Bust-A-Move 4
Score: 82% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Natsume Developer: Taito Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: For over 20 years now, there have been many different versions of Bust-A-Move, for both the console world and the arcade world. Ask any fan and you’ll get many different opinions on which one is the best. Personally, I loved Super Bust-A-Move but I must admit that Bust-A-Move 4 was pretty awesome as well. Since it was originally for the PSOne, you’d have to hook up some pretty old hardware to get it to play, at least you would have, until this new release of Bust-A-Move 4 for the PS3, PSP and PSVita. First off, don’t expect that this is a remastered re-release. Bust-A-Move 4 is exactly like the PSOne game. It is presented in full screen only with the original graphics and sounds. On the handheld systems, and a smaller TV it looks just fine. When you spread out those few pixels onto a large screen, it just doesn’t scale up very well. It looks good enough to get the job done though, plus it makes me feel like I’m going back in time and am a lot younger! There’s never been much in the way of words in Bust-A-Move 4. The background music is happy and upbeat. The characters will say their names when you choose them, and a few other expressions. Their voices are quite heavily accented, but amusing.
Gameplay: After you start up Bust-A-Move 4, you will have several choices: Puzzle, Player vs Player, Player vs Computer, Challenge, Edit, and Option. Puzzle will give you the choice of Arcade or Story and a place you can get an explanation of how to play the Puzzle Mode. Personally, I like the story just because I always like a story, even in a simple puzzle game. Either way, you are just going to keep solving puzzles until you get to the end. It’ll take longer than you think though. It’s not as easy to solve some of the puzzle levels as it is to win the Player vs Player and Player vs Computer modes. Player vs Player and Player vs Computer are my favorite modes to play. They are the same idea. You each (or you and the computer) have one half of the screen. Your screen comes preloaded with bubbles of various colors on it. Just like in the other modes, you shoot a bubble at the top and if you hit two or more of the same color as that bubble, they will pop. If there are any bubbles below the top that are no longer connected to anything, they will fall. Depending on how many that fall, you will then attack your opponents. The attack pattern you use is based on the character that you select. Each character has advantages and disadvantages. I suggest testing them all out at least once, just to see who you like. If you’re playing against a friend, I think you’ll find that the character you each choose is going to be based on who the other likes to use. I can play for hours playing against a friend. Challenge is different from Puzzle in that you play a set number of levels (configurable in Options) for each stage, no matter whether you pass or fail a level. You are simply trying to get the highest score that you can and beat your own high scores. Edit is a really neat feature to try out. Basically, you get to design your own levels and play them. You can make things as hard or as easy on yourself as you want.
Difficulty: Option lets you configure a lot about the game. Handicap is an important one to set to On. This way, the game will let you have a different handicap for you and your opponent. Otherwise, a newcomer friend to the game might get upset with a veteran player for winning all the time so easily. Of course, there is only so much that you can handicap each other, so even setting one at the easiest and one at the hardest doesn’t guarantee a win for either. Chain Reaction is one that can really change your game. Test out turning it off or on and see which you prefer. Personally, I like having the Chain Reaction on, but it does make things easier for the person that knows how to use it well. Guide Line will make it much easier for you to learn where your shots are going to go. You can toggle it off or on in Options as well. Basically, they give you as many ways to make things easier or harder as you want.
Game Mechanics: When you first start up Bust-A-Move 4, you will possibly get a warning that "To save data, you must create an internal memory card on the system storage." Make sure to create it as a PS, not PS2. Of course, if you’ve created an internal memory card before, you won’t get the warning. By default, you will shoot bubbles with the Left Pad buttons, move the launcher with the Right Pad buttons, and use the top Triggers for "minor adjustments" (moving the launcher just slightly). You can change the default config to two other layouts under Options if these don’t suite your tastes. To get out of any of the modes (like when you want to quit Challenge without playing all the levels), press (Start) to pause the game and then (Select) to bring up the menu. Just like most of the PSOne games, you can always hold down the four triggers and (Start) and (Select) to quit out and return to the Main Menu at any point. While Bust-A-Move 4 is a direct port of the original game, there’s something nice about the old school charm. My one complaint is that the loading speed feels about the same as the original too, which is a lot slower than I would expect on the newer hardware, but I would guess that’s just part of the whole experience. If you’re looking for a great puzzle game that’s simply fun to play, check out Bust-A-Move 4.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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