Last weekend I purchased Bust-A-Move Deluxe, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, MLB 06: The Show, and Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection. A few posts down I wrote about my frustrations with OutRun – in short the game did not work. I exchanged the game on Sunday, and all looks well now, but that is a different story for a different post. I have been saving MLB 06 for my beach trip this Friday. So that brings us too …
Bust-A-Move Deluxe was a bad purchase. No. I am not part of some anti bubble busting conspiracy. Actually I like the series, and have spent many an hour with the various games in the series on all manner of platforms. I have not played a home version of the game for several years, having sold my PS2 version (or was it the PSX version several or maybe both) several years back. I also parted with my only portable version of the game, on the NeoGeo Pocket Color, several years ago as well. Because I love puzzle games, because I enjoy the Bust-A-Move series, and because I was in the mood to purchase some PSP games I decided to pick up the new PSP version of Bust-A-Move Deluxe. As I said, I was actually excited to get my hands on the game.
While Bust-A-Move’s formula of matching color bubbles is still fundamentally solid and fun, my problem is that the game has not really changed, which should not have been a surprise. Seriously, what else should I have expected? So my real frustration with the game has nothing to do with the solid bubble busting goodness presented in the PSP version of the game, instead my frustration comes with the fact that I spent $39.99 (plus tax) on a game that should be priced $10-15 lower. I guess it is a matter of opinion if a game is worth a certain amount of money, but I have a feeling that even die-hard fans of the series will question the price point of this one.
Taito did throw in a couple of new gameplay modes, which I will not describe here (GameRankings has plenty of reviews), but these new modes really come across as gimmicky. I guess your mileage may very, and I will certainly give the game another go while I am on vacation to see if opinions are changed. I almost feel bad for saying this, but as it stands right now, I cannot recommend Bust-A-Move Deluxe at full retail price.
