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Stories left

Bubble Bobble — stories left

Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).

People (9)

The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly stated that the Game Gear version is a faithful conversion of the original which works well in portable form.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

Your Sinclair magazine ranked the ZX Spectrum version at #58 in their "Top 100 Games of All Time" in 1993 based on reader vote.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

In 1996, GamesMaster rated the game 19th on its "Top 100 Games of All Time".

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

Yahoo! ranked it at #71 in their "100 Greatest Computer Games Of All Time" in 2005 for its charming premise and cute character designs.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

Stuff magazine listed it as part of their "100 Greatest Games" in 2008, while GamesTM magazine listed it in their "Top 100 Games" in 2010.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

Stuff.tv ranked it at #47 in their Top 100 Games in 2009, saying "Today's kids might laugh, but this was gold in 1986".

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

GamesRadar+ ranked it at #95 in their "100 Best Games Of All Time" list in 2011, praising its multiplayer and secrets.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

Game Informer placed it in their "Top 300 Games of All Time" in 2018 for its long-lasting appeal and multiplayer.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

In July 2020, the MORIBIX Corporation released a mobile port, titled "Bubble Bobble Classic," on iOS and Android.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Re-releases"

Numbers (7)

2 versions were released, one in monochrome and one in colour. Both are for 1 player only, so the 2 versions share a story of their own, different from the other platforms: Bubblun sets out to punish "Super Drunk Jr.", who has kept the "water of the moon" to himself, in order to save his sick brother. The result reads like a sequel to the versions on other platforms.

Japanese Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Other platform versions"

In the Gamest Mook The Best Game (1991), a reader poll covering every arcade game up to that point, it placed 30th. The magazine noted that it was "a game that generated a great deal of talk" and praised it as "a classic that excited enthusiasts and ordinary players alike".

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the game scored a total of 28.

In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by the magazine Family Computer Magazine,it scored 18.89 out of 25, as shown below.

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the game scored a total of 23.

In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by the magazine Family Computer Magazine, it scored 20.77 out of 30, as shown below.

In the Cross Review feature of the magazine Famitsu, it scored a total of 24.

Reception (4)

In the Gamest Mook The Best Game (1991), a reader poll covering every arcade game up to that point, it placed 30th. The magazine noted that it was "a game that generated a great deal of talk" and praised it as "a classic that excited enthusiasts and ordinary players alike".

In the Gamest Mook The Best Game 2 (1998), it was selected for "The Best Game", a list of titles recognised as "masterpieces, outstanding works, and works of genius". The book praised the game for combining the exhilaration of a shooting game, the handling of an action game, and the puzzle solving of a puzzle game, and for putting them together in good balance, and noted that it "was played by a very wide range of people and became a big hit".

In 2009-10, a Samyang Ramen commercial broadcast in South Korea, in which the South Korean idol unit Girls' Generation (SNSD) sang lyrics set to the game's background music, was circulated on YouTube and became a talking point in Japan.

Japanese Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Later influence"

They particularly praised the simplicity of the gameplay concept and the graphics, and the two-player link option.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Reception"

Changed from the original (3)

2 versions were released, one in monochrome and one in colour. Both are for 1 player only, so the 2 versions share a story of their own, different from the other platforms: Bubblun sets out to punish "Super Drunk Jr.", who has kept the "water of the moon" to himself, in order to save his sick brother. The result reads like a sequel to the versions on other platforms.

Japanese Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Other platform versions"

An arranged Game Boy port of Bubble Bobble 2, with further changes to the story setting and stage structure.

Versions for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color were respectively released in 1990 and 1999, with the latter port being renamed Classic Bubble Bobble.

Bugs and tricks (2)

There is also a genuine Taito instruction card, for sticking on the cabinet, on which this hidden command is written.

Japanese Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Hidden commands"

According to a magazine interview from the time, these hidden commands appear to have been put in by the game designer without permission and without being written in the specifications.

Japanese Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Hidden commands"

Differences overseas (2)

2 versions were released, one in monochrome and one in colour. Both are for 1 player only, so the 2 versions share a story of their own, different from the other platforms: Bubblun sets out to punish "Super Drunk Jr.", who has kept the "water of the moon" to himself, in order to save his sick brother. The result reads like a sequel to the versions on other platforms.

Japanese Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Other platform versions"

An arranged Game Boy port of Bubble Bobble 2, with further changes to the story setting and stage structure.

Firsts and onlys (2)

His first game was the four-screen racer Super Dead Heat in 1985, followed by the shoot 'em up Halley's Comet the same year.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Development and release"

Bubble Bobble was first released in Japan on June 16, 1986, followed by a wide release in Japan in September and internationally in October of the same year.

(English)English Wikipedia"Bubble Bobble"from "Development and release"

Cancellations and recalls (1)

A version of Bubble Bobble was also produced for the unreleased Taito WOWOW console.

The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.

Source: created by adapting the "Media Arts Database" (https://mediaarts-db.artmuseums.go.jp/) of the National Center for Art Research, National Museum of Art
Sources: Japanese and English Wikipedia, Wikidata
Sources: TASVideos (https://tasvideos.org/), speedrun.com (https://www.speedrun.com/)