When it was released in 1986, Bubble Bobble was hardly at the edge of technology. Platform games with single-screen levels had been introduced with Donkey Kong five years earlier, and were already on their way out. Yet Bubble Bobble was so brilliant, it powered a small renaissance for the genre, and was followed by many clones and sequels. It’s a prime example of how you can turn a simple and straightforward concept into a mega hit and instant classic with cute, recognizable characters (some taken over from Taito's earlier game Chack'n Pop), and countless small, but clever modifications on a limited rule set.
As two adorable little dragons called Bub and Bob, the players – and it should always be two players, as not only they can support each other, but are required to get the better endings – need to clear 100 stages by breathing bubbles to catch monsters, and then touching them before they burst in order to turn them into different foods. The trick is that the bubbles are not only their weapons, but also serve as makeshift platforms from which the dragons can bounce off of. Every stage has its own set of invisible air currents that take them all over the place. Usually they go in a general upwards direction, but there are also environments that press them down, or drive them towards a specific target.
It's even possible to use bubbles to jump so high that the dragons appear back at the bottom of the screen, a tactic that’s sometimes necessary to get below areas blocked by platforms. Also, in certain stages, special bubbles hover in from the screen edges, which contain lightning, fire, and water. Popping these unleashes the elemental forces, each of which can take out monsters directly in a different way. There are only a handful of different enemies, and the core gameplay remains the same across all 100 stages, but the sheer amount of variation almost makes every other round feel like a new experience. Added to this is an insane amount of extras, many of which seem random, but are actually based on specific parameters, like how many times Bub jumped or how many bubbles Bob has popped.
The game is so full of secrets, even entering certain names on the high score table does surprising things. At certain points you can find cryptic hints to an alternate mode called "Super Bubble Bobble", which shuffles around enemies and is the only way to obtain the true ending, which not only lifts the curse that turned Bub and Bob into dragons, but also frees their girlfriends and brings back their parents.
Bubble Bobble was followed by many sequels and spin-offs, but none managed to catch lightning in the same way. Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars completely changed the formula and, while good, weren’t quite as addictive, and don’t hone the cooperative aspect. Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories returned to the original template, but felt a bit stale for it, with noisy backgrounds and many chaotic elements. The indie game Ibb and Obb is a straight puzzle platformer with scrolling levels, but much of the physics-based teamwork has the same spirit as Bubble Bobble. Its main gimmick, a screen divide into an up and down world with a gravity switch in the middle, is even reminiscent of the Bubble Bobble precursor, Chack’n Pop.
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