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5 /5

The first in the hugely successful puzzle series from Taito, Puzzle Bobble is a game for 1 or 2 players in which the aim is to clear each play area of the colored bubbles that litter it. This is achieved by firing bubbles up the screen - with the angle of trajectory dictated by the player - at the clusters of static colored bubbles that litter each play area. The aim is to forms chains of like-colored bubbles, thus making them disappear. At regular intervals, the bubbles will drop one row down the screen, making life more difficult for the players. The game is over when the bubbles reach the very bottom of the play area.

In the 1-player game there are thirty rounds to complete, whereas in the 2-player Vs. mode, the winner is the player who clears their play area first. The addictive yet straightforward game-play mechanic ensured that the "Puzzle Bobble" games would be the most successful of their genre since Russian programmer, Alexey Pajitnov's legendary "Tetris" was unleashed upon the gaming world in the late 1980s.

This is the Neo Geo version of the game released 6 months after the Taito B System original. It is almost identical aside from being in stereo and having some different sound effects and translated text.