What do you call the genre defined by Bubble Bobble? What are your favorite examples?

[roots.genoa]

A French YouTuber calls them "cute games", which may sound vague of course (a lot of other games are cute, including cute 'em ups), but you can't deny all the games in that genre are cute (even Nightmare in the Dark). It's actually intriguing nobody tried to make a "mature"-looking one, but after all they were all made in Japan.

[r_chase]

25 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

A French YouTuber calls them "cute games", which may sound vague of course (a lot of other games are cute, including cute 'em ups), but you can't deny all the games in that genre are cute (even Nightmare in the Dark). It's actually intriguing nobody tried to make a "mature"-looking one, but after all they were all made in Japan.

Great, now I have an idea for single-screen platformer; I'll put it in a notebook somewhere later since I already have a project at the moment, but what if Postal 1 + Mario Bros./Bubble Bobble? We could use a single-screen run n gun that's nice and gritty. lmao

[roots.genoa]

10 hours ago, r_chase said:

Great, now I have an idea for single-screen platformer; I'll put it in a notebook somewhere later since I already have a project at the moment, but what if Postal 1 + Mario Bros./Bubble Bobble? We could use a single-screen run n gun that's nice and gritty. lmao

And actually you could still pay homage to Bubble Bobble (and Dig Dug) by giving the players a weapon that inflate the enemies to turn them into giant bubbles that eventually burst. And you would hear them scream and beg you to pop their bubble to shorten their suffering. 🙂

[Video]

I'd say single screen platformer. I like the mechanics, walk, jump, cough bubbles onto and trapping enemies, which you now have to run down, head butt, or stomp to burst then chase down whatever goodies pop out.

 

I won't swear how many levels there are, but in the nineties, a friend and I beat the arcade machine a local store had, and I'm pretty sure it was right around 100 levels.

[Reaperman]

On 4/12/2024 at 9:42 AM, GoldLeader said:

Bobbler!  Haaa,   I like that!

 

Does Bomb Jack fit in?  If so, maybe we call them 'Jackers.'

That'll really confuse the zoomers. 

 

Gamers have named/renamed a number of genres after the fact.

Shmup, replaced plain old shooters. About the time 'shooter' came to commonly mean FPS (a trend that's mostly ended now).

and I seem to recall platformers were run-and-jump (or jump-and-run) games BITD

 

Two I named after the fact (names which refuse to catch on 😁) are sub-genres of racing/driving:

• Spoiler

  • 'Here comes the curve' racers are mostly rally-themed (sometimes F1) overhead games with a short forward view. They flash an image of an upcoming corner on screen, and a second later you execute it. It's a dead sub-genre of arcade racing, that really plays like speed-reading mixed with simon. Kind of replacing a co-driver, which is why rally theme is common. Mille Miglia and World rally are two. 
  • 'dodge racers' are the racing games where you're concerned with getting 'around' cars rather than coming in first place. Hyperchase and Enduro come to mind.  Some endless runners actually scratch this itch in modern times. 

   

Edited April 14 by Reaperman

[roots.genoa]

What bothers me with "single screen platformer" is that while they all are technically platformers, the platforming aspect is clearly not as important as in games like Donkey Kong. These games are usually more about eliminating all enemies with a funny weapon.

 

Edit: btw, I recently beat Saboten Bombers in that genre. It's nice but a bit broken, especially boss fights. Developers even realized it because if you lose a credit against them, the next time they can be killed in one hit.

Edited April 14 by roots.genoa

[+GoldLeader]

6 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Does Bomb Jack fit in?  If so, maybe we call them 'Jackers.'

That'll really confuse the zoomers. 

 

Gamers have named/renamed a number of genres after the fact.

Shmup, replaced plain old shooters. About the time 'shooter' came to commonly mean FPS (a trend that's mostly ended now).

and I seem to recall platformers were run-and-jump (or jump-and-run) games BITD

 

 

Maybe we should just call them zoomers!  Haaaa!  (I know ...This joke makes no sense whatsoever,  but I'm tired...a bit medicated)...

