Several months ago, I created a nodeshell called Bubble Bobble: The Opposite of Sex, which was later filled, creating one of my favorite nodes. When I created the nodeshell, I actually had an idea to fill it up with some pseudo-critical comments on how the game represents a desire for release from the fear of sex through infantilization. The game, after all, does star two Dinosaurs named Bub and Bob,who are shaped like breasts, in the quest for dairy products.
But all of that jargon aside, Bubble Bobble does show a clear appeal to a certain demographic. Although it gained fame on the NES, it was originally an arcade game, and as an arcade game, shows a good strategy for market success that is surprisingly underutilized.
The best way to explain Bubble Bobble is to explain another alliterative arcade classic, Ghosts N Goblins. I played the SNES version of the game, and it made me feel sorry for the talented people who designed and programmed the later levels of the game. After months of practice, I could only manage to get into the fourth level of the game. I thought upon this recently, and realized that even only getting half way through the game, I was still managing to survive for half an hour.
Half an hour in the arcades represents a cost of one quarter on a machine that may cost in the thousands of dollars, not to mention overhead. For a game to be succesful, it has to kill off the players pretty quickly. But a game that kills off characters too quickly is going to frustarate them, and in the case of a game like "Ghosts N Goblins", might actually frighten them away.
If you've ever played Bubble Bobble in the arcade, you know it usually takes a few dozen games of practice to even be able to play the game for ten minutes. The game is very fast paced, and moves you along very quickly, and actually kills you quite quickly.
But when you die in Bubble Bobble, you don't dissolve into a pile of bones, you spin around in a little circle. The enemies you face seem humorous, and getting hit by one isn't likely to make the player feel victimized. And when the player is rewarded in Bubble Bobble, it isn't by an ego-boost of points, but by concrete rewards that the five year old in our heads responds to: sweets and fruit and shiny objects. In other words, even though Bubble Bobble is no less cutthroat than other arcade games, and arguably is a little bit more, it comes across so cute and fun that players of both genders don't mind tossing in quarters. Even for non-arcade players, this translates to a game that is very challenging, but still fun.