Mals' Gaming Reviews

🟢💀︱Space Bust-a-Move Review

List of Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move games I've reviewed so far

※ Preamble

Good to finally be back in the zone to work on reviews again. What better game to start off talking about than another Puzzle Bobble entry? This time, I'm looking at Space Bust-a-Move for the Nintendo DS.

Space Bust-a-Move, also called Space Puzzle Bobble in Japan and Puzzle Bobble Galaxy in Europe was released in 2009 and developed by Lancarse, with publishing done by Square Enix in America and Taito in the other regions. This title delivers yet another classic Puzzle Bobble experience—but with a fresh space aesthetic that brings a cast of characters who can feel either unforgettable or forgettable, depending on your personal tastes. Now, unlike the other Puzzle Bobble games I've talked about previously (maybe except for Puzzle Bobble 2 and 4 since I've played those the most out of the Arcade entries), I hold so much nostalgia for this game, having played it countless times with my family, periodically celebrating wins and enduring losses against a series we'd all known and loved ever since Bust-a-Move 2 on the Nintendo 64. For me personally, I was especially interested with the game's presentation, as it perfectly aligns with the artistic styles found in the kinds of titles I tend to cherish most, particularly those shining on a true gem like the Nintendo DS. That and some other important attributes are why the DS ranks as my second-favorite system of all time, with the top spot reserved for the 3DS—the ultimate and definitive way to experience said DS games. There are just so many incredible releases on that handheld that truly bring out the very best in gaming, creating memories far superior to anything I had with the PlayStation Portable.

Oh yeah, and for a Puzzle Bobble game? It's pretty good! Way better than any other Puzzle Bobble game released after Square Enix's acquisition of Taito in 2005-2006. Let me explain.

I've seen and played through some of the other games in the series that were made from and after this point and most of them felt like borderline shovelware. Games such as Bust-a-Move DS (not to be confused with Puzzle Bobble DS, a Japanese-exclusive DS entry developed by Lancarse), Bust-a-Move Bash!, and Bust-a-Move Universe lacks the same charm that the past games had, more specifically Puzzle Bobble 2, 3, 4, Super (both the Japanese Arcade Non-Puyo Pop Fever like one and the Puyo Pop Fever like), and I believe they just existed just to keep the brand relevant on the systems that were relatively new with the console and all. Space Bust-a-Move though... Felt different.

This one had soul put into the graphics, characters, and the overall energy that Puzzle Bobble games really deserve, and the characters, even if they didn't have much personality put towards them, they still had an essence of one. Compare this to the cast of Bust-a-Move Bash!, where the characters just... existed, and the game makes no effort to add an inch of personality onto them. Technically, why they exist is up to interpretation and since the game makes no explanation, the lore for the Moonlight/Starlight Mages, the Ninga Boy/Girl, and the Tiger/Wolf can be as extravagant as all can be.

Anyways, this review isn't about that—it's about Space Bust-a-Move. Let's get straight into as to why this game is one of the best Puzzle Bobble games out there... even if it has some downsides that are worthy of discussion.

※ Story (2/5)

As with most other Puzzle Bobble games, the stories contained in them aren't really complex in terms of their structure and personality. This one included.

Bub and Bob are having fun until a meteorite crashes into their planet, and after discovering such, it turns out it wasn't one but rather an object that casted a person named Snown that tells them both that he has been captured by Develon who is seeking the Cosmo Bubbles to rule over the Galaxy and that he needs to be stopped at once and to be rescued. So the tiny dragon duo travel the Galaxy to all sorts of different planets, ranging from their home planet to a Carnival, a Toy House-themed planet, an underwater paradise, a wild west-themed one, a metropolitan planet, a factory planet, and then Develon's own Castle, where Snown is hostage. Even after defeating him, he still holds intent on defeating the duo but given Snown was freed, he sacrificed his life to save the two, granting them a single wish.

That wish being to literally save him from passing, which successfully works and he thanks them, with peace being restored to the Galaxy.

Incredibly barebones storytelling, but its to be expected from your typical Action Puzzle game since this genre doesn't tend to have the immense storytelling games such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, heck, even The Legend of Dark Witch tend to have.

※ Gameplay (3.5/5)

The general gameplay for Space Bust-a-Move is nothing different from your average Puzzle Bobble: you have a grid of bubbles at the top, and you have to shoot one at two of the same color to pop them, and for ones that are connected to this one and aren't connected to anything else, it'll fall with the popped bubbles, giving you more points. All of the bubbles that've previously existed from Puzzle Bobbles make a return such as the metal bubble and rainbow bubble where the former still destroys any bubble in its sight (but it can't for ricochet on the walls), and for the latter if they're touching a bubble of one color and you shoot the same color at the latter, the rainbow bubbles will turn into the same color as the popped ones, potentially creating a chain reaction to other similarly colored bubbles there are. The only new bubble that appears are the Cosmo Bubbles which you collect in Story mode that are just used as collectibles, and apparently similar to Snown, they can grant people who find them wishes. I wished that they applied the wish-come-true aspect towards the characters, but I don't think they ever considered that on the development team.

