Makes Bubble Bobble Look Like A Bounce In The Park
I was trying to work out what makes Bubble Stomp work so well, and it finally occurred to me when I compared it to Bubble Bobble. Bub and Bob in Bubble Bobble are bubble machines. They can produce countless bubbles, and they can use them to bounce to any corner of the screen. As long as you’re prepared, no enemy can touch you.
Bubble Stomp is the opposite end of the spectrum. The axolotl main character in Bubble Stomp is awful at producing bubbles. She can only produce one at a time, and even that one will soon disappear. Heaven forbid if she ever steps on one of them. There’s a short amount of time before the bubble sinks and deflates, and the axolotl refuses to produce another bubble while she’s standing on one. It’s not a great weapon, either: it’s hard to find anything that doesn’t pop your bubble.
Fighting For Survival With Barely Any Tools
You might wonder why any of this is a good thing. Surely, if your character is pathetic and the bubbles are semi-useless, then it’s a recipe for dejection. But Bubble Stomp gives you an imperfect tool and some cunning levels, then asks you to solve them. You’re on the back foot, and the levels twist from ‘simple platformer’ to ‘puzzle-platformer’. How is this bubble going to get me to the end?
Bubble Stomp swings from frustrating to devious like a pendulum. Sometimes, I would hate it. When you burp up a bubble, it’s always the same regulation distance from your axolotl. But some levels don’t give you enough room. You’re tippy-tapping the d-pad, trying to get a pixel or two’s room so that you can place a bubble next to some spikes but NOT get it popped. It’s a dance that feels finicky and doesn’t have a place in a platformer.
Building A Platformer From The Bottom Up
The axolotl also has a single, actually useful power, and that’s a bottom-bounce. You can tap B mid-jump to hurtle downwards, arse first. It breaks blocks and, more importantly, it can be used in combination with your bubble to create an uber-leap. If you bottom-bounce onto your bubble, you will go absolutely flying, and that’s absolutely essential for covering some of the higher and longer distances in the game.
But it’s the reason why my hair is in clumps. Often, a jump will need you to place a high bubble AND bottom-bounce on said bubble. But there’s such a small window of success. Bottom-bounce early, and you will tumble to your death. Mis-time your leap, and you are standing on the bubble rather than slamming your buttcheeks onto it, and that can mean death too, since the axolotl can’t produce another bubble from this position. The margins are too small.
But I can’t complain about budget platformers being too easy and still turn my nose up at Bubble Stomp. Because at the other end of the pendulum-swing is a demanding and well-designed platformer. There’s so much that I find incredibly clever. Bubbles are fragile, but they’re invulnerable as they’re being fired. This allows you to blow bubbles through spinning blades, creating a platform on the other side.
Bouncing From Like To Dislike
The bottom-bounce has a neat risk-reward attached. If you bottom-bounce, you’re chaotic and uncontrollable, liable to slam into some spikes. But bottom-bouncing gives you some perks. If you bottom-bounce into a cannon, you get super-powered blasts that can destroy blocks. Different crab enemies look cruelly similar, but they are either bottom-friendly or not. So, you’re switching mode constantly, moving from a delicate bubble-jumper to a bum-first berserker.
You can also pick your level of challenge. Each level contains four blue crystals, and they are all, without exception, placed in the more unforgiving parts of the level. If you want to enjoy Bubble Stomp to the fullest, we’d recommend going after them, but they come with a caveat. If you die before a checkpoint, then all of the crystals that you have accumulated will be lost. I’d often wuss out and ignore a crystal, simply because I’d lose too much if I failed.
As a precision platformer, I don’t think Bubble Stomp is close to the top drawer. Too much of its challenge comes from a space of frustration and cramped level design, rather than improbable feats. But I think it nestles comfortably in the middle drawers, delivering an experience that feels like beating a boss bare-handed. You haven’t been given the best tools you need to win, but you’re going to win anyway.
With a difficulty level that is entirely up to the player, thanks to optional collectibles that hover out of reach, Bubble Stomp might even get a few dormant Bubble Bobble fans to give it a go.
Important Links
Bubble Stomp – Bubbles, Cannons And Creative Platforming! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/bubble-stomp-bubbles-cannons-and-creative-platforming/
Buy from the Xbox Store, optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/bubble-stomp-xbox-series/9pfjhbbdlqvz
Buy for Xbox One – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/bubble-stomp-xbox-one/9n2xfl3b1h2d
Buy for Windows PC – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/bubble-stomp-windows/9nf5v7z2mkjg
