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A fishy puzzle…

Magic Bubble is an unlicensed puzzle game for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. It was made by a small Taiwanese company by the name of ‘C&E’ in 1993, the same company who made the well known NES game ‘Mermaids of Atlantis’ and the more recent release ‘Beggar Prince‘. This game could also be linked to the famous Bubble Bath Babes, for having identical gameplay, but Magic Bubble is definitely a much ‘cleaner version of this game‘.

Without a doubt, Magic Bubble is a 16-bit version of Mermaids of Atlantis (NES) with updated and new visuals. For those not familiar with Mermaids of Atlantis, Magic Bubble plays like a Puzzle Bobble/Tetris hybrid. As different bubble combinations are given to you and slowly pushed up the screen, its up to you to carefully align them. Match up at least four bubbles and they’ll pop, making way for the rest of the incoming bubbles. If your screen fills up with bubbles, with no room for anymore… Game Over!

What makes this game different from Tetris and other puzzle games, is the lack of lenience that it offers you when you make a mistake. As we all know, one mix up of blocks in Tetris leaves you with a gaping hole you have to work your way down to clear, no problem. Magic Bubble on the other hand has a much more sinister approach, it floods those empty spaces with clear bubbles. These new additions to your bubble area can only be cleared if adjacent bubbles are popped.
However, there is another solution… Similar to the memorable Streets Of Rage’s panic button (calling an assisted Police attack), the player can call upon one of the fish in the background to consume the clear bubbles a number of times.

Screenshots:

Magic Bubble Box, Instructions and Cartridge & Gameplay Screenshots

Collectors information:

Name(s) Magic Bubble Console Sega Megadrive Region Taiwan Rarity Very Rare – Unknown print run/numbers Expect to pay £100+ for a complete copy, £15-30 for a cartridge only Where to find it eBay

Final thoughts:

Magic Bubble has its charms, a grumpy deformed fish greeting you when you pause the game, an unusual introduction that doesn’t flow too well with the fishy theme and some interesting digitised speech. But to a regular gamer, there isn’t enough gameplay to make it worth tracking down. Magic Bubble will remain as one of those retro rarities for the die hard collectors.

Further Reading: Magic Bubble on Guardiana.net

There is currently no ROM available for this game (so please dont ask for it).

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Tags: c&e, megadrive, rare, retro, Unlicensed