POSTED 17/5/11


PUZZLE BOBBLE UNIVERSE

Square Enix
3DS

Damn, this game’s positively prehistoric. Well, it is – after all, the stars are two dinosaurs...

Yes, Taito’s dinonamic duo from the plattygasmic Bubble Bobble – Bub and Bob - do the spinoff caper, essentially smushing their original outing into bubble-popping explosioganza Pang - and losing most of that original outing in the process. If you’re not familiar, umm, think Snood (as seen on The Sopranos, so it has connections) except the originator, not the imitator (can that get us whacked?)

Rather than perambulating freestyle like Pang, you’re tethered to a rotatable arrow at screen bottom – kind of like Peggle inverted. You swivel that just so then fire at, and subsequently pop, bubbles - if there’re three or more similarly coloured. You can go direct, or get snookertastic and shoot shots off the side walls – which you’ll need to master in order to really whomp this sucker.

Superficially, Puzzle Bobble Universe – or Bust-a-Move Universe to those Young MC-worshipping Yanks - makes pie look alarmingly complex in comparison. As such some may baulk at springing primo bucks for this 3D incarnation where the actual dimensionally tripled effect is nought but a shallow gimmick (so all of you with 3D teevs exclusively watch 3D movies, yeah?). But, as fans of the game will attest (or else our argument’s completely fucked), there’s depth in working out the various puzzles so as to zap them quickly enough to amass mega-scores. First you amass the mega-score, then you get the keys, then you get the bonuses...

Yeah, it’s just Puzzle Bobble on another format, and the lack of any form of multiplayer is impossible to defend. Regardless, fans of Bub and Bob’s sphere-blopping escapades will be sold. If you expect every 3DS game to have mind-incapacitatingly wowee visual shit going on though, you’ll likely vote “ugh!”

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