Bubble Bobble is a zany little game from the people who brought Space Invaders to the world. The basic story is simple: Bub and Bob are twin Bubble Dragons who are on a quest to rescue their girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters. Or, to be precise, the one hundred Caves of Monsters. Not only that, but the only weapon our heroes have is the ability to blow bubbles. Sound good so far? No, I didn’t think so either…

The good thing about games like this is that storyline doesn’t matter one bit. As long as it plays well, who cares what it’s about? Bubble Bobble is easy to pick up and start playing as the controls are so simple (the NES only had 2 buttons after all…), but difficult to put down after you’ve got the hang of it. The goal of each level is to defeat all the monsters, and this is done by firing bubbles at them to trap them inside, then bursting the bubbles with the spines on your back, or just by jumping on them. If you trap an enemy in a bubble and he escapes before you can pop it, he turns into an angry enemy, who will chase you a lot more frantically than before. A bit like the angry zombies in Resident Evil that you forgot to cremate, only cute, not scary. If an enemy makes contact with you, you lose a life. Lose all your lives and its game over I’m afraid.

This could be the cutest game ever made. It had two cute dinosaur things way before Yoshi burst onto the scene in Super Mario World. Even the monsters are cute in this game. And the music… possibly the most cutesy soundtrack ever created for a game. It is very irritating, and there is a risk you may never get it out of your head, but it goes so well with the game that it can’t really be criticised.

The opening screen sets the tone of the game nicely: “NOW IT IS THE BEGINNING OF A FANTASTIC STORY! LET US MAKE A JOURNEY TO THE CAVE OF MONSTERS! GOOD LUCK!” In other words, it’s not going to make a lot of sense, but it’s going to be fantastic, and you’ll need some luck. A lot of luck in fact, as there are one hundred levels/caves in the game. The game employs some classic gaming traits here, such as each level being totally contained in one screen (similar to Donkey Kong for example), and the bottom of the screen connecting to the top of the screen (by this I mean that if a character drops through a hole at the bottom of the screen, they will come back into the screen through a gap at the top. Once you get used to this technique it will free up more ways of escaping hairy situations).

So you’re probably thinking one hundred levels is a bit excessive, right? Nobody’s going to have the skill or patience to finish this game, right? Wrong. You’re more likely to finish this game than most other NES games, as it employs a password system which allows you to come back whenever you want and pick up from where you last died. All you need is a pen and pad handy when you play! The days of playing an old console game non-stop for three days as it could only be finished in one sitting are long gone – welcome to the 90’s my friend!

The game is a lot of fun to play on your own, but – as with most two-player games – it is best enjoyed with a friend. The co-op mode gives your campaign some extra bubble power and should increase your chances of rescuing those girlfriends. I’ve never played the game all the way through, but if I was successful in the quest, the first thing I’d do is ask those girls what the hell they were thinking wandering around in a cave called “The Cave of Monsters” in the first place. They had better be really hot or something, otherwise Bub and Bob might not always be there for them when they decide to go for a ramble in “The Forest of Zombies” or “The Tower of Cannibals”.

This is a game I enjoy playing, but always end up getting a little bit bored of after a while. For this reason the password system is brilliant – you can enjoy your bubble-blowing in small doses and not have to keep repeating the same levels. Bub and Bob make appearances in other games like Bust A Move (another game featuring bubbles, so I don’t think they had a choice in the matter – they are THE bubble guys), but the original Bubble Bobble is a classic example of traditional videogaming, and I’d recommend that everyone should give it a try. It should especially appeal to women and children as it is super-cute. Even the way Bub and Bob wag their dragon tails is cute! The game can be downloaded from Virtual Console, in case you don’t happen to hoard 25-year old consoles like myself…