Three tenths of a game – Bubble Bobble Revolution. 7 Worst Bugs in History of Video Games
Table of Contents
INFORMATION
- Game: Bubble Bobble Revolution
- Release date: November 2005
- Bug: prevented passage of 70 of the 100 levels available in the game
- Was it fixed? Reportedly yes, but cannot be verified
Bubble Bobble is a 1986 arcade game. Nineteen years after it was released, it got a remake. It was called Bubble Bobble Revolution and released on the Nintendo DS – it was an underwhelming attempt to cash off the nostalgia of older players. To make it worse, the North American edition only allowed you to play thirty percent of the game.
The game offered two gameplay modes – classic and modernized. While the classic worked OK, being a mere port of the old game, the other mode, ironically called the "New Age" by creators, was riddled with very serious errors. Opponents were missing from many levels. One of the bosses was placed in a wedge between two platforms and was unable to attack the player at all.
All this, however, was nothing compared to the level 30 boss. Due to a typo in the code of the North American version he... wasn't there at all. And since defeating him was required to progress... This production contained 100 levels, but as a result of this "minor oversight," 70 of them were simply inaccessible.
The problem quickly became notorious, and Bubble Bobble Revolution was hit hard in reviews as well. Codemasters, the distributor of the game in USA, responded by withdrawing the product from sale and promising a free replacement of the cartridge. As compensation, the publisher also added free Rainbow Islands Revolution. Unfortunately, online sources disagree as to whether these promises were fully realized – many people confirm they actually got Rainbow Islands, there's too few accounts of people receiving a working Bubble Bobble Revolution to be considered reliable.
