Move over Back 4 Blood, here comes Bubble Bobble 4 Friends
Arcade revival headed to PC with a new level editor
Does Back 4 Blood let you blow a giant bubble around a zombie and then pop it to defeat it? I doubt it. Bubble Bobble 4 Friends would seem, therefore, to be the superior game.
Taito's 2019 revival of the classic arcade series is now making the leap to PC. It's been retitled Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron's Workshop and includes a level editor, and it'll launch on Steam sometime this summer.
Be warned: the Bubble Bobble theme music is a curse worse than any swarm of bile-spewing undead:
If you're not familiar, Bubble Bobble is a series of 2D single screen platformers in which dragons Bub and Bob hop about, blowing bubbles around bullies, and popping them. You also need to collect fruit, why not, and race to beat a timer. I played the original on the Commodore 64 approximately 48 millions years ago and have been humming the theme tune ever since.
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends doesn't change much about the central formula, bar making it 3D and supporting up four players. (Players 3 and 4 are called Peb and Pab, if you were wondering as I was.) It launched originally on Switch and PS4, and the PC version includes post-release updates meaning there are 200 stages to play, and potential for many more with the new level editor.
The game will launch this summer via Steam and costs £31/$40/€40. Now, Taito, how about a new Rainbow Islands sequel, eh?