Game Review: Bubble Ghost Remake

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam & Epic Games Store)

If Bubble Ghost Remake didn't state that it was a remake in its own title, I don't think I would've ever known. I'm willing to bet that's largely the case across the board, as the original seems quite obscure as far as retro games go. Originally released for the Atari ST in 1987, it made its way to the original Game Boy in a slightly more played version in 1990. It's got a couple of updated releases in the 2000s, but developer Nakama Game Studio, and publisher Selecta Play, recently decided to give it the complete remake treatment. Bubble Ghost Remake recently released on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC, and we're going to be taking a look at the Switch version today. This is going to be an odd one, so let's just get to the review already!

Bubble Ghost Remake places you into the role of Heinrich Von Schinker. Though he is the titular ghost, he wasn't always that way. In life, he had a loving wife named Sofia, but they were forced to separate when war dragged him away. Heinrich left to an uncertain fate, but promised that he would return. The game opens up years after that event, and it's unclear early on as to what circumstances caused him to become a ghost. One can assume he died in the war, but you're not told that outright. Either way, he's once again at the castle that he and his wife formally occupied in order to fulfill his vow, and maybe also uncover what exactly brought him to his current situation. While he doesn't find his wife immediately, he does find a lot of spiders, an angry bat, and a mysterious bubble in her stead. This bubble seems to be the key to unraveling the mystery laid out before him, so he takes up the quest to carefully guide it to the inner reaches of the castle. There are plenty of obstacles in his way, but none of them truly matter to Heinrich. He is a ghost after all, so his only worry is that the bubble may pop. An unlikely pair if there ever was one, but that's the setup to the game in a nutshell.

Though the story is a bit on the weaker side, I was surprised to find it present at all. I assumed that there wouldn't be much of a plot, or that the game would simply say that you're a ghost whose best friend just happens to be a bubble. The tragic love story, and the eventual reveal as to what's actually going on, totally took me for a loop, and I'm all for it. It may not be the most original of plots, but it takes itself seriously enough that I ended up giving it a bit more respect than I thought I would. It opens up with scenes of war after all, and that's a hard thing to just turn a blind eye to. Having said that, you only really get the plot in the Story Mode, and that's only one of the many ways to play Bubble Ghost Remake. In order to outline them all, we'll have to move the discussion towards gameplay.

I sort of already gave it away, but your one goal in Bubble Ghost Remake is to get your bubble from the start of a stage to its end. You can't actually control the bubble itself, but you can move it along by blowing in its general vicinity. The force of your blow relative to the distance to the bubble will determine its movement speed, and you can blow in rapid succession to move it along quickly. You can actually get the bubble moving pretty quickly, but you'll always want to have a plan of action in mind to keep your bubble safe. Heinrich may be invulnerable to all hazards and obstacles, but the bubble isn't. Bubbles are fragile by their very nature, so it makes sense that it doesn't take much to put an end to Heinrich's new buddy. If the bubble pops, your current run ends. Depending on the current game mode and difficulty, this can mean going back to the last checkpoint, have to completely restart the current level, or even losing a life or getting a Game Over. I could list the many things that can pop the bubble, but it's easier to just say that anything and everything will cause it to burst. Touching spikes, bumping into enemies, grazing a wall, or even getting to close to a flame, will cause it to pop. The bubble exists at the mercy of Heinrich's actions, though he's rather limited too. Heinrich can only move, rotate, and blow, with his blowing being the only real action you can ever take. Besides moving the bubble, Heinrich's blows can also be used to alter the stage itself. Some enemies can be moved if Heinrich blows on them, and obstacles like spider webs and candles can be removed or put out by blowing too. Things get a bit more complicated when it comes to the occasional boss battle, but these typically still rely on making sure the bubble stays intact, and maybe using Heinrich's breaths to fight back every so often. Who'd have thought that you could make an entire game around blowing a bubble?

Bubble Ghost Remake does a good job of teaching you the basics early on, and you'll want to master them as quickly as possible so as to limit the amount of bubble pops you'll experience. Just as important as blowing, is learning how to alter the bubble's current path. Heinrich can only blow directly in front of him, though he can be rotated in most directions. Rotation can either be done manually, or by using an assist mode that tracks your position compared to the bubble's placement. I personally found the assist mode to be extremely unreliable, so I mainly played with manual controls. Since the bubble can technically only move in a straight line, its trajectory has to be adjusted by angling Heinrich into the right position so he can blow the bubble in another direction. Going under the bubble will cause it go upwards by blowing, going above it will drive it down, and coming at from an angle will move it diagonally. It's all fairly self-explanatory, though you'll have to get the hang of switching directions on the fly since most obstacles are timed, or comes at you quickly. Besides the stage itself, you'll have to avoid enemies that either chase you or have set patterns, as well as gates or barricades that have to be opened via a separate mechanism. You can fly ahead to get an idea of what's in store for you, but your bubble will also pop if you move too far from it. This all comes together to create a very challenging game, and one that I'm not quite sure is always fair. Most levels are long marathons of obstacles, and even playing on the easiest difficulty only gives you a couple extra checkpoints. It does make for a rewarding experience when you finally clear a tough stage, but there were several times where I probably would've quit the game entirely if not for this review.

