Bubble Bobble Plus! and Bubble Bobble Neo! (バブルボブル Neo!, Baburu Boburu Neo!) are remakes of the 1986 arcade game Bubble Bobble. The games were developed and published by Taito. Bubble Bobble Plus! was released for WiiWare in Japan (as Bubble Bobble Wii (バブルボブル Wii, Baburu Boburu Wii)) on February 10, 2009,[3] in the PAL regions on April 10, and in North America on May 25,[4] while Bubble Bobble Neo! was released on the Xbox Live Arcade download service for the Xbox 360 in Japan on August 5, 2009 and in North America on September 16 of the same year.
| Bubble Bobble Plus! | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Taito Dreams Inc. |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Platform(s) | WiiWare |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Bubble Bobble Neo! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Taito Dreams Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Taito |
| Designer(s) | Fukio Mitsuji |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360 |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Up to 4 players simultaneously |
Gameplay
As with previous games, the player will have to defeat all enemies across a number of screens by trapping them in bubbles and popping them. The normal mode features the original two playable characters, Bub and Bob, while the Arrange Mode adds support for up to 4 players, joined with female characters Peb and Pab,[5] as yellow and pink bubble dragons respectively.
The game contains several playing modes - a remake containing 100 classic stages and a new story mode with 100 new stages, as well as more difficult "Super" versions of those stages.
In addition, for Bubble Bobble Plus!, two downloadable content packs (Extra 1 and Extra 2) were released consisting of 50 "very hard" stages each, as well as new boss characters.[6] These Extra modes also include four player support.
Reception
| Aggregator | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Wii | Xbox 360 | |
| Metacritic | 76/100[7] | 70/100[8] |
| Publication | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Wii | Xbox 360 | |
| GamePro |   [7] | N/A |
| GameSpot | N/A | 7/10[9] |
| Hardcore Gamer | 3.5/5[7] | N/A |
| IGN | 8/10[10] | 7.9/10[11] |
| Jeuxvideo.com | 13/20[12] | N/A |
| Nintendo Life | 8/10[13] | N/A |
| Nintendo World Report | 6/10[14] | N/A |
| Official Nintendo Magazine | 74%[15] | N/A |
| Official Xbox Magazine (UK) | N/A | 6/10[16] |
| Official Xbox Magazine (US) | N/A | 6/10[17] |
| Teletext GameCentral | 8/10[18] | N/A |
Bubble Bobble Plus! received "generally favorable reviews", while Bubble Bobble Neo! received above-average reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[7][8] N-Europe praised the Wii version, saying it had a wealth of content to enjoy, while the downloadable packs were fairly reasonably priced and offered a significantly ramped up challenge from the standard levels.[19]