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Bust-A-Move (Arcade)

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Title Screen

Bust-A-Move

Also known as: Puzzle Bobble (JP/EU/Asia)
Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
Platforms: Arcade (Neo Geo)
Released in JP: December 1994
Released in US: December 1994
Released in EU: December 1994


DebugIcon.png This game has debugging material.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.


They're Bustin' and Movin' all over the place.

Debugging Features

Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move has a curious debug list with various modes that is only accessible if played using the Universe BIOS (UniBIOS in short).

PuzzleBobbleBustAMoveDebugList.png

Curiously, there's a debug dip labeled Arkanoid Type Game, which can be enabled through the debug dip settings. When enabled, the game will be set in "Bust-A-Move" mode which is basically a port of its unreleased B-System version, Bubble Buster. If the region is set to USA, everything will play as usual. But when it's set to the Europe region, the title screen is different. For starters, it doesn't show the cutesy animation of Bub and Bob. Instead, it just shows the "Puzzle Bobble" logo with the same bouncy animation the "Bubble Buster/Bust-A-Move" logo uses. As for the background, instead of being dark, it uses the background from Bubble Buster's name entry screen.

Puzzlebobblebammodetitle.png


Regional Differences

Title Animation

Hmmm...
To do:
Wouldn't a video/gif be better than this?

The Japanese and European/Asian versions shows an animation of Bubblun and Bobblun popping several bubbles to reveal the Puzzle Bobble logo. In the US version, there's no such animation and the Bust-A-Move logo just appears on the screen right away.

Puzzlebobble neogeo anim-1.png Puzzlebobble neogeo anim-2.png Puzzlebobble neogeo anim-3.png

Title Screen

The Japanese version shows the same title screen as its original B-System counterpart. The North American version recreates the style of its US location test version Bubble Buster with the only difference that uses the same spacey background of Puzzle Bobble instead of a black background. The European/Asian version shows the same title screen except that the Japanese subtitle was removed.

Japan North America Europe/Asia
Puzzlebobble neogeo title.png Not pictured is the logo zooming into the screen after the first gameplay demo. PuzzleBobbleEUTitleScreen.png

Play Selection Menu

The European version is missing the Play Selection menu before you start the game. The game just starts right away after pressing Start. This makes 2P VS Play inaccessible in the European version. So it only has the single join-in match.

PuzzleBobbleNeoJPPlaySelect.png