Bust-A-Move Pocket
Score: 60% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: SNK Playmore Developer: SNK Neogeo Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Puzzle/ Arcade
Graphics & Sound: Well, the back of the game’s box says, ‘Colorful bubbles make the screen look like a jewelry box!’ While this quote is good for a few laughs, it’s not very close to the truth. On the contrary, Bust-A-Move Pocket is quite possibly the worst-looking NGPC game out there. Of course, graphics don’t make a puzzle game -- and after all, the Bust-A-Move series has never been very graphic-intensive to begin with. It’s all basically a bunch of different-colored bubbles, case closed. Even so, you’ll most likely be saying ‘Man, this game looks like utter crap’ as you play for an hour straight. =) Fortunately, the addictive Bust-A-Move tunes are still here, receiving a thumbs up in the music department. The sound effects, however, are disappointing. Sure, it’s just a puzzle game... but I was just really hoping that the cute little digitized ‘YE-PAH!’ sounds were gonna be left in! Oh well.
Gameplay: If you’ve ever played Bust-A-Move before, you know that this game’s incredibly easy to learn. Basically, just match three or more bubbles of the same color, and they pop. Clear all of the bubbles to advance to the next level. Wham, you’ve got it. With such a simple concept, there couldn’t possibly be a lot of things wrong with this game, right? Nah. For some reason, this game just doesn’t feel right at all. The controls are a bit sluggish, the bubbles move WAY too slow compared to the arcade versions, and the overall fun factor really suffers as a result. There aren’t very many puzzles to choose from in Puzzle mode, and the Vs. CPU mode gets boring after a few plays. Survivor mode is pretty fun, but unless you’re an amazing BAM player, you’ll become frustrated after playing for just a few minutes. In my opinion, Link Play is what saves this game from being a complete tosser.
Difficulty: The computer opponents in this game can get MEAN, my friends. Sometimes even to the point where it’s almost impossible to win a round and you become so annoyed that you eventually swear that you’ll never play the game again (or, at least for a day or two). Also, if you’re playing this game in a room with dim lights, chances are you’ll have a tough time discerning the colors of some of the bubbles -- and that’s a really bad thing, especially when you think you’ve finally beaten the highest level after shooting off that final orange bubble, only to find it’s actually a red bubble upon closer inspection. Ugh.
Game Mechanics: Like I said before, the controls are crap compared to the arcade incarnations, and the speed is all wrong. Instead of the fun-filled, fast action feeling you get in the arcade, Bust-A-Move Pocket offers a slow and disappointing, yet ultimately still fun and challenging, rendition of a timeless puzzle classic. Buy it if you’re simply obsessed with the series and/or looking for another good NGPC puzzle game other than Puyo Pop.
-Ben Monkey, GameVortex Communications AKA Ben Lewis
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