget to grab a friend after grabbing these games.  These games are wicked awesome for co-op play! 

If you're wondering why I didn't put up the original classic and Rainbow Islands, it's because I had previously written about them when I discovered MTJ had died.

[Tom Sennett]

As evidenced by my design philosophy, I love Bubble Bobble.

I rented Bubble Bobble 2 (the NES one) back in the day and it was really fun. Never had any idea it was so rare.

Oh man, these games are really great. Anybody reading this who's never played them needs to. And ditto on co-op play - absolutely a blast.

[Aquin]

Yeah, I know!  I'm kicking myself for not grabbing Bubble Bobble 2 while I had the chance.

I just finished Parasol Stars again and I gotta agree.  The games are fun, but it's the 2-player co-op that really pulls it all together.

I wish I had an RL friend as nerdy as me.   

[Curseman]

Yeah, Bubble Bobble was an old favorite of mine.  I'm not even sure what made it so great, but *something* did.

Is that really true about Bubble Bobble 2 carts going for $500?  I have one of those...

[deadeye]

Whoa, I've never even heard of Part 2 before.  ROM GET

[Curseman]

The original is better than 2 in my opinion.  It made some improvements like a bunch of boss battles and interesting secrets and powerups, but I thought overall 1 had better designed enemies and levels, and you can't play with 2 players simultaneously.  Why they don't have that, I'll never know.

[Aquin]

Yeah, I definitely agree Curseman.  The first one is much better... especially the arcade version!  I'm not sure why they made Bubble Bobble 2.  The only reason I brought it up in the post was I figured most people hadn't played it and it's kind of a curiousity for the series.

If we're talking sequel, I'll take Rainbow Islands any day. 

[Powergloved Andy]

Bubble Bobble is king among men.

[moi]

I didn't like that in the original B-B You had to know a secret code in order to have the "true ending"
Otherwise it's an awesome two players game. One of the finest arcade games ever.

[Melly]

BB is one of the games with most notorious secrets.

[Radix]

I loved the hell out of Bubble Bobble, I think I've used the music for at least three stupid parody games (one of which almost got me suspended, man, I wish I still had my old HDD).

[AuthenticKaizen]

indeed an excellent classic!
nice to see a little written tribute to the series.  

[PsySal]

I loved the hell out of Bubble Bobble, I think I've used the music for at least three stupid parody games (one of which almost got me suspended, man, I wish I still had my old HDD).

The music is by Kazuko "Karu" Umino. She is an amazing VG composer who seems to write only the circusy style of music in Bubble Bobble. She's done music for quite a few other TAITO games and it's all equally awesome.

END trivia!

[Aquin]

Did she do the music in Parasol Stars?  Because that's probably my favourite one in the series.

[Curseman]

I didn't like that in the original B-B You had to know a secret code in order to have the "true ending"
Otherwise it's an awesome two players game. One of the finest arcade games ever.

I personally like all of the crazy secrets that you would have no way of possibly finding on your first playthrough.  One of the cool things in Bubble Bobble is having played for a long while and still finding new crap.

[PsySal]

Did she do the music in Parasol Stars?  Because that's probably my favourite one in the series.

No idea, but if the style is similar, there's a good chance. Not many people write music in that particular style.

[NiallM]

Bubble Bobble is indeed one of the all-time greats

But Parasol Stars is my favourite.  It was the first game I ever bought, it was on the cover of the first magazine (Amiga Power) I ever bought...  A friend and I must have played it every month for a good couple of years (completing it umpteen times).  Throwing the other player at the monsters, the frustration when one of you grabs the wrong square pickup on the penultimate(?) world (meaning you miss the true ending), trying to get the pink heart so you can get to the secret (casino?) world...  I've got so many great memories of that game

[superflat]

The level of depth in the secrets is astonishing: here's a good faq I often look at - http://tjasink.com/games/bb/.  I wrote a game which was a total homage to BB, including the same kind of secret system, so analysed this a lot!

Must finish it one of these years...

[AuthenticKaizen]

The level of depth in the secrets is astonishing: here's a good faq I often look at - http://tjasink.com/games/bb/.  I wrote a game which was a total homage to BB, including the same kind of secret system, so analysed this a lot!

Must finish it one of these years...

nice game. 

[Aquin]

Yeah, Gamasutra did a write-up about secrets in games.  Bubble Bobble was their feature piece and still stands today as the most secretive game in existence.