Bubble Ghost (Game Boy) review "I guess this game is a puzzler, although it really is touch and go in classing it in one genre. For those not 'in the know', Bubble Ghost involves you guiding a ghost around the mansion that he haunts. To pass the time the ghost blows a bubble around, and it is your goal to get the bubble through each room in the mansion unharmed. The ghost can, of course, go through walls etc., and the only way he can interact with his environment is by exhaling. Simple concept, but fiendishly difficult in the ..."

I guess this game is a puzzler, although it really is touch and go in classing it in one genre. For those not 'in the know', Bubble Ghost involves you guiding a ghost around the mansion that he haunts. To pass the time the ghost blows a bubble around, and it is your goal to get the bubble through each room in the mansion unharmed. The ghost can, of course, go through walls etc., and the only way he can interact with his environment is by exhaling. Simple concept, but fiendishly difficult in the later stages. Although I classed this game, reluctantly, as a puzzler, that isn't wholly accurate: it's more like one of those games where you have to move the loop over the wire without touching it.

Anyways, the gameplay in Bubble Ghost starts out nice and simple. The challenges in the early rooms don't stretch much further than blowing out candles so that the heat doesn't burst the bubble. By the time you reach the third floor of the mansion, though, things have become much tougher. You have to contend with winding paths, forcefields, retracting knives, and even snakes.... To quote Lloyd Grossman: 'Who lives in a house like this???' Playing through all the rooms in the game would be extremely difficult, so thankfully the kind people at Pony Canyon and Infogrames have added shortcuts. These usually involve getting through a room using a much more difficult path, although you can cut out four or five rooms by doing this.

Graphically the levels are quite sparse, although this being one of the earlier Game Boy games that is completely forgivable. There are also several nice little touches in the game that show that a little thought has gone into the presentation, such as the way our budding little Casper's cheeks darken if you hold down a breath for too long. The sound on the other hand, is infuriating. Just one tone plays throughout the whole game, and it really does grate after a few rooms. You'll be playing this game with the sound firmly switched off, let me tell you.

But it's in the gameplay that this game scores so highly. It isn't quite an all-time classic, but it is original, and completely addictive. I'd recommend buying this game to you in an instant. If you can find it that is. Only one question remains..... What the Posh Spice is our ghost doing blowing the bubble around in the first place?

Community review by tomclark (March 07, 2004) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.