Bubble Bobble was a bit of an oddball game. Not because of the barely comprehensible storyline, but because of the way it screwed with you.
The sequel, I should have guessed, likes to screw with you just as much… perhaps more. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
It stars the two dinosaurs from Bubble Bobble, now restored to their little boy forms. They have to make use of their magical rainbows to kill enemies and work their way to the top of a series of islands. Then you go on to the next one.
But the game, it screws with you!
See, kill enemies, work your way to the top of the stage, kill the boss, go on to the next stage. Pretty straightforward, right? Now you might notice that occasionally a jewel will appear, one for each color of the rainbow. Collect them all and get a bonus. Now, if you collect them all in the color order of the rainbow (Roy G. Biv) then you get a super bonus, get to bypass the boss of the level, and get a super gem. You have to get all the super gems to complete the game properly. But they appear randomly, right? No, no they don’t!
Jerks!
See, you need to carve up the screen into seven vertical slices. When you kill an enemy it flies through the air and the seventh of the screen that it lands in will determine the color of gem that will appear. You need to skillfully kill the enemies and collect the gems and then work your way to the door at the top of the stage to access the secret stages and to see the ending properly. Where does the game tell you this? Nowhere! At least nowhere that I was able to divine.
Man, this game screws with you big time!
I’m jealous…