Bubble Bobble Double Shot

Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Developer: Dreams
Genre: Platformer
Release: February 26, 2008
Platform: Nintendo DS

Reviewer: Eric

How many people bought Bubble Bobble Revolution back in 2006? If you did then you were most likely pissed off! Oh pissed off is being nice, trust me. Since two years have passed after Revolution we are getting another dose of Bubble Bobble on the Nintendo DS.

Bubble Bobble Revolution was a great idea until you suffered from the glitch. You couldn’t beat the game, a glitch occurred where you couldn’t advance into later levels in the game. Bubble Bobble Double Shot doesn’t have a glitch like that, but it isn’t really worth the love price tag.

If you look at the games case you will notice a new character. Bubu, the latest dinosaur, is red…yes he is orange and that is the only difference. Why make such a big ordeal over a third character? Simple, fans of the franchise will buy it and fans of the color red will buy it as well. When did Bubble Bobble become a gimmick?

The game is just like the classic NES game. Everything is pretty much the same, the only thing done with the games graphics are the pretty backgrounds and bulkier designs on some of the characters.

Players still have to jump around, shooting out bubbles at their enemies. Build up a group of enemies and pop the bubbles. Every couple of stages the game does through in a bigger enemy you have to kill, but it really isn’t that much of a challenge. Instead of shooting bubbles at the larger enemies you might have to use some of the items in the actual stage.

To be fair the developers of this game tried to add some new features in this classic game. Certain enemies can only be killed by either Bub, Bob or Bubu. You can switch between these characters by clicking on the Nintendo DS shoulder buttons. If you need to kill a green colored monster then you use Bub and so fourth. This adds a little challenge to the game, but what happens if the gamer playing this game is color blinded? Guess they are stuck with Bubble Bobble Revolution.

Double Shot also felt it was necessary to get rid of high scores in the game. Just ignore getting a high kill count; it doesn’t matter in this game. Stupid things like this really make this game seem like a waste of time and money.

Multiplayer is just as bad as everything else. If you want to play the story mode with a friend you have to start on stage one. Most likely you won’t have to worry about this because in order to play multiplayer two people must have the game.

Lastly let’s talk about the stylus game play. No not in the main game…hmmm where does the stylus come into play? Oh wait a second whenever you die you’ll have to play some mini games. If you win then you can continue, but if you loose then its game over. It sucks to be you if you hate using your stylus.

Final Verdict
I was a fan of Bubble Bobble before and I still find myself putting the game on every so often. When I heard about Double Shot I thought I’d give it a chance since Revolution was so broken. Turns out Bubble Bobble just shouldn’t be released on the Nintendo DS. Either the developers are brain dead or this game is doomed to be on any portable console.

Rating
4 out of 10

Bubble Bobble Double Shot Trailer