Sponsor...

################################################################################

Review For: Super Bubble Pop for Gameboy Advance
Date Written: Aug 08 '03
Written By: Webmaster Christopher Beley
Rating:

INTRO

 The reason I bought this game was because I saw it in a pile of all these Gameboy games that were on sale and this game drew my attention. The game looked cool and at only $10 on sale I bought it. I have been very happy with the game and it was well worth the $10. First of all let me talk about how the game is played….

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED

 First let me give you a visual of what the game is like, if you have ever played a game called Balloon Pop (at least that’s what I think it was called) on one of the new arcade game machines that have a touch screen and about 20 games on the one machine, it is like that.  

 When you start the game you get to choose from two different characters, which are The C-29 Robot or Vix. There are others that you can choose from when you get far into the game. There are only 2 new characters to unlock. Each character has there own special moves. The C-29 Robot’s special move is Pulse Wave and Vix’s special move is Tack Attack. After you choose your character you have to choose your level of difficulty. There are 4 levels of difficulty which are training, chilled, groovin’, and hardcore. I would start off with training. Before I start talking about the different difficulty settings lets talk about how the game works……

 The object of the game is to clear the game grid of all the bubbles or collect 3 level tokens to advance to the next level. Three of the same color bubbles touching will pop. The bubbles are just a solid color and have no symbols on them. 

If you collect 3 level stars, which look like a gold bubble with a star in it, you will advance to the next level. In some harder levels you may have to collect more than 3 level tokens to advance to the next level. To see how many more level stars you need or have, look right below the super attack meter (which will be discussed soon) and you will see 3 or more circles that have a star in them or not. Each one that has a star in it stands for a level star that you have. The ones without a star in them are how many more level stars you need to win the level.

When you get a special ball your attack goes up one step on the torus bar. Special balls look like a mainly purplish ball with white and some other colors wiggling throughout the ball. It kind of looks like those static glass balls with all the electricity in it. The torus bar shows the current special attack you can do. Each time you collect a special ball the special attack on the torus bar is raised by one step so the new attack will be even more powerful than the one you had before. The picture in the Instruction book is inaccurate for some reason. The torus bar (place where it shows you what move you can do) actually looks like a box with a picture of the move in it, not a wheel like in the book and the torus bar is located near the top right of the screen. To launch the current attack on your torus bar press your B button.

If you complete a level before the bonus timer runs down you will get bonus points. The bonus timer is located just underneath the score. The score is located at the top left of the screen. You can add extra time to your bonus timer by collecting extra time bubbles. Extra time bubbles look like a dark blue circle with the top right corner of it being red.

Each character has there own special color bubble. The C-29 Robot’s special color bubble is blue and Vix’s special color bubble is gold. If you look through the manual you will notice it never really says how to fire your special attack. If you look on the Game Controls page it says the key to press to launch a special attack is what looks like a play symbol? I don’t know if it was some kind of miss print or that stands for another key but to launch your special attack you press the R button. The special attacks look pretty cool. Oh, you can only launch a special attack when your super attack meter is full and blinking. The super attack meter is at the very right top corner.

An obstacle you will have to face in the game is a blocker. They look like round stones the size of the bubbles. Blockers can be good or bad. For example, if there is a whole bunch of bubbles behind it you won’t have to worry about those for a while because the blocker will not let the bubbles go down the grid anymore, but blockers can be bad if there are things like level stars behind it that you need. The blockers will eventually just go away but you can destroy them by hitting them with any color bubble 5 times. Sometimes it’s more but the average is 5 times.

OK, now lets go back to the difficulty settings that we discussed earlier. Below is some info on all the different difficulties……..

TRAINING—This is the one you should start off with when you get the game. The game takes a little getting use to, especially when playing it on such a small screen. In this mode there are only 2 different colors and the bubbles go down the grid slower than the other modes. Also bubbles will glow if there is a row of bubbles where if you hit it with your current bubble it will form a 3 or more chain, which will pop the bubbles. The book calls this “easy aiming”.

CHILLED—In this mode you still get the “easy aiming” but there are now 3 colors instead of just 2.