 

 

I remember when "Shmup" became a thing...An R-Type game up to  a "Bullet Hell" shoot-em-Up...And damn if I didn't try to ignore that word like I did "podcast"...Like "Hair Band"...I tried ...thought if I ignored it hard enough it might go away,  But eventually the word caught on and people,  even seemingly smart, everyday people (Who in all other aspects of their life were kind of normal (like me,  Haaa)) began to use it as if it made sense ...Well,  What are ya gonna do?  Sometimes in life you make funny noises with your mouth,  put'em together with syllables and accents, intonations and whatnot ...before you know it,  You're using the word simply because at least out of all the nonsense you generally spout,  at least in that,  they will know what you mean... 

[roots.genoa]

Regarding names of genres, I spend most of my time - I did again yesterday! - correcting French gamers that call beat 'em ups "beat them all", which doesn't make a lot of sense imho (that's the goal of many games, from Space Invaders to Deathmatch FPS). A stupid French journalist that doesn't understand the point of postpositions coined that term in the late 80s (I guess) and for some reason it caught on very well. So much so that the French Wikipedia page for the genre is "beat them all" as if it was a French word: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_them_all

The page even specifies it's mostly a French translation of the English "Beat Them Up" English page, which is ironic. 🤦‍♂️ Fortunately it starts by saying it's a "fake anglicism" but old gamers are so used to it a lot of them still say it (which annoys me all the time). 😔

[+GoldLeader]

"The "Grab something and Throw it at something else" single screen, but multi-level platformer."   It rolls off the tongue!

[+GoldLeader]

2 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Regarding names of genres, I spend most of my time - I did again yesterday! - correcting French gamers that call beat 'em ups "beat them all", which doesn't make a lot of sense imho (that's the goal of many games, from Space Invaders to Deathmatch FPS). A stupid French journalist that doesn't understand the point of postpositions coined that term in the late 80s (I guess) and for some reason it caught on very well. So much so that the French Wikipedia page for the genre is "beat them all" as if it was a French word: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_them_all

The page even specifies it's mostly a French translation of the English "Beat Them Up" English page, which is ironic. 🤦‍♂️ Fortunately it starts by saying it's a "fake anglicism" but old gamers are so used to it a lot of them still say it (which annoys me all the time). 😔

 

I'd say not to worry.  Really,  things don't have to make sense.  ("Beat them all" works fine IMO).  It's probably more important that people know what you mean,  Hence I don't say "hard rock bands from the 80's that were starting to turn metal",  I choke on my pride a little bit and say "hair bands"...Uccccck!

 

 

PS Speaking of,  didn't the French invent the term Heavy Metal (as in Métal Hurlant?...Magazine or otherwise)...I think maybe they did!  Then again I may be right...I may be crazy. 

[roots.genoa]

1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

I'd say not to worry.  Really,  things don't have to make sense.  ("Beat them all" works fine IMO).

And I disagree, but I don't mind people using a term as long as they're aware it's not the right one. Some idiots even think "beat 'em up" is incorrect, for instance. 😒 It's perfectly OK to be wrong, but it becomes a problem when you're convinced you're right. Ironically, my English might be better than most French people, and yet that's why I'm aware it's not good enough to publish articles and commercial content without having it checked by a professional translator for instance. Meanwhile I see a lot of people that think they're bilingual but produce awful English all the time. 😩

[Biff Burgertime]

2 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

And I disagree, but I don't mind people using a term as long as they're aware it's not the right one. Some idiots even think "beat 'em up" is incorrect, for instance. 😒 It's perfectly OK to be wrong, but it becomes a problem when you're convinced you're right. Ironically, my English might be better than most French people, and yet that's why I'm aware it's not good enough to publish articles and commercial content without having it checked by a professional translator for instance. Meanwhile I see a lot of people that think they're bilingual but produce awful English all the time. 😩

Never fear. Whenever I'm in an international chat/forum, it's super easy to tell where my fellow American native-speakers are at. Their English is usually worst of all!

