Dustbin Diving: Bust a Move Bash!

Bubble-licious.

• Game: Bust-a-Move Bash! (Wii, Namco)
• Genre: Puzzle
• The Good: Great Controls, still Bust-a-Move.
• The Bad: Not much variety. A new scrolling method. Too Easy. Looks really bad on composite video.
• Things I learned: This was not the cheapest thing in the bin, but it should drop in price later this year.

I got Elebits and Bust-a-Move Bash from the used bin. They're not cheap. I was going to get Bust-a-Move, anyway. Overall, I'd say I'm pleased with the game.

The graphics don't look very good on a standard TV composite feed, just like Zelda. The gameboards can be very large! In the event that they are, the screen scales down to make it fit. On the flipside, small boards are scaled up. It has a few nuances to the standard play, but the worst is the scrolling. No longer do the bubbles advance after a set number of shots. They simply scroll down the screen. Also, gone is the time limit to shoot each bubble. That's precisely why it's too easy.

This time around, UFO's deliver the special bubbles that you must shoot down, a la Space Invaders. You may also keep one bubble in storage and swap whenever you want. The best thing about the Wii version is the controls. The "easy" control has you point at the screen to aim the shots, the "hard" control has you tilt the controller to match the aim on the screen. It's a lot more precise and a fun departure from the old scheme.

Other than those features, plus a weird "traveling" bubbles that for unknown reasons are slippery, there's also a shooting bonus round. I did not test the multiplayer mode, but this is not the "party" game it tries to pretend to be. Still, a good game from Namco.