Puzzle Bobble

A little dragon fires a colored bubble upward, it sticks to a ceiling full of others and you're mentally calculating how to form a trio that will set off an avalanche. Puzzle Bobble, also known as Bust-a-Move, is one of the purest and most addictive puzzle games arcades have ever seen.

The game by Taito from 1994 borrowed the adorable dragons Bub and Bob from the legendary platformer Bubble Bobble and built a fresh puzzle concept around them. From the bottom of the screen you aim and shoot bubbles at the cluster above; if you connect three or more of the same color, they pop and vanish. The rule is trivial to grasp, but mastery lies in precise aiming, bouncing off the walls and planning several moves ahead, because the ceiling relentlessly pushes down and the bubbles threaten to bury you.

The magic of Puzzle Bobble lies in the perfect balance of accessibility and depth. Anyone grasps the rules in a second, but few truly master chaining reactions in which popping one group brings down whole clumps of bubbles. Absolutely essential too was the side-by-side two-player duel, where you flooded your opponent with bubbles; it was one of the best competitive puzzle games ever.

Thanks to its simplicity and instant fun, Puzzle Bobble spread to practically every conceivable platform, from consoles through computers to mobile phones. The series received many sequels and became one of the pillars of the puzzle genre, alongside titles like Tetris or Columns.

Puzzle Bobble is timeless. Its cheerful music, cute graphics and perfectly tuned gameplay make it a title that hasn't aged even after decades. It is the ideal game for a quick moment, one that can nonetheless stretch into whole hours.

Why play: For a perfectly simple yet endlessly catchy puzzle principle that is fun alone as well as in the heat of a duel with a friend.