 

I feel ya though, I could never run a site like yours. I tried keeping up with a health/illness-related blog for a while, but found that the level of content I wanted to produce really wasn't working for me. I can type out my thoughts freeform all day long, no sweat. It's the proofreading/editing phase afterwards that my brain's not equipped to deal with, I'm just out of energy by then. I can get it done, it just takes a looong time. So I eventually recognized that and scaled back. A little self-awareness goes a long way.

 

Semi-related: I remember when even game magazines would call 1v1 fighters "Beat 'em Ups" in the 90s. Thankfully that died out rather quickly and everyone sorted out what the proper terminology was.

[Video]

Hmm. That is true. While bubble bobble has platforming elements, the raw goal is to defeat all the enemies. Beat them all is a perfect description in that case. Maybe we could call it a stomper, despite head butting enemies is how you defeat most of them. Mario bros fits the bill here too, defeating all the enemies is the progressive object of the game.

 

I also like "cute games" it does fit that bill, even if that's no particular description of what its about or what you do. I do like cute games. As far as favorites of that type, I'd say one of my favorite all time "cute games" would be the Locoroco series. You encourage a cute wiggly blob to roll around the world, eating berries to grow, while avoiding spikes and being eaten by moja. I guess Sony is done with it, but it really is one of my all time faves.

[Pixelboy]

Personally, I'd refer to such games as Bubble Bobble, The FairyLand Story, Snow Bros and even Mario Bros as "Cutie Busters" or "Critter Busters".

 

Edited May 2 by Pixelboy

[CatPix]

On 4/14/2024 at 9:20 AM, GoldLeader said:

PS Speaking of,  didn't the French invent the term Heavy Metal (as in Métal Hurlant?...Magazine or otherwise)...I think maybe they did!  Then again I may be right...I may be crazy. 

Yes and no, since Métal Hurlant, the magazine, is indeed the origin of the Heavy Metal term, but it's an adaptation for the English translation of the magazine, since Métal Hurlant translate as "Screaming Metal" (which amusingly fits some type of Heavy Metal well )

[+Gemintronic]

My hot take is that it's a "Single Screen Platformer"

[carlsson]

It strikes me that in Mario Bros, you knock turtles upside down by jumping from the platform below them. In Super Mario Bros, you knock most enemies by jumping at them from the top. The question - perhaps already answered - is in which previous games you could knock enemies from either direction. I know that in Joust, you spear them down if you come from above. In Lode Runner, you dig holes for zombies to fall into. Many other games simply resorted to shooting or other form of direct combat.

[+jgkspsx]

Lode Runner isn't one of these; but its progenitor Space Panic is:

And its direct predecessor Heiankyo Alien is too:

Maybe Heiankyo Alien is the earliest non-shooter game where you have to eliminate all of the enemies? After all it predates Pac-Man.

[+wongojack]

I would call Bubble Bobble a single screen platformer, but it needs some qualifiers.  Interestingly, the distinctive difference to me isn't defeating all the enemies but the fact that it has simultaneous two-player play.  That fits in perfectly with Mario Bros and Joust. 

 

What's really weird is that I have a sort of reverse Mandela effect with this game.  I NEVER HEARD of it.  Never.  I have no memories of Bubble Bobble or any of its clones until the internet came along.  I've since played it a few times and wondered what the big deal is.  I assumed it was an American thing until a colleague of mine once told me that he and his brother could never decide on a game to rent when he was little and always chose Bubble Bobble.  I guess I just saw it as something too cute and skipped over it every time.

 

Toy Bizarre is a similar game that I played BITD, but I never would have compared it to BB because, well . . . I'd never heard of it.

[+jgkspsx]

I remember Bubble Bobble existing from my earliest gaming memories, but I didn't really start to love it until a few years ago. For some reason this style of game has become among my favorites.

 

The point about simultaneous two-player play is a great one.

[Rhomaios]

2 hours ago, wongojack said:

I would call Bubble Bobble a single screen platformer, but it needs some qualifiers.  Interestingly, the distinctive difference to me isn't defeating all the enemies but the fact that it has simultaneous two-player play.  That fits in perfectly with Mario Bros and Joust. 

