Do you like blowing bubbles, dinosaurs, love stories, and have three friends who can come over? Then have I got a game for you!

Bubble Bobble Plus! for the Nintendo Wii, available via the shop channel for 800 points ($8) (only in Japan/Europe at time of press), is a remake of an old arcade game released way back in 1986, called oddly enough, Bubble Bobble. Bubble Bobble featured two playable characters, a green dinosaur (Bub) and a blue dinosaur (Bob), 100 levels, and one hypnotic looping song that played throughout the entire game apart from some bonus stages/power-ups. The whole game consists of four easy concepts:

1. Blow Bubbles

2. Traverse the level by walking, running, and jumping (even on bubbles)

3. Kill enemies by blowing bubbles around them and then popping the bubbles with the spines on your back.

Spikes VS. Bubble: Winner = Spikes

4. Collect power-ups and fruit which spawns in the stages randomly, or from “popped” enemies.

Rinse, Repeat, Continue humming the theme song until you die!

Gameplay > Graphics

In the game Bub and Bob are identical twins and must save their identical twin girlfriends. The duo start as humans and are transformed into bubble blowing dinosaurs by an evil magical character, for lack of better terms. The game does not actually tell you any of this, instead when you start the Standard mode the only information you are given is, “Now is the beginning of a fantastic story!! Let’s take a journey into the cave of monsters! Good Luck!” And the only other information you get 100 levels later, after the boss battle.

What the game lacks in story, it makes up for in gameplay, lots and LOTS of gameplay. The game features four game modes, and two downloadable modes.

The first mode is the Standard mode, in which you complete the original 100 levels, now with updated graphics and a remade theme song. The game plays nearly identical to the original version, apart from the Shoe power-up now only makes you run faster, and not jump faster as well.  Just like in the original, this game also has multiple endings, or a good ending and a bad ending. The standard mode requires you to get a crystal ball and go through a door on level 99 and finish the game with two players for the good ending. Finishing any other way will just let you know those requirements.

The all new Arrange mode can be looked on as an expansion pack of sorts, adding 100 new levels, with new enemies, and new collectibles. The Arrange modes biggest draws, though, is the ability to play with four players cooperatively, and the new gameplay mechanic of slants, which allow you to blow bubbles diagonally. Arrange mode also adds a new boss, new music every 30 or so stages, and boasts multiple endings as well.

As if we have friends...

The other two modes are Super versions of Standard and Arrange mode, substituting harder enemies in place of the weaker enemies right from the start. The two downloadable modes, Expert-1/Expert-2, (unavailable at of time of press) are 200 points each, and consist of 50 new levels each. One downloadable pack has enemies that are always in their fast moving angry mode, and the other pack has the wind streams that control bubble movement, moving faster than normal. The downloadable packs also boasts two new bosses, one per mode.

Some levels look way more complex than they are

Aside from the normal gameplay modes, there is a Ranking mode that is a competitive scoring mode, that allows you to play any of the above mentioned modes, with high scores kept on online leaderboards, which can be sorted by region or the world. The rules of the ranking mode only allows for one player, on Normal difficulty, 10 continues with three lives each, and the extra life scores are 30,000 and 100,000 points. The Ranking mode has no openings or endings to any of the included game modes.

Aside from those modes, you can check leaderboards and the options menu has your usual options (Difficulty, Sound/Music, Change Icon/Mii used on save game) and also an Item & Food Collection, letting you know what items you have, the requirements for them to appear, and also what food you have collected, adding even more replayability to the game.

Overall the game has tons of replayability, and fun gameplay. While the graphics have been revamped and improved, they still could have been made a bit sharper. Also, the Arrange mode uses the same color palette for every 30 or so levels, which can be annoying when compared to the variety offered in the Standard mode. The new music tracks in the Arrange mode, while welcomed additions, are not quite as catchy and hum worthy as the original theme. As for the Ranking mode, it would have been better if it were integrated in with the normal modes themselves, instead of forcing you to play through all 100 levels without a story. The only other thing the game is lacking is online multiplayer, though I wouldn’t have bothered with the pathetic Wii friends codes to begin with.

I guess in Japan bubbles Pon???

Recommendation:
Bubble Bobble Plus! is easily one of the best WiiWare titles available currently on the Nintendo Wii, with great gameplay, catchy music, and colorful enemies and stages, as well as being a remake of classic game that everyone should play.  I can highly recommend everyone rush out to their nearest Wii Shop Channel and trade in 800 points for this game NOW! (or if you are in North America, you can get the NES port of the original for the Virtual Console to hold you over until Bubble Bobble Plus! is released there.)

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