Bust-A-Move

Overview

Bust-A-Move (known outside of North America, as well as in some digital re-releases, as Puzzle Bobble, and sometimes known in Europe as Puzzle Bobble: Bust-A-Move) is a tile-matching puzzle game developed and released by Taito for arcades throughout 1994. It was first released exclusive to Japan for the Taito B System hardware in June, then released worldwide for the Neo Geo MVS hardware in December.

It is a spin-off of the Bubble Bobble series, featuring themes from the original game (such as enemies trapped in bubbles by the cutesy dinosaur duo Bub and Bob that must be popped). Players attempt to clear a board of colored bubbles by firing other bubbles at an angle and matching multiple bubbles of the same color.

Along with numerous sequels, the game also received ports to home systems. From 1995-1996, the game was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Neo Geo CD (in Japan only), 3DO, Game Gear, and PC (published by GameBank). It was later ported to the WonderSwan (in Japan only, published by SunSoft) in July 1999.

Gameplay

The player shoots colored bubbles from the bottom of the screen. The bubbles are released from an arrow in the center of the screen that the player can adjust. Bubbles bounce off walls until they make contact with another bubble or the ceiling. When three bubbles of the same color touch they burst and are removed from the game board. If there are now bubbles which are not connected to the ceiling or another bubble those will also be removed from the game board. Bubbles removed in this way are worth more points.

The game features a single player set of challenge levels, and split screen multiplayer. In multiplayer the players are given identical boards and bubble order. Whenever a player removes four or more bubbles with a single shot extra bubbles are added to his or her opponent's board.