This week the Australian Virtual Console store saw two releases: The King of Fighters ‘94 from NeoGeo and the NES version of Bubble Bobble.

Bubble Bobble (NES) -

I bought this one immediately, since I’m a big Bubble Bobble fan. It’s a great ‘pick-up-and-play’ type game which I can spend 10 mins on, have some fun, then put down and get back to real work. I played the Gameboy version extensively in my youth, and it seems there are a few differences in playability and game logic to the NES version. In the NES version on Virtual Console, the Bubble Dragons fall, walk and jump more slowly. Initially it felt like I was playing in slow motion compared with the Gameboy verision I’m used to, except that the monsters still move at full speed.

Also, it seems to take a long time (maybe forever) for the monsters to become angry and bust out of their bubbles. I’ve always finished the level before I’ve seen them escape, so maybe they don’t do it at all in the NES version. Despite these differences, it’s still good fun, and makes a great two player simulatenous game too.

The King of Fighters ‘94 (NeoGeo) - hope y’all like fight games ….