When I was a kid, one of my favorite stores to go into in the mall was Babbages.  I don’t think they’re around anymore, but they were kind of like a precursor to GameStop.  They sold video games but mostly computer software and stuff.  I didn’t really buy too many computer games then, but I still liked to look at the boxes because that’s how we found out about games before the Internet a lot of times.  One of the game boxes that caught my eye was Bubble Ghost.  It had two things I liked in games: bubbles (like in Bubble Bobble) and ghosts (like in Pac-Man).  But I never got around to buying that game.  Not sure why.  Maybe it was too expensive and I didn’t think it was worth the money.  A few years later they made a version of it on the Game Boy, but I never got around to buying it either.  There were a few years as a kid that I didn’t buy a whole lot of Game Boy stuff, and I don’t really remember seeing it in a store anyway.  So I never got to try Bubble Ghost.  So that’s why I’m glad that I got to review this remake.  It adds fancy hand drawn graphics and new levels and gameplay ideas.  Basic gist is that you are a ghost and try to blow a bubble around obstacles and keep it from popping.  Bubble Ghost Remake is available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

The story here is that you are professor Heinrich and fall in love with a musician named Sofia.  But you have to go off to fight in a war and when you return, you are a ghost (so I’m guessing he died in the war?).  Upon returning, you hear familiar music encased in a bubble, and you decide to keep it from popping by blowing it all around the house because…well, I don’t know.  This is one of those games that doesn’t really need a story.  You’re just a ghost and blow around a bubble to keep it from popping.  That’s all you really need to know.

Gameplay is pretty simple.  Your ghost can move around and go through walls, as ghosts do.  When you press the A button, you’ll blow out air.  Tap it a little bit and it’ll be a small puff, but hold it down and it’ll be a long and more powerful exhale.  Do this to blow the bubble around the screen to the exit.  If the bubble hits something, it’ll pop and you must start the level over again.  Sometimes you must blow other things in the levels to bypass obstacles and solve puzzles, like blowing out candles or getting spiderwebs out of the way.  To blow the bubble around at different angles, there are two control options.  You can rotate your ghost in eight directions with the L and R buttons, or you can press the X button so that the ghost always faces the bubble no matter what angle.  There are times that either control scheme is useful, so it’s good you can switch on the fly.  Also, pressing the Y button will make you flip around, too.  You really feel like you have very good control over the bubble, but every so often it would get annoying when it would barely nick a corner and pop!

There are two main modes of play. Story Mode has all new levels that you can select from, secret paths, autoscrolling stages, and even bosses.  There are also three different difficulty levels, but even Easy can be pretty tough sometimes.  There are lots of hidden items and secrets to discover, too.  There is also a mode where you can play the classic game layout with five lives, but it still uses the fancy new graphics from the remake.  It’s too bad they couldn’t let you play the PC and Game Boy versions as well, but I guess I may be getting a bit too nitpicky.  You can also play this mode in a speedrun as well as compare your best times on a leaderboard.  Aside from some backgrounds being hard to tell what can and can’t pop your bubble, this is a pretty good remake.  Glad I got to review it!

Kid Factor:

Bubble Ghost Remake is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  Some of the violence is just implied, like the ghost dying after going off to war.  Otherwise you’re just indirectly causing cartoon animals to crash into things and get dizzy in the boss stages.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, but not necessary just to play.  Younger gamers may need help with the tougher challenges, though.

Tags: Game Reviews