I'm going to talk about the other modes later in the replay value section, but the reason this game's gameplay doesn't get any higher than a 4 is because of the weird balancing issues that the Story Mode has for Space Bust-a-Move. You start off on Bub and Bob's planet and the puzzles are just fine, including the first fight with Develon. World 2 is a step up from the first, but when you get to the clown boss, the difficulty is handled by good 'ol RNG, which either makes this fight incredibly easy like how this one YouTuber handled it, or me for which, I kid you not, took 10 minutes for me to complete.

To defeat the clown, you got to pop the bubbles that they stand on, but it's not that simple as they hop on the bubbles to put more on the bottom screen, and they have a chance to knock them down once or twice depending on the situation, And the RNG with the double hop-bubble spawning move the clown does, it's CRAZY. In the moment that you think you'd be ready to shoot one of the bubbles the clown stands on after clearing the area, the idiot would do that move, and spawn bubbles that likely wouldn't match the ones that your machine has, and the clown does that move a lot more than pushing the bubbles down. And it feels like when you're about to lose that he finally gives a damn and calms down his insanity before prepping it up again. I was lucky on my playthrough after this one that I decided to give this entire game another shot, and it only took me sixteen shots as opposed to the last one which had around fifty shots.

And after the boss, I only expected it for it to be hell, but nope! That wasn't the case. In fact, this should've been the second boss, and not the third. You got a bunch of toy Develons that bring down bubbles from the top as per normal and the way to hit them is through the corresponding bubbles at the top. This one is the first one to introduce the powerup that shows the guideline, and while it was very helpful for proper aim, it wasn't really needed for how easy the RNG was for this boss compared to the clown and finished this boss in less than 5 minutes or so.

The crab boss was starting to get a little tricky but since it really only gives out three colors (red white and blue, haha) as well as rainbow bubbles which are a bit tricky to deal with on their own, it was another slightly easier boss than the clown. I'm starting to think that the clown boss should've been the fourth or third boss for this game. Also when you destroy the hands of the crab, it'll have bubbles attached to it's mouth and all you need to finish is destroy them and it's gone, but it's at this stage where you can get another guide powerup to make this easier.

After the crab you then have your weird three headed Egyptian statue, and since these tend to repeat in terms of how the boss works, I'm just gonna say that I had an easier time with this one than the crab, even though its "desperation attack" is a bit hectic but once you get the move and groove on how rainbow bubbles work, it shouldn't be much of an issue.

The eyeball boss did take a long time to beat, but yet again, another straightforward boss that isn't as intrusive as the other bosses.

The clanker boss? Also didn't have much issue with it, but this is where the stages part of the game begin to start having issues. I know I didn't mention the stages themselves throughout my review, but it's mostly cause, while challenging and it did cost me a few game overs, it wasn't much of an issue for me, but where things started to become hard is up to the Cosmo Castle, where almost every single stage had me questioning why I even thought this review was possible, and considering I even knew about the ending prior to playing this game (my brother was going through the stuff this game had prior), I had no choice but to do something that I never wanted to do: Cheat

yep, this is the first ever video game review where I've cheated for my review.

the stages had gotten so annoying and tiring that had to cheat my way through it by forcing a guideline to not just the first stage, and even then, I still had the RNG of the bubble colors to have to deal with as well as the layout of the stages itself, but with the guideline being present at all times, it did negate the extremely precise shots, and especially for the final boss with Develon which does the following:

I did not know why they had to go all out on making the final boss extremely yes, it's a final boss and that it's the ultimate challenge of the video game before you finish it, but for how much the base game outside of the stages up to the mechanical cat being relatively easy and that's including the bosses (and how the second boss is harder than most of the bosses in this game after it), it's ultimately my biggest complaint that they didn't need to make it this hard. you'll be stuck fighting Develon for a while and if it weren't for the guideline cheat that I've added to my playthrough, this fight would've taken hours for me defeat. even with said chest this fight took almost 10 minutes lol....

A bit disappointing ending for sure cause after you finish this game, you don't get anymore added to the story mode. HOWEVER....

※ Replay Value (4.5/5)

To piggyback off the rants that I've talked about in the gameplay, Space Bust-a-Move thankfully has a bunch of content that keeps the player in for more. In that I mean as well as 100%ing the story mode, you got your standard versus and Endless modes, but new to this game, you have the challenge mode, and the extra modes that can be unlocked in the shop; Pressure, Puzzle, and Factory modes.

Versus (Player vs CPU or Player(s) vs Player(s))

Your standard versus mode except this time you're able to pop some bubbles marked with a question mark which gives you and item of varying choices. Some to benefit yourself and some to distract the other player. The multiplayer mode with real players is the one I have nostalgia with the most, and someday, I wished for this game to have online multiplayer or a way for me to play this game with not just exclusively with my family. Also, the hard CPUs are absolutely nuts compared to normal and easy, but that is to be expected.

