Bubble Bobble Old & New

Bubble Bobble Old and New for the GBA is an excellent adaptation of the original arcade game, and superior to the popular NES version. I'm not sure if this game was released in North America, as I am reviewing the Japanese version. Even so, this is an extremely import friendly game. Only the game menus are in Japanese (Katakana) and are very self explanitory. You don't need any knowledge of Japanese in enjoy the game, as all of the in game text is written in English.
As the name suggests, there are two versions on this cart...old and new. The old version is the arcade classic. The graphics are spot on, and the music comes close to the quality of the arcade original. The new version is the same game with a 16-bit quality update to the graphics and the music. Both versions play exactly the same. It should be noted though, that in the original "old" version, you only get one "credit" to go through the entire game. In the "new" version, the are quite a few continues available. While the two versions share the same tremendously enjoyable gameplay, they also share a few minor problems.
To anyone who enjoyed playing any previous version, the hardest aspect to adjust to is the fact that the entire playing feild is not visible all at once. The default setting of the game is "zoomed in" and you can see a fair amount of the playing feild but not all of it. This can make for some very annoying deaths with enemies dropping in from above, or flying up from below outside your field of vision. While this can be rectified with the simple press of the "R" button to view the entire playing field, the games graphical quality takes a tremendous hit when zoomed out in this way. Since the GBA's screen is wider than that of the arcade original, when zoomed out the image is centered on the GBA's screen. On the GBA's small screen, this can be a little taxing on the eyes. A Gameboy Player is the best way to play this game if you have one available. The DS, DS Lite and the Gameboy Advance SP also provide a comfortable playing experience. The original Gameboy Advance and the Gameboy Micro are not the best way to play this game.
What you really need to ask yourself is...how badly do you want a portable version of Bubble Bobble? The game is also available on the NES and PS1, not to mention the Wii's virtual console. If you really want to take Bubble Bobble with you on the road, this version is a good one. The screen dimensions just may take some getting used to.