Bubble Memories | 1995 | Taito

The Story of Bubble Bobble III wouldn’t be complete without a short history of the series as this is the only game in the series I’m probably ever going to write about in length. So, what are the origins of our titular dragon heroes Bub and Bob? Let’s find out.

Released in Japanese arcades in 1986, Taito’s Bubble Bobble was an immediate success. Designer Fuikio Mitsuji’s aim was to create an arcade game that was less violent and focused on cooperative action rather than the single-player action games that were prevalent at the time. Mitsuji’s other aim with the game’s design was to appeal to women and families given that teenage boys and men were the main patrons in the booming Japanese game center industry. Players old and new loved the game with its bright characters, simple but addictive gameplay hook, and cooperative play.

The legacy of Bubble Bobble is a tall one with numerous sequels and spin-offs that were all quite popular in their own right. While Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars are the spin-off sequels that came first, Taito produced two direct sequels to Bubble Bobble almost a decade after the first game’s release on their powerful 32-bit arcade platform, the F3.

Of these two F3 sequels, Bubble Symphony was first out of the gate. While Symphony has the same basic tenants as the first game, there’s something a bit wonky about the level design and approach to play that doesn’t feel quite as elegant as the original. That said, it’s not a bad game and was quite popular at the time. Symphony was so popular in fact that it got an exclusive Japanese port to the Sega Saturn (like many other F3 titles).

The second Bubble Bobble game on the F3, and the one we’re actually here to discuss, is Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III. Released in 1995, this third and final entry into this storied franchise is considered by many fans to be the best of the bunch. So, what makes Memories such a great title? Let’s dig in.

Bubble Memories will be immediately familiar to anyone that has played either of the prior Bubble Bobble games. You control either Bub (green) or Bob (blue) as they trap enemies in bubbles they shoot out of their mouths. In order to defeat the enemies, you have to pop the bubbles. After defeating an enemy, they will drop a score item (usually food) you will quickly need to collect. You can earn score multipliers by popping groups of enemies trapped in bubbles all at once that produces a chain effect. After all enemies on the screen have been cleared, you have about 10 seconds to collect the remaining score drops before being whisked away to the next stage. While this set up sound exactly like the first game, there’s so much more going on here.

When you first begin a game, you have to select one of two modes: practice or story. Practice mode is just the first 10 stages of the game, and on top of being slightly easy, the game is over after beating the first boss. The story mode contains the full 80+ stages and has the normal difficulty curve.

Also new to the game are hidden items. On certain levels you’ll see two enemies fly over the screen holding a potion or jewel icon which they will hide somewhere on the stage. In order to get the best ending to the game, you must not only beat the game with two players, but you also must have collected all the potions. The game ends on stage 70 if you fail to collect all the potions. You can find the potions by walking over every inch of the level until it pops out of the ground to collect. Collecting the potion also nets you a handy 500-point score boost. 

In addition to the new mechanics and secrets, returning are the attack bubbles that appear on certain stages that either hold an elemental charge or other hazard. For example, there are electric and wind bubbles that, when popped, will send out an electric charge or wind across the screen and immediately eliminate any enemy that gets in their way. During boss battles, you have to collect a jar that contains a certain element that the boss is weak against. Collecting these elemental bottles will allow you to produce bubbles containing the element that will harm the boss. There are a variety of attack bubbles, and some of these hold cameos to past games like the rainbows from the Bubble Bobble spin-off game Rainbow Island.

Speaking of bosses, you’ll encounter a boss every 10 stages or so. These bosses aren’t exactly push-overs, but they aren’t exactly hard either. Once you figure out how to position the attack bubbles correctly, you can take down most bosses in a matter of seconds. The real challenge in the game comes from the stages themselves rather than the bosses. That said, the bosses are a nice break from the bubble busting action and are all quite fun to beat. Because the Bubble Bobble games are explicitly designed for co-op action, the game is significantly harder while playing solo.

