The original Bubble Bobble was released by Taito in1986 and offered a memorable concept, pitching two dragons, Bub and Bob against 100 floors with only bubbles at their disposal to overcome enemies and obstacles. Numerous sequels have since followed but none have quite reached the high standards set by the original. The first question I asked when faced with Bubble Bobble Evolution was how does it compare to the original?

Set in 18th century London, the game begins with two children, Bub and Bob, playing by the River Thames. They are suddenly transformed into blue and green dragons – in this version costumes, rather than the real thing – before being abducted and imprisoned in separate towers. Their captor welcomes the duo to his towers of entertainment and invites them to try and find their way out. Bub and Bob must begin at the base of each tower and fight/solve their way to the highest floors.

The original Bubble Bobble allowed two players to work together in progressing through its 100 levels. In Evolution, Bub and Bob remain apart in their respective towers, having to negotiate ten floors before reaching the precipice. There is no teamwork at all between the characters and this proves to be one of the early disappointments. Although you can switch between Bub and Bob at any moment by passing their bubble trumpet back and forth, they are effectively on different adventures.

Each of the tower floors are divided into three screens containing a series of puzzles and an assortment of enemies out to hinder your attempts to ascend to the next level. Bubbles are still used to dispatch your foes but in Evolution Bub and Bob will also need them to activate three types of switch – wooden, stone and metal – to open doorways, manipulate obstacles or change something in the environment such as the direction of the wind or the room temperature. Further complications emerge with Bub and Bob having to influence bubbles containing different elements such as fire, ice and water to open up paths to previously inaccessible sections of each tower.

Being a big fan of the original Bubble Bobble, I was looking forward to Evolution but found the experience to be, sadly, disappointing. Though the controls are straightforward and the graphics fairly detailed and colourful, I was soon longing for the simplicity of the original game. Each floor of the tower involves a lot of traipsing back and forth between three screens to solve puzzles and although this seemed testing to begin with, I quickly found the experience frustrating, especially when enemies continued to return until a certain switch was activated to stop this. The Boss fights only served to augment these increasing issues. In order to defeat each boss, Bub or Bob have to stand in one of two locations on either side of the screen and fire off an unbroken chain of bubbles. The bosses would only suffer damage if stood on the opposite side of the screen so by moving either to the centre or close to you they could easily avoid your attacks, which proved annoying if they moved just as your flow of bubbles was about to hit them. Both Bub and Bob have to defeat the same bosses as they climb their respective towers and I found this monotony more of a hindrance than benefit, especially if a boss fight had been prolonged and I suddenly had to face the same prospect again. Finally, the loading times, though a fault of the PSP, impacted badly on Evolution. Your progress will be frequently interrupted by hints and tips, which are useful but cannot compensate for the length of time they take to pass. When ascending to another floor in the towers, Bub and Bob must take a lift and this also results in long loading times, which will wear heavily on your patience.    

With Bubble Bobble Evolution, Rising Star Games have unfortunately lost sight of what made the original so great. The team work of Evolution’s predecessor is sadly missing here and though the graphics have improved in this version, the monotony of Bub and Bob’s individual ventures, coupled with slow loading times, means the essence of the original Bubble Bobble has been lost in its translation to the PSP.

**Review by David Brown**