Review by: Toni Schwartz

In college I spent many hours of free time in the student union arcade. One game in particular that I played often was Bust-a-Move. This game was so deceptively cute with its pudgy little dinosaur mascots Bub and Bob. But underneath its pastel exterior and catchy music is a challenging puzzle game that requires fast reflexes, quick thinking, and careful aim. I’ve had many a facepalm moment when say, a bubble landed in the wrong place because I didn’t aim properly. Still, it was loads of fun and a great time waster.

Playing Space Bust-a-Move almost makes me feel nostalgic for my college days. Although the game has an outer space theme, the basic gameplay is the same as old school 90s Bust-a-Move. For the uninitiated, Bust-a-Move (called Puzzle Bobble in Japan) is a “match 3” puzzle game. You control a cannon which sits at the bottom of the screen. Above are clusters of colored bubbles, which slowly migrate towards the bottom. To clear the screen you have to fire bubbles with your cannon at similarly colored ones. At times you get specialty bubbles, like one that wipes out all bubbles of a certain color, or a fire bubble that fries a tiny cluster of bubbles.

Like the first Bust-a-Move game that appeared on the DS, you can aim and fire using the stylus and touch screen. However, I found that this method was slow and a little clumsy, which is definitely not what you’d want to occur in this game. Aiming with the good old D pad and firing with the A button is more accurate, not to mention that these controls allow you to swivel your cannon faster. Alternatively, if you happen to have the paddle controller that came with Arkanoid DS, you can use that as well.

One feature in Space Bust-a-Move that doesn’t appear in its predecessor is the cosmo bubble, which randomly appears throughout the stages. The trick is to free the bubble without accidentally destroying it. There’s no penalty for not collecting these cosmo bubbles, but perhaps is just a little addition for some of the more OCD among us.

There are many modes of play. Multiplayer includes being able to play with others through the Wi-Fi connection, or via DS download play. For single player, you have the following selections available: Story is the single player campaign in which you play through eight worlds, with three stages and a boss battle each, and within each stage are five levels. If you do the math, that adds up to a whole lot of bubble bursting goodness. I’m particularly fond of the boss battles because they take the usual get-rid-of-bubbles format a step further. The battles use both screens, and the boss hovers on the top screen. For example, one type of boss carries a box of bubbles, and you have to somehow get one of your own inside the box. Another was a crab boss with bubbles for arms, which you have to destroy.

Versus mode pits you against various characters in the game. Every group of bubbles you clear is an attack towards your opponent. Endless mode is just that – a never-ending array of bubbles descending down the screen. In Challenge mode, you have to accumulate as many points as possible in a given amount of time (e.g. five minutes). Finally, there’s Extra mode, which is my favorite out of the alternative types of gameplay. Extra offers three types of games, which you unlock with points you earn during any of the modes in Single player. In Pressure mode, you have to clear a stage with just one bubble; in Factory mode, you have to clear a stage with a limited amount of bubbles; and Puzzle mode is your classic Bust-a-Move game.

Space Bust-a-Move doesn’t significantly improve upon its classic arcade predecessor, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It offers the same intense, fast-paced gameplay that we all know and love from Bust-a-Move, except that it’s in an outer space setting. At the same time, the many available alternative modes are a welcomed addition to the Story mode, for those who want a bit of a change of pace. Thumbs up.