Remember those days when you used to rush to the Arcade every day to play the newest games that were out? All the money you spent draining them down the coin slot on those big clunky machines? Well, now you have the chance to play Puzzle Bobble once again but, this time it’s portable on the Nokia N-Gage. You might think that this game was spiced up a bit on the N-Gage because of modern technology but it doesn’t really seem that way.
Once you pop in this game and fire it up, you will have the two starting options to start off with. There is the Single Player mode also known as the Story Mode with six stages that you must go through to retrieve all the diamonds that were stolen from Rainbow Island. There are three levels of difficulties to choose from which are Easy, Normal and Hard. When you finish the game on “Hard” mode, there is a special ending for your viewing pleasure.
The other option when you start playing Puzzle Bobble VS is the “VS” mode itself which is also the Multiplayer mode. You can play against other players with a total of up to four players including yourself. You have to option to either “host” the game or to be the “client” of the game, which allows you to join others. Even though this game lacks the N-Gage Arena capability, it would have been a great to play against Bobblers all around the world.
When you play in the single player mode, it’s not likely for it to feel just like how it did back in the arcade. The arrow that shoots all of the bubbles in the game moves really slow unlike the arcade version where it moved quickly. This can affect the game in some way because when you play on “hard” mode, it requires thinking and moving fast because opponent seems to be getting the good pieces that are required to burst the bubbles. If you select the “easy” mode in the game, everything will seem way too boring because of how slow everything is. Changing the difficulty to a higher level doesn’t mean anything (but you) is going to speed up because your opponent is always popping bubbles before you.
The gameplay is quite similar to the arcade version despite the slow speed. When you pop more bubbles than your opponent, extra bubbles get added on to your opponent’s screen and vise versa with your foe. The more bubbles you pop, the higher your “special” mete gets. Pressing the “7” button on the N-Gage enables you to use your special once it is high enough to be used. The higher the meter, the better “special” you will receive to defeat your opponent. The CP (Computer Player) has all the same rules as you do so complaining that the CP is “cheating” won’t do you any good.
Since Puzzle Bobble VS doesn’t require really good graphics, in this game you will find simple graphics. The vertical screen of the N-Gage is not too bad when playing against the CP or one other player via Bluetooth but, when you play against three others, your opponents’ screen get really narrow which prevents you from seeing what they are doing so you can know how good or bad you are doing.
The soundtrack of this game isn’t too impressive. The same song or “tune” plays in the background of every stage you play in. It could get really annoying at times but luckily, the game lets you choose the volume of the sound or completely shut it off at your command. It wouldn’t have hurt to include at least a couple of tunes to make it less boring to the game.
Puzzle Bobble, thought to be an exciting reincarnation of the arcade version has some disappointing aspects but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give this game a go. You may like it a whole lot or you may dislike it. Playing in the hard mode gives you the biggest challenge which can keep you busy for a while. The graphics aren’t too bad. The sound could have been done a lot better too! If you were a huge fan of this game back then, there is a chance you might be a fan of this one as well. The Bluetooth wireless capability gives you the freedom to show off your skills to other players of this game and also increases the replayability aspect. Give this game a go before you go running out to the nearest game shop like a madman to purchase it.
Lasha Krikheli
