You can download levels others have created, but based on the fact that some weeks after launch, more than half the levels you can get were created by the Bubble Bobble 4 Friends design team speaks volumes about how popular that's been. Sadly, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron's Workshop has none of that. While it's true that original Mario Maker had this issue too, it at least iterated on gameplay styles and levels that could last longer, making it more interesting. You just create a level, play that level for a minute or so, and then you're done. You can create more than one level, but you can't link them together for a satisfying gameplay experience. One of the pure joys of Bubble Bobble is challenging yourself to a high score across as many levels as you can survive through. It's also stuck with a somewhat inherent issue to any single Bubble Bobble level, in that there's one of them. I'd like to just be able to let my creativity flow without having to think about whether I've met some other kind of metric to allow me access to every block, enemy or bonus, Taito! This is a just a dumb idea, because while Bubble Bobble 4 Friends isn't massively hard, even on its higher difficulty settings, making it less interesting to make levels from the outset is poor form. What's not so good here is that game components are unlockables that you get for clearing in-game levels.
So for example, I could earn some easy brownie points with editor Matt by quickly whipping together a level that resembles the first stage in his favourite 80s era platformer Snow Bros to play ( it's the one that's like Bubble Bobble, but actually good - ed). The core tools are smart enough, allowing you to place enemies, platforms and determine wind direction for bubble flow within each level.
BUBBLE BOBBLE GAME HOW TO
That's the Baron's Workshop, you see, and it's a rather Super Mario Maker style take on how to make Bubble Bobble levels… only again, not as good.
BUBBLE BOBBLE GAME PC
Now in 2021, Taito's having another crack with Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron's Workshop, a PC take via Steam that still includes the same problems as the original game, but tries to entice players in with the promise of a level creator.
BUBBLE BOBBLE GAME PS4
It's just that the arcade game's been ported to every game system known to man, so it's not like it's hard to get hold of.īubble Bobble 4 Friends was originally a Switch game, before jumping over to the PS4 in 2020.
BUBBLE BOBBLE GAME FULL
I mean, it's still Bubble Bobble, and like pizza, even when it's poor it's still pretty good, but easily the best thing about Bubble Bobble 4 Friends was the fact that it included full emulation of the arcade game as well. You can still do this, but when everyone gets the same score it's nowhere near as much fun. A huge part of the fun of Bubble Bobble is watching other players rack up huge bonus prize hauls with combo bubble bursting antics, only to slide in and steal them all. It absolutely didn't help that you have a common high score, rather than individual ones. The changes made to the way the bubbles work, combined with just 50 short and mostly very easy levels, especially with four players at once made for a mediocre title at best. Bubble Bobble over the years has been many different games of varying quality. If I'm after a different platform experience I might try my hand at Rainbow Islands or Parasol Stars. Ask my better half what the best game of all time is, and she'll probably answer Puzzle Bobble for example. In the intervening years, Taito has done all kinds of interesting things with Bubble Bobble. Yes, youngsters, games used to cost just 20c back then, and yes, I'm old enough to remember this kind of detail. I am unashamedly in love with Taito's classic 1986 arcade platformer, and have been ever since I first dropped a 20c piece into the Bubble Bobble machine in the Armidale bowling alley back in 1986. Ask me for my top five, and I'll list off five different variants of Bubble Bobble before expanding my tastes out to other titles.
Ask me what my all-time favourite game is, and I'll tell you that it's Bubble Bobble.