I'll circle back around to gameplay in just a bit, but I want to cover Bubble Ghost Remake's presentation briefly before moving on. While I'm not really a fan of the game's art style, I can say that it fits the tone of the game perfectly. The cartoon-y look is a nice contrast to the story and level design, and it keeps things feeling fun throughout. This could've easily been a dark and dreary game, and it indeed is at some points, but there's a colorfulness to everything that can sometimes have a soothing effect. Each of the levels also look unique to one another, and I was impressed by how many gameplay elements they often featured that weren't repeated elsewhere in the game. Now is also as good a time as any to remind everyone that I played the game on the Nintendo Switch, and I can report that I didn't experience a single issue during my time with the game. It looks and plays smoothly, and the soundtrack was good too. The music didn't strike me as overly amazing, but there were several melodies that I found myself humming along to. It's a great package overall, and one that gives potential players several ways to enjoy the game.

I've mostly focused on the Story Mode so far in this review, but there are several other game modes that should be discussed as well. First off, I do want to mention that the Story Mode has multiple difficulty options to choose from, with the easiest of them making the game far more playable. That could just be a matter of preference, but I'm not joking when I say that this can be quite the punishing game. On the other side of things, Arcade Mode is essentially the core gameplay experience without the story, and with a limited number of lives at your disposal. You can actually get a Game Over in this mode, and I found it a bit too difficult and barebones for my tastes. Considering that I found Arcade Mode too hard, imagine how I felt playing Challenge Mode. Challenge Mode is exactly what the name implies, and it's meant to test the skills of all the pro Bubble Ghost Remake players out there. I did try my hand at this mode for the sake of thoroughness, though I'm not ashamed to admit that I could barely get past a couple stages. Speedrun Mode is basically an altered version of the Arcade Mode, but modified in a way that keeps track of how long it takes you to clear a level, or even the entire game. The best times can then be uploaded to the game's leaderboards, though I sadly never made it on them. I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, and I'm sure others will have more luck at that part of the game than I did.

While I had plenty of fun with Bubble Ghost Remake, I don't think it's really the game for me at the end of the day. There's plenty of good gameplay mechanics here, but I never was able to master them to my liking. Part of this is definitely a lack of precision on my part, but another part of it has to do with the fact that I found the controls to be a bit wonky, and some of the challenges to be unfair. Rotating Heinrich is something I always fumbled, and I can't help but feel that the assist mode needed a lot more work before being included. I also hated that many of the obstacles had tiny windows of success, and that checkpoints were often spaced really far apart. The amount of times my bubble popped with the exit in sight are too numerous to mention, but they definitely took years off my life due to the amount of frustration I experienced. I'm no stranger to challenging games, but the imprecise nature of blowing a bubble to get it to the end of a stage isn't exactly my idea of fun. I'm not sure what I was expecting the game to be, but it wasn't this. This isn't a bad game by any stretch, and I think it's totally worth its $19.99 price tag, but there were just too many negatives for me to truly have fun. I didn't hate my time with the game, but I'll be glad when it's finally behind me for good.

I may not be able to give Bubble Ghost Remake the most glowing of recommendations, but I have to admit that it's a great game nonetheless. Retro game enthusiasts who love physics-based challenges, as well as tough-as-nails gameplay mechanics, will want to pick this one up right away. Fans of the original will also want to check it out, though I must say that it was a missed opportunity to not include the original 1987 Atari ST version as an unlockable feature. I can only assume copyright kept that from happening, but it would've been a nice addition. Then again, I probably would've sucked at that version of the game too. Either way, if you read this review and think that I should "git gud", then by all means pick up the game and prove me wrong. I'd love to see others enjoy this game in ways I simply couldn't. And with that, I think I'm done. I guess I'll see all again the next time a nearly forty year old game gets a remake!

Check Out Bubble Ghost Remake on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/bubble-ghost-remake-switch/

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Story: A
Gameplay: B
Graphics: A
Music/Sound: A
Value: B

Overall: A

Pros:
+ A unique puzzle platformer that is as fast-paced as it is challenging.
+ Though I ultimately found it to be a bit on the frustrating side, this is a game that will please fans of tough-as-nails retro games.
+ The story is well-written for what it is, and does contain a surprising amount of twists.
+ Presentation is top notch, with great graphics and music.
+ Plenty of game modes make this a highly replayable game.

Cons:
- Not only was the game far too challenging for me, I couldn't help but feel that the controls weren't as tight as they should've been.
- There really should be more checkpoints in the easier difficulty settings, and I can't even fathom how anyone can play the game fully in the perfect-runs-only Arcade Mode.
- There are times when the simple gameplay can come off as boring, since all you're doing is blowing a very fragile bubble around.
- Not including the original 1987 game feels like a big missed opportunity.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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