 

What's really weird is that I have a sort of reverse Mandela effect with this game.  I NEVER HEARD of it.  Never.  I have no memories of Bubble Bobble or any of its clones until the internet came along.  I've since played it a few times and wondered what the big deal is.  I assumed it was an American thing until a colleague of mine once told me that he and his brother could never decide on a game to rent when he was little and always chose Bubble Bobble.  I guess I just saw it as something too cute and skipped over it every time.

 

Toy Bizarre is a similar game that I played BITD, but I never would have compared it to BB because, well . . . I'd never heard of it.

The cuteness factor I can relate to. I skipped over plenty of games bitd that were too cute that I later learned to love. Similarly, I was enticed by plenty of duds based on how cool they looked. Bubble Bobble I knew of, but Flicky I would never have looked at in the 90s. It was just completely off my radar, even though I loved the arcade classics. Even now some games are too saccharine or cutesy for me to get into, but Bubble Bobble and Flicky kick ass despite that look.

[Cynicaster]

On 4/14/2024 at 2:57 AM, GoldLeader said:

Maybe we should just call them zoomers!  Haaaa!  (I know ...This joke makes no sense whatsoever,  but I'm tired...a bit medicated)...

 

 

I remember when "Shmup" became a thing...An R-Type game up to  a "Bullet Hell" shoot-em-Up...And damn if I didn't try to ignore that word like I did "podcast"...Like "Hair Band"...I tried ...thought if I ignored it hard enough it might go away,  But eventually the word caught on and people,  even seemingly smart, everyday people (Who in all other aspects of their life were kind of normal (like me,  Haaa)) began to use it as if it made sense ...Well,  What are ya gonna do?  Sometimes in life you make funny noises with your mouth,  put'em together with syllables and accents, intonations and whatnot ...before you know it,  You're using the word simply because at least out of all the nonsense you generally spout,  at least in that,  they will know what you mean... 

 

Ug... shmup.  I hate that word so much, but it seems so commonplace now, that you start to look like the oddball for not using it.  I use it sometimes on the internet for clarity, because it's the surest way to guarantee that everyone reading my comment will know exactly what I'm referring to.  So far, I don't think I've ever once uttered the word out loud in conversation, and I don't plan to anytime soon.  

 

As for the topic of this thread, I've always just called these games "Bubble Bobble clones," which I concede is a bit self-referential and imprecise.  I like "fixed screen platformer" but the problem with that name is that it does nothing to denote the core gameplay mechanic these games share, and could easily be applied to games that don't include that mechanic at all (e.g., Donkey Kong, Popeye, Donut Dodo, Jump Man, etc.)

 

 

[+jgkspsx]

I think the major divide is between killing all the enemies vs collecting all the things.

[Video]

Well you don't have to collect the loot, in fact, depending how an enemy falls, you may not get to it before the game decides to scroll to the next screen. Bubble bobble and mario bros are strictly kill all the badguys. You can collect loot on bubble bobble, but its not required. Jump man is about collecting the loot, don't think you even can defeat any of the bad guys. How about minor 2049, you collect loot and defeat bad guys, sure, but you also have to step on every floor tile. Iirc, you can actually beat a level without defeating the baddies or collecting the loot, though its insanely hard. Donkey Kong shares more in common with smb in its only goal is to get to the exit, you can collect loot (hammer barrels and badguys) but its not needed.

[Biff Burgertime]

On 4/14/2024 at 3:10 AM, roots.genoa said:

Regarding names of genres, I spend most of my time - I did again yesterday! - correcting French gamers that call beat 'em ups "beat them all", which doesn't make a lot of sense imho (that's the goal of many games, from Space Invaders to Deathmatch FPS). A stupid French journalist that doesn't understand the point of postpositions coined that term in the late 80s (I guess) and for some reason it caught on very well. So much so that the French Wikipedia page for the genre is "beat them all" as if it was a French word: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_them_all

The page even specifies it's mostly a French translation of the English "Beat Them Up" English page, which is ironic. 🤦‍♂️ Fortunately it starts by saying it's a "fake anglicism" but old gamers are so used to it a lot of them still say it (which annoys me all the time). 😔

I saw this today... Good luck in your endless fight!