Super Bust-a-Move
Score: 70% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Taito Media: Cart/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: Some games simply refuse to die. No matter how many systems they span, a handful of franchises will never go away. Dragon's Lair is among them. MegaMan is among them. And now, after more than 25 releases over the past seven years, Taito's Bust-a-Move series moves to the Game Boy Advance with improvements over even the recent PlayStation 2 incarnation! As the newest handheld version available, Super Bust-a-Move clearly towers over its predecessors with crisp pastels and fluid animations. Detailed backgrounds are always a plus, and although it's tough to make giant leaps in displaying tiny multicolored bubbles on a screen, the GBA handles things far better than before. Of course, just as with the ill-fated Neo Geo Pocket adaptation, it is occasionally difficult to tell similar colors apart from one another. Such is the plight of the miniature screen. Music and sound effects aren't very impressive here, however. Nearly anyone who played the classic arcade/Super Nintendo/Saturn (etc.) versions can hum the stage tunes with a little encouragement; in Super Bust-a-Move, nary a ditty comes off as memorable in the least. The effects are average -- wheels squeak as they turn and bubbles burst with cute, familiar flair -- yet devoted players will yearn for those delightful digitized voices that brought the series much of its charm, sadly missing in this edition.
Gameplay: It's amazing to think how so many sequels have spawned from such a simple premise, but it seems to work every time. Based on the decidedly weak PS2 release, Super Bust-a-Move shines on the GBA through improved playability and absolute accessibility. New bubble and ceiling types have been added, eight characters are available (each with their own custom attack patterns), and players even have the choice of Classic mode for a trip down memory lane. Puzzle Mode provides the real bulk of the game, with over 250 levels to conquer again and again. Then there's the standard CPU Battle where players face off against a slightly unbalanced computer opponent, and the best part of all, the beloved two-player Battle. To this day, multiplayer Bust-a-Move remains one of the most exciting puzzle game experiences you can share with a friend, even if the basics have barely changed over the years.
Difficulty: The series has always been easy to pick up, but not so simple to master. Matching up pretty colors by threes can become hair-pullingly difficult when shots aren't banked just right. Entire rounds can be ruined when one color is mistaken for another. Plenty of things can and will go wrong when trying to set up the perfect chain, but hey, aren't all puzzle games more fun when the pressure's on? Many players inadvertently make the game harder on themselves by shooting impatiently, but the computer AI doesn't make things any easier, either. In the CPU Battle matches, opponents can become unusually aggressive (sometimes ridiculously so on Expert level) and win in a matter of seconds by forcing the player to screw up. Retribution attacks seem to have become more severe in this chapter of the series, leading to some unfair setups and absurdly quick rounds -- that is, the amount of 'junk blocks' sent to the opposition after clearing a decent combo has gotten crazier since previous versions. This can be annoying in battles, and unfortunately cannot be altered in the Options menu.
Game Mechanics: Hands down, the controls are flawless in Super Bust-a-Move. Miles ahead of the GBC and Neo Geo Pocket, this edition makes full use of the GBA's shoulder buttons to allow players slower, more precise wheel movements, as well as quicker turns with the directional pad. At last, there's no need to twitch the pad back and forth just to hit that exact position, in effect saving time and promoting fewer careless mistakes. At least one cosmetic change has apparently taken precedence over efficiency, though. Now the bubbles, when connected and popped, hang in the air for about a second before fading from the screen, slowing the action in the process. No more frantic rapid firing, just 'shoot, wait/shoot, wait' gameplay. It looks cooler, but when you're in a hurry to zip out a string of bubbles before the ceiling comes crashing down, you'll want the speed of the classics back for good. Nevertheless, Super Bust-a-Move holds its own as a solid GBA title for on-the-road puzzle gaming goodness. With such an incredibly long line of prequels and similar releases, it looks like Taito's in it for the long haul with this one, so pick it up today or try your best to avoid it forever. (Good luck with the latter!)
-Ben Monkey, GameVortex Communications AKA Ben Lewis
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