Bust-A-Move

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US/EU JP
Bust-A-Move
System(s): Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Taito (JP) Sega (US)
Developer: Santos
Peripherals supported: Gear-to-Gear Cable
Genre: Puzzle
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1996-08-02 ¥4,8004,800 T-11047 US 1996 2567
Non-Sega versions 3DO Arcade Neo Geo CD Super NES Windows PC WonderSwan

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Bust-A-Move, known as Puzzle Bobble (パズルボブル) in Japan, is a puzzle game created by Taito as a spin-off to their popular Bubble Bobble series. Originally released in arcades, the Bust-A-Move was brought to the Sega Game Gear in 1996 by Santos. It is the only portable port of the original game.

It was the last third-party Game Gear game released in Japan and the only non-Sega game to use the Kid's Gear brand (the last Japanese GG game being G Sonic).

A Sega Master System GG2SMS hack was released in April 2014.

Gameplay

The objective of the game is to clear all the bubbles from the arena without any bubble crossing the bottom line. To do so, Bub and Bob fire bubbles from the Bubble Launcher at the bottom. The Bubble Launcher is aimed with and and fired with . The fired bubbles travel in straight lines (possibly bouncing off the sidewalls of the arena), stopping when they touch other bubbles or reach the top of the arena. If a bubble touches identically-colored bubbles, forming a group of three or more, those bubbles—as well as any bubbles hanging from them—are removed from the field of play and points are awarded. The color of bubbles fired is randomly generated and chosen from the colors of bubbles still left on the screen. Bubbles are fired automatically if the player is idle.

After every few shots, the ceiling of the playing arena drops downwards slightly, along with all the bubbles stuck to it. The screen shakes the turn before the ceiling drops as a warning to the player. The number of shots between each drop of the ceiling is influenced by the number of bubble colors remaining. The closer the bubbles get to the bottom of the screen, the faster the music plays, and if they cross the line at the bottom, the game is over. Because of this constraint, each round effectively must be completed within a certain number of moves. Most rounds are designed such that the player must be strategic and pop bubbles with longer chains of bubbles hanging from them in order to finish before the ceiling drops too low.

The game includes the 30 rounds from the original arcade game along with 70 new ones for a total of 100 rounds (including the final boss fight with Super Drunk). These are the same 100 rounds that are also available on the Super NES version of the game. The game has a password system so the player can continue from any level later. Additionally, there are three special new bubble types absent from the arcade game: the lightning bubble (shoots a bolt of lightning horizontally, breaking all bubbles in its path), the flame bubble (pops all bubbles in a radius around it), and the water bubble (releases a waterfall that paints all bubbles it touches the same color).

There is also a Versus Mode and a Challenge Mode. The Versus Mode that can be played against the computer or against another person over a Gear-to-Gear Cable. In this mode, any bubbles hanging off the busted bubbles are dropped on your opponent's side. Against the computer, the player tries to win the best of three rounds against ten different computer opponents. Against a person, players can choose to play a single round or a best of three, five, or seven games. The Challenge Mode is an endless mode that continually feeds new lines of bubbles as the player eliminates them.

History

Bust-A-Move's format has been extremely successful for Taito, moreso than the original Bubble Bobble or Rainbow Islands. As such, the Bust-A-Move series has seen numerous sequels (starting with Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition) and several similar clones.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English (US)	Bust-A-Move	Bust-A-Move
Japanese	パズルボブル	Puzzle Bobble

Production credits

• Director: Jin.
• Planner: Jin.
• Programmers: Arinko, Goripon
• Graphics Designers: Some1
• Sound by: Tama
• Manual Designer: Kazuo Nakagawa
• Special Thanks to: Shouji Takahashi, Yuji Koga, Midori Tokutomi, Yuichi Kanno, Satoru Tanabe
• Producers: Seizo Matsutaka, Takeo Shirasaka
• Executive Producer: Koichi Nakamura

Magazine articles

Main article: Bust-A-Move/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 58 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 80

	69
Based on 2 reviews

Bust-A-Move

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 8e54ee04 MD5 1713eceba681849be8e36f5f62654405 SHA-1 15568554cf6474e1ad64401217b702a048113a2d	256kB		Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 c90f29ef MD5 50a41b6b8062095c142acd186b6118c9 SHA-1 e6bb5f72cffb11c8dd44ac3e378088b04cec1297	256kB		Cartridge (US/EU)

External links

• Sega of America webpage: Game Gear