Beg your Mom for some quarters, jump on your bike, ride down to that dark, smokey, noisy and slightly dangerous home for one of your video games– the Arcade!

Puzzle Bobble or as it’s known in the US, Bust-A-Move is one of my all-time favorite games. I love it. I love almost every version of it on every platform.

It’s puzzle game based on the characters from Bubble Bobble, two little dinosaurs Bub and Bob. In that game you shoot little bubbles out of you mouth to trap enemies and collect little fruits and ice cream cones. In Puzzle Bobble, you use a little pointer to shoot bubbles to bounce to the top of the screen and cling onto other bubbles. When you match 3 or more bubbles of the same color, they pop dropping everything hanging under them. A lot of the bubbles are filled with enemies from Bubble Bobble.

It’s a very simple game mechanic but adding new ways to play and amazing level design has kept this game series alive. There are later games that introduced characters that had different abilities that would affect your game field and your opponent’s. If you really knew how to use those other characters, there was nothing that could stop you.

This game was released on the Neo Geo arcade cabinet that included multiple games that you could pick to play, such as Samurai Showdown, Alpha Mission, and Metal Slug. It was released during the period in arcades when they were completely dominated by fighting games.

I always loved walking into an arcade, past all the crazy kids playing super loud Street Fighter II and plop a quarter in to start up the cheerful Puzzle Bobble. I was really happy when challenger would step up because they meant that I would just wipe up the floor with them. I was almost unstoppable.

This game lead to a lot of fights between my friends. Once we were all playing the N64 version and we would take turns playing the 2 player game mode. When the person lost, they lost their turn and the winner stayed on. Well needless to say it devolved into a “let’s take down Gabe” contest which resulted in me winning over 60 straight rounds! Man, do I love that game…

Do you like Puzzle Bobble? Do you still play a version of it on something?

15 thoughts on “Analog Arcade: Puzzle Bobble (Bust-A-Move)

  1. Chris Sobieniak says:

    I first heard of this game sometime in the mid 90’s while having to past by a bar on my bike as they had it close to the entrance. It was in one of those Neo-Geo machines and it looked pretty good. Bust A Move seemed like an awkward and rather fad-ish name to give it I felt.

    1. gabe says:

      Doesn’t it? I think that Puzzle Bobble is way better!

      1. Chris Sobieniak says:

        Well, someone at Taito must think his title worked. Puzzle Bobble at least reminds you of the previous game this came from.

        1. gabe says:

          They must still think it works, even the new versions of the game are called Bust-A-Move.

          1. Chris Sobieniak says:

            True enough (even if “bust a move” isn’t something I’ll be hearing on the playground by today’s tots).

  2. Lamar the Revenger says:

    I remember that darn night. We kept trying to give you sticky pieces.

    1. gabe says:

      No, I don’t think you were there. This was at Steve’s house!

  3. Jeremy Kuehnau says:

    I remember Bust-A-Move, it was an OK game. No, my best game was Marvel VS Capcom 2. I remember when a friend refused to play with me anymore when I KO’ed him with a 175 hit combo in the first 10 seconds of a fight.

    Also Gauntlet Legends was awesome. First arcade game I ever played that had “save” files. While working in California there was an old man about 80 years old who would come in and play every single day, he had the most bad-ass Warrior I ever seen.

    1. gabe says:

      That’s awesome! I have similar stories too! I wanna do them as comics 🙂

      Never played Gauntlet Legends, loved the original though!

  4. Tony Mora says:

    Sorry, Puzzle Money Exchange still wins.

  5. knuxkitsune says:

    I used to have this game on SNES. It was one of the few games that I’d play with my mom.

  6. Manny says:

    yeah, I remember I went to a friends house to pick him up to go see a movie and he was playing this. I sat down to challenge him and next thing I knew 5 hours had gone by. I also used to love playing BUSTER BROS. in my first year of College. Remember that one?

    1. gabe says:

      I do remember that! That was fun!

      1. Chris Sobieniak says:

        I keep calling that game “Pang” more often since an arcade in the late 90’s had a later sequel of it called “Pang 3” (though it also went by the name “Buster Buddies”. Hell the first game was called “Pomping World” in Japan!

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