Endless

You play standard Puzzle Bobble until you lose, but the longer you stay, the more money you collect for the shop.

Challenge

Similar to Endless, but you're on a 3-minute or 5-minute timer (depending on what you choose) to score as much as you can to receive a ranking. The game makes count on how many shots you've done, the clears, and the drops, and the more you've done all of them, the better rank you get.

Extra (Unlocked w/ the Shop)

Pressure Mode

You only got five seconds to complete the short goals in five levels in a # stage gauntlet. It's pretty fun, but if you lose one of the five stages, you have to do it all over again. It's easy but challenging since the later microgames require more precise shots.

Puzzle Mode

Honestly, this is just normal Puzzle Bobble at this point. I thought there would be a special gimmick to this one for it to stand out, but nope! You go through five stages similar to Pressure Mode, and if you lose one or more of the five you have to do the whole thing again. Succeed, and you get the most cash.

Factory Mode

And last but not least the mode that I think is the best modes of the bunch. The factory mode gives you a limited set of bubbles to work against the puzzles, and its similar to the others where you got five stages, and if you miss one of the five, you got to do the level set all over again until you win. I like this mode so much that I wished that it can be extended to a whole new Puzzle Bobble entry similar to Bejeweled Twist.

The Shop

And now for the final part of the replay value, the shop. It's a bit underwhelming since most of the stuff is just skins for the bubbles and the thing you control at the bottom, and for some reason the jukebox and the credits are locked behind finishing this game. You also have the aforementioned Extra modes, and that's about it for the shop. If you're looking for a way to make the game look different, then I guess this is a reason to utilize the shop. Otherwise, this might just be the worst kind of shop that I've ever used in a video game.

※ Graphics (4/5)

I think that the graphics for this game is really good! The game definitely has a childlike space vibe going for it with simplistic depictions of space and colorful aesthetics of the various planets Bub and Bob travel to in the story mode, and the sprite art, though simple, give off more personality to the characters in a way that makes me have nostalgia for them, despite not really being developed and are just common stereotypical characters and whatnot. The Menu UI for this game is the best part though. I unironically sat at my setup and just starred at this on my review playthrough just looking at the absolute beauty that is it, lol. All of that for a mere Puzzle Bobble game, mind you. Lancarse should honestly be the sole developer for all Puzzle Bobble games moving forward.

※ Soundtrack (4.5/5)

If there is one excuse for the single player to being incredibly difficult, it would have to be for the player to listen to the surprisingly incredible compositions this game has going for. Kenichiro Iwasaki is the sole composer for this game, and some other works that they've worked on is Puzzle Bobble DS, and.... Kurikin Nano Island Story and Yakuman DS ? I don't even know what these games even are...

I know that if the average person were to listen to this, they would think it's mere background music while you focus on the gameplay, but not for me. I think that all of the stages, menus, and their respective songs make the experience playing this game a bit more bearable since I would be listening to the theme of Poseidon while I am struggling on the first set of the levels trying to get the cosmo bubble without destroying it. And when I've gotten to the Wild West stage, the song being bumpier and more wild west sounding made the experience go a lot faster despite it being a world higher than the last one.

Some of the highlights I would like to give for the music of this game is the worlds for the troublesome twins, Purple Pecky, black Bubblun's boss theme (not counting the first time you fight him), and the theme of the mysterious entity. Another highlight I would give form the music is the theme of the classic Puzzle Mode stages, which is actually a remix of a song from Puzzle Bobble DS, which shows more proof that this game is essentially a spiritual successor to that game, which is amazing. Oh yeah and the multiplayer/endless theme, can't forget about that. The amount of times I've had to hear this song when trying to compete against my brother is insane, and it became one of the songs that is just infused into my mind, with me humming the melody like it's the fucking super mario bros theme.

The last one I could think of is the shop. The shop theme is just a short loop, but every time I listen to it, I get reminded of the memories I've had with this game and the Nintendo DS/3DS altogether. Which also means that by listening to this song, I get reminded of the times The Legend of Dark Witch used to be at its peakest. The urge to re-review the entire series strikes again....

※ Verdict/Other Thoughts (4/5)

If I were to ignore the issues within the story mode, Space Bust-a-Move really isn't a mediocre entry to the long running Puzzle Bobble series. In fact, I owe this game an apology: The last time I've talked about this game, I went a bit too harsh on the difficulty of the story mode, and didn't really take a good look at the rest of the content this game had, but with this review being the perfect replacement, it deeply satasfies my thoughts I had towards this game. Perfectly fitting for the final review that I've done for this year.. I know that I've been working on an Annalyn one for such a long time, but the thought of playing action puzzle games like Apotris and this one had gotten through my mind, and I sought to improve my review and rating for this game. With that being said, this concludes my review for Space Bust-a-Move.

...Okay one more thought. The characters for this game are so Puyo Puyo coded. I wish for the day that someone would see these characters and put them in the style of... I dunno, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 or something. They'd fit right in with the rest of the Puyo cast.

Thanks for Reading!