Game Overview: 8-Bit Runner-Up

Here’s the funny thing about this list of all-star games per era I’ve been constructing: there are more than three games that I feel are worth mentioning. What’s a guy like me to do?

The answer is simpler than you think. I just write blog posts about the ones that didn’t quite make it. These games do not automatically earn spots at the Table of Honor, but they are definitely all-star games and the post will be tagged as such. Some eras will have only one game in them, like the 8-bit era, but others will have several runner-ups spread across several blog posts.

So what’s bringing up the caboose of the radical games from the 8-bit era? What just couldn’t pop the bubble and make its way into the top three to receive such a dubious awesome award? Why it’s Bubble Bobble!

Runner-up: Bubble Bobble

You boot up Bubble Bobble, select 2P mode (is there any other way to play?) and then subject yourself to some difficult, old-school, tortuously hard gameplay. Now, given some of the videos and whatnot that I’ve seen related to Bubble Bobble, it seems that it was my youth and lack of practice that caused me to be so bad at the game, it being yet another NES game that I never actually completed, but I still stand by the fact that the epic journey of Bub and Bob (they had names?) was and still is quite challenging.

I have so many memories of plowing through the levels of Bubble Bobble with my brothers, encasing monsters in bubbly prisons and transmuting them from their monstery essence to delicious treats for us to eat. The wikipedia article lists all sorts of complex bubble jumps and other moves that, as far as I knew, none of the three of us ever mastered or even cared about. That never mattered though, the fact of the matter was that Bubble Bobble was fun and we totally loved to play it, die, and start over. If there were ever a game that needed a DS or XBL update, this would undoubtedly be in the top ten list.

Check out this Video Game Vault feature on Bubble Bobble:

So with that, I officially close out the 8-bit era, but feel free to throw out any suggestions that you think deserve to make this list. If I’ve played it and have something to say about it, I’ll either laud the game as genius as I have for this past four or I’ll let you know why you’re wrong.