Puzzle Bobble 2X (Ver 2.2J 1995/11/11) - MAME machine

Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Puzzle Bobble 2 © 1995 Taito.

Puzzle Bobble 2 is an arcade puzzle game offering one or two-player competitive play and is the first sequel to the hugely successful original.

As with the first game, the aim is to clear each play area of the coloured bubbles clustered in the upper half of the screen. This is achieved by firing bubbles up the screen - with the angle of trajectory dictated by the player - at the clusters of bubbles. The aim is to forms chains of three or more like-coloured bubbles, making them disappear.

At regular intervals the 'ceiling' of the play area - together with any bubbles stuck to it - will drop one row down the screen, decreasing the size of the play area making life more difficult for players. The game is over when the bubbles reach the very bottom of the play area.

TECHNICAL
Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers: E10

Players: 4
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4

TRIVIA
Puzzle Bobble 2 was released in July 1995.

This game is known in United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil as "Bust-A-Move Again".

This game runs on the Taito F3 System hardware but it was re-released (licensed to SNK) on the SNK Neo-geo MVS hardware in 1999 as "Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS]".

If you look closely at the bubbles, you'll notice that the enemies from "Bubble Bobble" are trapped inside; a different enemy for each different colored bubble. The following chart shows which enemies are trapped in which color bubble:
Legend: Color of Bubble → "Bubble Bobble" Enemy Inside
Blue → Zen-Chan
Yellow → Pulpul
Red → Invader
Green → Drunk
Purple → Monsta
Orange → Banebou
Black → Hidegonsu
White → Mighta

On the last level, you will see characters from "Bubble Bobble" & "Rainbow Islands".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

Stepehn Krogman holds the official records for this game with 75275450 points (factory setting).

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Puzzle Bobble Variety - ZTTL-0009) on March 28, 1997.

SCORING
Pop a bubble: 10 points.

Drop bubbles: the first bubble is 20, and each additional bubble scores double.
Thus: bubbles dropped score
1 20
2 40
3 80
4 160
5 320
6 640
7 1280
8 2560
9 5120
10 10240
11 20480
12 40960
13 81920
14 163840
15 327680
16 655360
17 or more 1310720

Unlike Puzzle Bobble, there is a way to get more than 1.31 million points. It's possible to get 2621440, 5242880, or even 10485760 points! To do this:

• You need 17 or more bubbles.
• One of these bubbles must touch exactly one bubble of a group of

similarly colored bubbles.

• The bubble that pops the similarly colored group of bubbles must

not touch the group of 17 or more bubbles.

Bonus points: are awarded based on how fast you completed the stage.

Time you completed points awarded
1-5 sec. 500,000
6 sec. 494,600
7 sec. 481,700
8 sec. 469,400
9 sec. 458,400
. .
. .
46 sec. 14,100
47 sec. as low as 300 or NO BONUS
48+ seconds or greater NO BONUS

SERIES

• Puzzle Bobble (1994)
• Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
• Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
• Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
• Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
• Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
• Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
• Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
• Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
• Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
• Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
• Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
• Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
• Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
• Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
• Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
• Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

STAFF
Game designer: Seiichi Nakakuki
Character designers: Kazuhiro Kinoshita, Baw Baw (Bawbaw), Ko-Ji Terada, Kat, T. Akitsu-Osaru-, Rie Amino, Uoosy Maler, Yuko Kajihara, Ryota Sasaki, Yasunobu Kousokabe, Miwa Kamiya, Rieko Kobayashi, Miyabi Tashiro, Masami Kikuchi, Anpanmanda, Saori Hiratsuka, Vap Corp.
Programmers: Hiroshi Maruyama, Junichiro Noguchi
Sound (Zuntata): Nakayama Joutohei, Kazuko Umino, Yasuko Yamada, Syu
Designers: Kumi Mizobe, T. Yoshiba, M. Osaka, Y. Mori

PORTS
NOTE: These are only ports released outside North America. For North American ports, see "Bust-A-Move Again".

• CONSOLES:

[EU] Sony PlayStation (1996) "Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition [Model SLES-00278]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.29, 1996) "Puzzle Bobble 2 [Model SLPS-00284]"
Nintendo 64 [EU] (1998) "Bust-A-Move 2 - Arcade Edition [Model NUS-NBUP-EUR]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends"
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]"
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]"

• HANDHELDS:

[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1998) "Bust-A-Move 2 - Arcade Edition [Model DMG-ABUP-EUR]"
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (apr.10, 1998) "Puzzle Bobble GB [Model DMG-AGPJ-JPN]"

• COMPUTERS:

PC [MS Windows 95/MS-DOS, CD-ROM] [EU] (1997) "Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition"
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends"

• OTHERS:

SNK Neo-Geo MVS [JP] (1999) "Puzzle Bobble 2 [Model NGM-0248]"

CONTRIBUTE
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