Bubble Bobble (1988, NES) by Taito

Current Happy End (1 Player) Leaderboard (speedrun.com)

James Rolfe is such a great guy.  Sure, the Angry Video Game Nerd is a character who cusses, poops on everything, punches things, blows things up, and overall seems crass and rude, but the man behind the Nerd is a legitimately great guy.  When Pat the NES Punk did an NES marathon for charity he asked the Nerd to be in it, knowing that his appeal would help to raise money.  If I remember correctly, this is the 3rd episode he did for Pat Contri, but this was the first I saw, and when I made the games list this was not originally one of the 120 games I was going to do.

That changed quickly as the Trials wore on, and including Bubble Bobble was exciting.  This is a fun arcade-style platform puzzle game.  Your little dragon must trap enemies in bubbles, and then pop them to defeat them.  There are tons of levels, all with difficult traps and insanely complicated solutions.  Think Adventure of Lolo mixed with Pac Man, this is a tough game.  It’s gorgeous, and despite there only being a handful of songs, the main theme that plays for the majority of the game is catchy and nice.  The controls are good, but they take some time getting used to.

To get the Best “Happy” ending, you must find a secret exit which brings you to a group of secret levels.  This is not easy to do single-player (much easier with 2 players) and was a source of frustration for my Trial.  I just barely missed my initial goal of sub-hour by 4 seconds, and I decided I had enough of this game.  Although this is an excellent casual game, the speedrun is rough.  It’s fun, but it will test your patience.