Puzzle Bobble Galaxy

Puzzle Bobble Galaxy

Remember the fab Bust-a-Move puzzle series on PlayStation and Game Boy? It’s back again on Nintendo DS under its original Japanese moniker: Puzzle Bobble.

“Continue?” It’s 2am but… okay!

The grip of Puzzle Bobble remains relentless as ever in this latest incarnation for Nintendo DS. Not a whole lot has changed since the original DS version, or indeed since the very first game released in 15 years ago. Still, we will always find time for this cruelly addicting ‘match-three’ style puzzler.

There’s a Story mode, but never mind the story really… a couple of cute dinosaurs, a space capsule, some little fairy called Snown captured by evil Devilin. If you want to be a hero you’ve got to pop some bubbles in rows of at least three of the same colour. That’s it.

However Story mode gradually introduces you to the subtle new features of the gameplay, in which Laser Bubbles zap an entire row, and Cosmo Bubbles must be carefully harvested. Whereas the likes of Crystal Bubbles and Flame Bubbles have special abilities to help clear the screen, we’re assuming Cosmo Bubbles are only for collecting – bag them all and you’ll get some sort of comedy ending. This is purely an assumption based on the comedy intro and cut scenes: “An unmanned spaceship suddenly descends from the skies. Just for the fun of it, the brothers Bub and Bob board the ship and begin pushing buttons at random.” Ha-ha.

We’re going to assume you’ve played Puzzle Bobble in some form. You probably quite liked it. We think there’s room for at least one version of Puzzle Bobble in every console collection, and on DS “…Galaxy” would be the raining ultimate edition. For one thing it has tons of little customisation features to play for, purchased using points scored in an all-new Shop feature. Actually this is just a crafty way of making you play the main game for eons before saving enough to unlock three new modes: Factory, Pressure and Puzzle. The latter is classic Puzzle Bobble so be careful not to buy that first! Pressure is cool – you’ve only one bubble to clear a stage and precious seconds to aim it. Factory is similar but you’ve limited bubbles.

What else…? Oh yes, an online versus mode or ad-hoc multiplayer in the same room. There’s a cartridge share feature for the latter, which saves you buying more than one copy of the game if you want to play against friends or family. In true match-three tradition the Versus Modes give you power-ups to upset your rival. It almost always ends in tears or a curt ‘That’s enough of that thanks’. Grudge matches, love them.

Let’s see, the last version to be released on DS was in 2005. If you’ve played this to within a nanometre of its tiny existence we think you can go ahead and treat yourself to an update. And of course we’ll always recommend Puzzle Bobble as a holiday companion. Awe shucks, Puzzle Bobble wins again!

3 out of 5