System: Commodore 64
Release date: 1987

Bubble Bobble on the Commodore 64 is pure arcade joy bottled, shaken vigorously, and poured directly into your evening plans.

This Bubble Bobble title unleashes pint-sized mayhem courtesy of lovable dino duo Bub and Bob – two bubble-blowing dragons on a mission to rescue their girlfriends from the magnificently named Baron von Blubba. It looks sweet, sounds relentlessly cheerful, and then quietly ruins your evening in the best possible way. In 2025, does this Bubble Bobble Commodore 64 classic still pop, or has time finally burst its bubble?

Gameplay: Pop, Trap, and Try Again

Bubble Bobble on the Commodore 64 is a single-screen platformer with a deceptively simple pitch – blow a bubble around an enemy, burst it, collect the resulting shower of fruit and bonus items, and move on. Do that across 100 levels without losing your mind and you might just see the true ending. Might.

Controls are crisp and responsive throughout. Jumping feels precise, bubble placement is tight, and movement never drifts into the floaty imprecision that plagues too many C64 platformers. The enemy variety does a lot of work – some foes drift lazily around the screen, others clock you immediately and give chase, and later stages combine multiple enemy types in configurations clearly designed by someone who wanted you to suffer.

Power-ups add spice – speed boosts, extended bubble range, screen-clearing special effects – and the two-player mode turns careful tactical play into absolute glorious chaos.

The Baron’s Visit? Dawdle too long on any level and Baron von Blubba materialises – an invincible wraith who floats toward you with complete indifference to your feelings on the matter until you either clear the stage or perish. He is not charming. He is not fun. He is purely there to stop you taking a breather, and he succeeds entirely. Later levels also throw significantly more enemies into significantly less space, and one poorly judged jump can undo several minutes of careful bubble management. The difficulty curve stops being gentle somewhere around the halfway point and never really recovers.

Graphics: Pixel-Popping Charm

Bubble Bobble on the Commodore 64 is an immediately endearing looking game. Bub and Bob are stubby, cheerful and full of personality in every frame of animation. Levels are cleanly laid out and easy to read even when the screen fills with bubbles, airborne fruit and enemies with somewhere to be.

The bold colour palette gives everything that unmistakable arcade glow – bright, welcoming, and deliberately non-threatening right up until the game decides it very much is. Enemy designs are memorable across the board, and the bubble effects remain oddly satisfying to watch pop even now.

Sound: Cheerful Tunes That Refuse to Leave

The Bubble Bobble theme is one of gaming’s great earworms. It is relentlessly upbeat, loops without mercy, and will be playing in your head at three in the morning approximately four days after you last touched the game. Whether that’s a feature or a bug depends entirely on your tolerance for cheerful repetition.

Sound effects do plenty of heavy lifting around it – pops, squishes, landing thuds and bonus jingles create constant satisfying feedback that keeps the whole thing feeling alive and reactive. It fits together beautifully and the SID chip handles the whole package with its usual effortless swagger.

Replayability: One More Bubble, Just One More

One hundred levels, hidden secrets, branching paths depending on how you play, and a true ending that’s locked behind two-player co-op – Bubble Bobble on the Commodore 64 has been keeping people coming back since 1987 and shows no signs of stopping.

High-score chasing and combo mastery add genuine depth beneath the cheerful surface. Randomised item drops keep repeat runs unpredictable. And the two-player mode is one of the best couch co-op experiences the C64 has to offer, assuming you and your partner can agree on who gets to be Bub.

The Retro Looney Verdict

Bubble Bobble on the Commodore 64 is cute, cruel, clever, and completely impossible to put down once it gets its claws in. The gameplay is as rock-solid now as it was in 1987, the difficulty spikes are properly earned rather than cheap, and the endlessly looping theme will outlast you, your family, and most geological formations.

Baron von Blubba will ruin at least one otherwise pleasant session. A late-game level will send you into the kitchen for a biscuit and a stern word with yourself. You’ll come back for another go anyway. That’s just what Bubble Bobble does. An absolute C64 belter – load it up and say goodbye to your evening.

Don’t forget to check out my other Commodore 64 Reviews!