Anyone who knows me will know how big a fan I am of Taito’s 1986 arcade title, Bubble Bobble. It’s a game which made a huge impact on me when I played it in the arcade, and it’s one that I have revisited on a regular basis over the decades since, having most recently found myself playing it on the Evercade.

So when the opportunity to review Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons on the Switch came up, I couldn’t resist. It’s a radically different experience to the original arcade game, however, with the Sugar Dungeons being a roguelike delve into multiple, single screen levels with the aim of escaping with your loot before you get hit.

Don’t be fooled, however. Despite the gorgeously colourful and beautifully cartoony aesthetic that’ll be familiar to fans of the series, Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons can be a seriously punishing experience.

Though you’re aiming to progress through ten levels of a dungeon using the usual bubble blowing and platform jumping mechanics, if you are hit or touched even once by an enemy, it results in a failed run. Between runs, however, you can trade items you retrieve for permanent upgrades and powerful consumables, theoretically increasing your chances of surviving further runs, unlocking more missions, and discovering new dungeons too.

The problem is that, especially early on, the missions feel like a real grind, and they aren’t particularly involving or interesting either. They can require you to collect a large number of items, and the rewards don’t feel in line with the effort it takes to complete missions either.

Your inventory of loot seems unhelpfully hidden in a menu, so buying or aiming to collect the right items for upgrades can often feel a bit obtusem Though the lack of visual information does help the game appear more accessible, eventually you’ll definitely want to have more information available on screen.

While each floor of the dungeon is randomly arranged, you’ll soon recognise the same level layouts and enemy placements popping up, and that certainly doesn’t help with the repetition of trying to secure certain items, or the frustration that one tiny mistake can cause outright failure on every run.

I did, however, enjoy discovering that you don’t need to clear each dungeon of enemies; rather, each stage is a race to get to one of the exits (sometimes there’s more than one, with certain exits taking you somewhere other than the next stage), which is a welcome addition considering the switch to the roguelike style.

I know the contemporary look of Bubble Bobble, with its simple 3D characters and 2.5D backgrounds, is a bit divisive, but I find it really charming and true to the spirit of the original arcade games. It certainly drew me in with its lovely aesthetic, and it’s perhaps that which convinced me to keep plugging away at the game, despite the numerous problems I had with it.

The general repetition of the poorly designed levels, and the lengthy grind needed to get anywhere, ultimately dooms Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons, however. It can only get so far on nostalgia and charm, and it’s a real shame that it generally can’t capitalise on the promise of making a more compelling experience.

Long term fans of the series will find some enjoyment with the bubble blowing, single screen action being shifted into roguelike territory, but unfortunately most of the fun is short lived in Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons.

Those same fans will likely have their interest piqued by the fact that classic 90s arcade sequel, Bubble Symphony, is included as a bonus with Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons though. Given that the fondly remembered Bubble Symphony’s last official, standalone version was available on the Sega Saturn, and then in Taito Legends compilations on Xbox and PlayStation 2 almost 20 years ago, it may well be enough to justify the purchase.

Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons is available from the 27th of November on Switch (version played), PlayStation 5 and PC. Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a code for review purposes.

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