Puzzle Bobble

Title: Puzzle Bobble
Platform Played On: Arcade
Release Date: December 1994
Date Played: 1999 - present
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 4/5



Opinion:
When you walk in to a local Donut shop or a Pizza parlor and see several beat up arcade machines in the corner, there is a very good chance Puzzle Bobble is on one of those machines.

I dont even know where it was that I first played this great game... it was probably at the Donut shop across from my High School. There were two machines there, Metal Slug, and Puzzle Bobble.

Puzzle Bobble falls into the same category that Tetris would. The concept is simple. You control a little turret at the bottom of the screen. You shoot different color balls from that cannon onto the existing array of balls. Once there are 3 balls of the same color touching they go away.

Unlike Tetris, in which you never really finish stages, you just keep going and going, the goal in Puzzle Bobble is to clear the entire screen. In Puzzle Bobble once you clear the field you advance to more and more complex levels. One important mechanic is that in order to prevent you from taking a lot of time each turn and to add tension to the gameplay the ceiling constantly pushes the balls downwards. If you are unable to clear the field before it reaches your cannon you lose.

If you find yourself in an Arcade parlor, Puzzle Bobble is definitely worth checking out. Its is by no means a game that one will spend hours and hours on; however as far as 15 minute distractions go PuzzleBobble is a great choice.