Bubble Bobble 4 Friends Heads to Switch 2 With Stardrop Mountain

Bub and Bob are heading to Nintendo Switch 2. Clear River Games and TAITO have announced Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back! Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Stardrop Mountain, a mouthful of a title for a release that bundles a new expansion, exclusive Switch 2 features and the full 1986 arcade original.

It’s expected to release digitally on Nintendo Switch 2. There’s no release date or price in the announcement yet, so for now this is a what’s-in-the-box reveal rather than a pre-order alert.

Stardrop Mountain Is New to the Switch 2 Edition

Some quick history. Bubble Bobble 4 Friends first launched in 2019, and we covered that Switch original in our Bubble Bobble 4 Friends review. The Baron is Back! later expanded it with extra stages and brought back Baron von Blubba, the unkillable pest from the arcade game who shows up when you take too long on a level.

The new bit is Stardrop Mountain. It’s a fresh expansion that’s only in the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, adding another substantial set of stages built on the classic Bubble Bobble formula. It also brings in fan favourite villain Invaduh, who’s out to wreck your progress at every turn. With everything combined, you’re looking at 200 levels in total, and the overall goal is still to take down the evil magician Bonner and his henchmen.

Four-Player Couch Co-op With Peb and Pab

You can play solo, but this series has always been best with friends. Brothers Bub and Bob are joined by Peb and Pab, so up to four players can share a couch and a screen. You blow bubbles to trap enemies, then pop them, or use the bubbles as platforms to reach higher ledges. Air currents matter too, and learning how they push your bubbles around is a big part of cracking the harder stages.

The classic E-X-T-E-N-D bubbles return. In the standard stages, collecting the letters in order activates and upgrades skills. In The Baron is Back and Stardrop Mountain content, popping bubbles rewards you with extra lives instead. It’s a small twist, but it keeps the newer stages from feeling like pure repeats.

The 1986 Bubble Bobble Arcade Game Is Included

Clear River Games is also packing in the original Bubble Bobble arcade game from 1986, playable in full. That’s the one that started everything, with the theme tune you’ll be humming for days after you put the console down. I think this is the best part of the package for anyone who never played it in an arcade. It still holds up, and it’s great context for everything the modern stages are riffing on.

Camera Play and 1080p on Nintendo Switch 2

On Switch 2, the game runs at 1920 x 1080. The headline Switch 2 feature is Camera Play, which lets you snap a photo of you and your friends and drop it into the game. Your selfies then appear inside the bubbles as you fire them off. It’s goofy, and it’s exactly the kind of daft party trick that fits a four-player couch game.

Clear River Games is a Karlstad, Sweden-based publisher focused on classic and retro games, part of the Freemode Group under Embracer Group. TAITO, which owns Bubble Bobble, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings.

If you already own the original on Switch, the question will be whether Stardrop Mountain and the Switch 2 extras justify another purchase. That depends on pricing, which hasn’t been announced. For newcomers with a Switch 2 and three mates, though, 200 levels plus the arcade classic in one package sounds like a solid couch co-op pick. We’ll update when a release date lands.

Source: press release from TAITO. Images courtesy of TAITO.