This game has been delayed for two weeks now? The ship date has changed like 5x over that span, and after all that waiting, I finally have the game. I go online... and nobody has it. I check the leaderboard and only 9 people have any ranking at all.
I search for a game, and there is nobody hosting one, so I host one for a few minutes and nobody joins. OK, so let me check the game modes out offline, right? Well, I hate to say it, but it looks like there is no way to play classic Bust A Move. Instead, there's the Ultra-fied version of Bust a Move with the special bubbles, which blow up other bubbles, or change colors of other bubbles, or are indestructable... I figured Majesco would be smart enough to include a classic version of the game for the purists who want to play that online, but nope... not available. One of the game's screenshots shows only classic bubbles, but that was misleading.
To make matters worse, it feels like the pointer moves a little slower than the Bust A Move pointer in the arcade did. Annoying for the speed builders who want to flick a bubble to the other side of the screen for sure.
To its credit, there are a good number of game types for single player and versus computer, but the main draw for me in this game was VS Bust a Move (Classic) online. If you want that, it looks like you have to deal with wacky bubbles. Oh, there are also unlockable characters at the character select screen. Anyone have any idea how to unlock them?
On to the gametypes that are there, there's a single shot gametype where you have only one shot to drop all the bubbles, so you'd better not miss it. There's the classic single player arcade puzzle tree where you climb up the ladder and defeat stages of bubbles as you go (decent fun in single player). There's a seesaw mode which I haven't tried, but I read the screen tilts according to the weight of the bubbles on either side. There's a dumb mode where it's you vs the computer, and the only way to score points is when you pop 3 of a specific color. This mode seems completely lame to me, as you and the computer alternate taking turns, so basically whoever comes up with the right colored bubble first scores, unless the other makes a mistake. Completely random, and completely stupid.
I have yet to play this online in versus (will probably do that tomorrow when more people get the game), but my hopes are dashed for this being a game worth playing, even with the affordable $20 pricetag. The lack of classic Bust a Move, which many fans will want really hurts this title. Maybe the next online iteration will be worth purchasing, but I don't think this one is.
I search for a game, and there is nobody hosting one, so I host one for a few minutes and nobody joins. OK, so let me check the game modes out offline, right? Well, I hate to say it, but it looks like there is no way to play classic Bust A Move. Instead, there's the Ultra-fied version of Bust a Move with the special bubbles, which blow up other bubbles, or change colors of other bubbles, or are indestructable... I figured Majesco would be smart enough to include a classic version of the game for the purists who want to play that online, but nope... not available. One of the game's screenshots shows only classic bubbles, but that was misleading.
To make matters worse, it feels like the pointer moves a little slower than the Bust A Move pointer in the arcade did. Annoying for the speed builders who want to flick a bubble to the other side of the screen for sure.
To its credit, there are a good number of game types for single player and versus computer, but the main draw for me in this game was VS Bust a Move (Classic) online. If you want that, it looks like you have to deal with wacky bubbles. Oh, there are also unlockable characters at the character select screen. Anyone have any idea how to unlock them?
On to the gametypes that are there, there's a single shot gametype where you have only one shot to drop all the bubbles, so you'd better not miss it. There's the classic single player arcade puzzle tree where you climb up the ladder and defeat stages of bubbles as you go (decent fun in single player). There's a seesaw mode which I haven't tried, but I read the screen tilts according to the weight of the bubbles on either side. There's a dumb mode where it's you vs the computer, and the only way to score points is when you pop 3 of a specific color. This mode seems completely lame to me, as you and the computer alternate taking turns, so basically whoever comes up with the right colored bubble first scores, unless the other makes a mistake. Completely random, and completely stupid.
I have yet to play this online in versus (will probably do that tomorrow when more people get the game), but my hopes are dashed for this being a game worth playing, even with the affordable $20 pricetag. The lack of classic Bust a Move, which many fans will want really hurts this title. Maybe the next online iteration will be worth purchasing, but I don't think this one is.
