Bubble Bobble (NES Game)

Bubble Bobble is a great little single screen maze shooter that actually has an ending! You are an adorable little dragon (or are you? Play it to the end and find out!) who shoots bubbles. You shoot your enemies with your bubbles, which traps them. Once your enemy is trapped, you have to touch him again to kill him. Once killed, he'll drop off some prize or another that you can pick up for points. Most of the prizes are food items.

So what sorts of enemies do bubble shooting dragons fight? As if I have to tell you. Of course it's little robots, whales, Grimace, springy bees, helicopter hippos, space invaders, ghosts, and Link from the Zelda games. Oh, and the main boss is a duck with a walking stick. Did I mention that this game is a little weird? It is.

So Bubble Bobble has 100 levels (not counting secret levels), and many of them are pretty easy to blast through while some will give you fits. The levels don't necessarily get harder as you go along. Some early levels are pretty hard and some of the levels in the 60's are super easy because all your enemies drop in a straight line and can be blasted almost before they land.

Before I go one for way too long, here's the skinny. The gameplay is simple and great. The music is cute the first time you hear it, but it will repeat approximately 3,000 times if you play the game all the way through and you'll eventually hate it. All of the levels are interesting and well-designed, and your enemies each present their own little challenges. The only beef I have with the game is this: if you play all 100 levels by yourself, you'll get the bad ending. You have to beat the game with a friend to get the good ending. So good luck finding someone willing to play through 100 levels of Bubble Bobble with you. Anyway, the game is enjoyable even if you can't get the good ending by yourself. It's one of the best single screen maze shooters you'll ever see, so it deserves a very good score of...