Puzzle Bobble Pocket

Puzzle Bobble Pocket (パズルボブル ポケット), is the 2004 PSP Japanese release based on Taito’s 1986 tile-matching arcade puzzle video game Bubble Bobble. Bust-A-Move is the title used for the game series in North America.

Gameplay follows the standard formula: the player controls a catapult at the bottom of the play field that shoots bubbles of random colors. When three or more bubbles of the same color touch, they are removed from the field. After a while, the existing bubbles are pushed down into the play field by a descending ceiling or by more bubbles being added from the top. The game is lost when the bubbles reach the bottom. Special bubbles include explosive ones that destroy bubbles they touch, bowling balls that knock off all bubbles in their path, star bubbles that remove all bubbles of the same color as the bubble they are touched by, and rainbow bubbles that change color into the color of a bubble group that gets popped adjacent to them.

There are four modes to choose from: Single, Endless, VS and Survival. Single is the classic single-player puzzle game, featuring 500 levels. The goal in each is to clear the pre-set pattern of bubbles. Endless is the unwinnable variant in which more bubbles are always pushed in from the top, played for high score. VS is the competitive variant played against a number of CPU opponents, where popping more than the required three bubbles sends them over to the opponent’s field. Survival is a variant of the VS game: after winning a round, the own play field is not reset.