Back in October 2021, the Amstrad received a fantastic port of Taito’s classic arcade hit Puzzle Bobble. Developer Crazy Piri delivered a dream come true for CPC owners with a very faithful port of the original game, not to mention some extra polish in the form of stage backgrounds featuring other Taito hits like Chase HQ, New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands, Bubble Bobble, and Arkanoid.
Now the team at Crazy Piri is back with their promised update to Puzzle Bobble, and with that comes some great new features. Here’s a quick run-down:
Puzzle Bobble v1.1
– new balls
– more animations, the balls shine
– monsters fall when you hit the ball
– smaller high score QR code (easier to flash)
– new ‘hard mode’ that removes the aiming guide after stage 1
– C4CPC & Dandanator versions available (that only need 64k)
I’ve been playing the new 1.1 version this weekend, and it adds more polish and flair to what is already a very slick 8-bit arcade conversion. The team is currently working on an enhanced version for Amstrad’s GX4000 console and I can’t wait for that.
You can check out issue 2 of AmtixCPC Micro Action for a review of the original 1.0 version of Puzzle Bobble and for an interview with Miguel from the Crazy Piri team about creating this arcade conversion. You can try the game for yourself, and download it, all from Crazy Piri’s profile at itch.io – https://crazypiri.itch.io/puzzle-bobble