GROOVIN’—The “easy aiming” feature is now turned off and there are now 4 different colors, and to make it even harder the bubbles move down the grid faster than the other modes.

HARDCORE—There are now 5 colors and the bubbles will move down the grid much quicker than all the other modes. Blockers will now appear more often and sooner.

 Now the fun begins! Now that you know what all the power-ups and other things are I can show you the key mapping for everything and how to play. When you start the game you are on a grid. The bubbles will keep coming down the grid until they get to you. You have to make sure the bubbles don’t get to you. To the middle left of the screen you can see a vertical rectangle with 2 colored bubbles in it. The top bubble is your current bubble and the bottom bubble is your next bubble. To launch your current bubble you press your A button. You can move from left to right with your arrow pad. The object of the game is to get 3 or more bubbles of the same color in a vertical or horizontal row. Once you do that the bubbles will pop. You have to try to clear the grid of all the bubbles or get 3 level stars (sometimes you have to get more in harder levels). When you get some special bubbles you can release an attack by pressing your B button. When your special jar is full and blinking you can release a special attack by pressing your R button. As you advance in levels it gets harder and harder until you beat all the levels. That’s all there is to it! Now lets talk about the music in the game….

THE MUSIC

 One of the things on the box of this game that caught my attention was that it said it had really cool music. They weren’t lying. This isn’t your normal Gameboy music. All the music is some sort of Trance but it is really good Trance. You could call it Techno too. There really isn’t that big of difference between Trance and Techno in my opinion. A couple of the songs have a few words in them but then again, Trance or Techno doesn’t usually have words. The songs you can listen to in the game are….

Corona

Dream

Sunset

The Whicka Man

Amigaos

Re-Psyche

Indus Valley

UDTQ

 That’s 8 songs! I’d like more but still, they all are about 3 to 4 minute long songs. When you are playing the game it will rotate through all the songs. If you don’t like 1 or more of the songs you can make it so they don’t play by going to Options then Jukebox. Scroll with your arrow buttons to the song(s) you don’t like and press A. An X will then appear by the song. If you change your mind go back and press A again. You will see a checkmark instead of an X. So if you don’t enjoy the game you can always just listen to the music:). Now lets talk about what I liked and disliked about the game…….

WHAT I LIKED

I defiantly liked the music especially because I like trance. The music quality is close to CD quality I would say and is stereo, not mono. I played the music as loud as I could on my Amplified Mini Boom box speakers and it sounded great even when it was really loud!

Basically, I just like the game in general. It’s an addictive game that you won’t get bored with. It’s not like other games where you finish the game and you don’t want to play it again. Also it will make time fly. I was playing it for close to an hour and it felt like 10 minutes! THIS GAME IS EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE. I also like the 3D look of the game board. Now for the few things I was disappointed in……..

SOME DISAPPOINTMENTS

 No multiplayer capabilities:(. They could have had a death math thing where the first person to lose (no restarts), loses or they could have had something where you could exchange your high scores with a friend so you could try to beat each others high scores. There also could have been better instructions in the booklet. The final disappointment is that it would have been nice if there could have been some more songs.

FINAL THOUGHTS

 This is a great game for anyone who likes Tetris or other games that involve matching 3 or more of one color. Actually most everyone will find this game enjoyable and addictive. With a price of only 10 dollars, if you look around (you may find it for less), I say get it. Now look below if you are going to or already bought the game because here are some tips from me on playing the game……..

MY TIPS

1. Try to remember the next bubble so you don’t have to keep looking back at the box with the current and next bubble. You will save valuable time and this you will almost have to do in the harder levels.

2. If you need to give your eyes or hands a rest just press the start button to pause the game.

3. If you see a level star anywhere try to get that before trying to get other things. Unless all the bubbles are 1 or 3 squares away from you do whatever it takes to get the level tokens so you can advance to the next level.

4. Try not to pay attention to the score and time during your game. It will just distract you. When going to the next level you will have some time to glance at the score.

 

Well that’s all the tips I have for you. Have Fun!!!!!

HAPPY POPPING:)


CNR is not responsible for or approves of the content in the two above links.