Bubble Memories comes with some secrets as well, including a level select! If you hold down the Service (Test) menu button when the game boots, the game will flash an error message. When you see the error message, press the 1p start button three times, then the service button one more time, and finally 1p start once more. When the game boots, and you press start to begin your game, you’ll be able to select your starting stage. This is quite handy as the game is pretty lengthy for an arcade title. Although, back in the actual arcade era, only the arcade operator would have access to all the buttons needed to access the level select.

While not exactly a graphical showpiece for the F3 hardware, Bubble Memories is still a bright, colorful, and well-drawn game. Bub and Bob have nice, big character sprites that are easy to see on screen and because of their bright colors, they never get lost in the sea of enemies, items, and bubbles that are all on screen at once. Actually, it’s quite astounding how many objects of varying sizes can be on screen at any given time. Given the F3 is a sprite crunching powerhouse, there is no slowdown, flicker, or other performance drops no matter the clutter. It’s all very impressive if you know what’s going on under the hood, while it doesn’t look all that impressive on screen.

The only real gripe I have with the game are the backgrounds. No, I’m not talking about the level design (which is generally brilliant), I’m talking about the background layer that you can’t interact with. See, in the original Bubble Bobble the backgrounds were completely black which made it easier to see what was going on. This was most likely due to the technical limitations of the original hardware, but it created a unique look that has become iconic over the years. In Memories these stark black backgrounds are replaced with digitized still images of real-world animals that look…out of place. These digitized images clash against the bright and colorful pixel art and can be a bit distracting. Unfortunately, there is no way to remove these backgrounds officially. Thankfully there is a ROM hack created by a long-time fan that removes all the background images and restores the preferable black backgrounds. You can even play this hack on real F3 hardware if you have a multi-game kit installed on your PCB!

Bubble Memories certainly looks good, despite the digitized backgrounds, but it also sounds great. The theme that plays while you wrap and pop your enemies is a delightfully upbeat circus-style tune that somehow doesn’t get old. It is reminiscent of the original Bubble Bobble theme while being just different enough to not sound the same. Thankfully, the fan favorite original theme is still in the game, but it only plays in practice mode.

Bubble Memories is a fantastic co-op arcade game. While the game is a bit long, the pacing is brisk, up-beat, and a ridiculous amount of fun. Don’t let the cute façade fool you, though, as the game gets maddeningly difficult. Like the original, the difficulty is balanced for co-op play, so you’ll most likely have the best time playing it if you have a buddy. Don’t get me wrong, though, it’s still a fantastic time single-player as well – only more difficult.

Given Bubble Memories was never ported to any home consoles, which is an absolute crime, there are only a handful of ways to play it. Of course, the low-hanging fruit is the arcade version, which isn’t too expensive these days. You can get the cartridge for less than $150. These are typically sold in a pair with the F3 motherboard, though, so the cost could go up to $300 or so. There are multiple caveats to owning F3 hardware, and for most folks, I don’t recommend it unless you have an actual arcade cabinet. The refresh rate of the hardware is almost impossible to run through modern upscailers for use on HD displays.

There is also an exceedingly rare PC port that was only released in South Korea – so write that off as you’ll never find a copy… and even if you do, never mind getting it working on modern PC architecture. The last official way to play the game is on Taito’s Egret II Mini console released in 2022. Along with Memories, the other two Bubble Bobble games are included on the machine. This is probably the most accurate and best way to play the game today for most folks.

Like most arcade games of the past, the easiest way for folks to play this game in the modern era is on arcade emulators like MAME or Final Burn Alpha. If it weren’t for emulators like these many folks would never have the chance to experience classics like this. That said, using emulators comes with a bit of tinkering and patience to get everything working so this won’t be the best solution for everybody.

Bubble Memories is a phenomenal game that is made even better by leaning into its co-op play. Just because it’s a cute game with squishy dragon pals, don’t sleep on this zinger. It’s a well-hidden gem that really needs more publicity because there’s a lot to love here and very little to complain about. It’s hands down my favorite Bubble Bobble game, and I bet, if you give it a chance, you’ll fall in love with its bubble bursting action too!

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