======================================= The Puzzle Bobble 3 FAQ v0.11 ======================================= Created by Otto Chan (chanh@ecf.toronto.edu), with a little help from Carl Chavez (carl@bubandbob.com). "http://www.taito.co.jp/tg/PB3/TG.HTM": Taito's Puzzle Bobble 3 Page The above address now has a heck lot of screen shots of the japanese version of the game, plus a description of the characters, I strongly recommend taking a peek of these pics first before reading this, it might help to explain some of the odd additions to the game... The latest version of this FAQ may always be found at the Bub and Bob Page: http://www.bubandbob.com. =============================== The game now allows you to choose different characters like in Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo/X. There are 8 characters to choose from, each has different attack patterns or abilities in vs games. In 1p puzzle mode, they look pretty much the same to me. :) But each character has a unique ending for puzzle mode. Here's the list of characters and their known abilities/pattern. 1. Our beloved Bub! Launches random coloured bubbles at opponent. 2. Girl with green hair dressed like a joker. "Chinkulu" launches Rainbow bubbles at opponent. Yes, just Rainbow bubbles, nothing more. 3. Short (kinda like SD actually) girl with green hair. "Pulichio" launches Yellow, Green, and Blue bubbles at opponent. 4. Ryu-like character. "Musashi" Random coloured bubbles like Bob? (verify) 5. Girl with huge mouth and pink hair :) "Malissa" launches Red, Blue, and Purple bubbles at opponent. 6. Looks like a witch with long purple hair. "Luna Luna" launches random colour bubbles if attack is only 1 - 3 bubbles. Launches 2 inert blocks and the remaining be random coloured bubbles if attack is worth 4 to 5 bubbles. Launches 2 inert blocks, one gem bubble, and the remaining will be random coloured bubbles if attack is 6 or more bubbles. 7. Female card dealer at a casino?? "Jack" - Unknown attack pattern. (I could have hers and the witch's attack pattern mixed up) 8. "Sonic Blast Man" - Unknown attack pattern. Sometimes when he's doing his "superpunch" pose, and you make an attack at that very instance, the attack seems to be much more powerful (Double? Triple?) Plus 2 computer controlled players that you'll face only in Human vs computer mode: Nebblun Drunk =============================== 5 special bubbles/blocks: ------------------------- 1 - A "Rainbow" bubble - I have never seen these available at the launcher for you to fire, but are always in place already in the level design. When you pop some bubbles around them, they do funny things: _____ _____ % % G % G B G ----> B -(G)- -(B)- For example, we have 2 greens and two Rainbow bubbles ("%"), with a blue right under it. A green is at the catapult - you shoot the green and pop a trio. Here's the fun - the Rainbow attached to the greens that just got popped will turn green. So in a nutshell, if you pop bubbles with the colour X, any Rainbow bobbles directly attached to the poping ones will turn to colour X. They also tend to spontaneously explode - something I have yet to investigate, but here's one scenario on a WIDE level: 1) G % % % % % % % % % % % - initially, 2 rows of Rainbows and 2 red % % % % % % % % % % below. A red will be launched into the R R * * spot to pop a trio. 2) G % % % % % % % % % % % - the trio is popped and the 4 %'s will turn % % % R R R R % % % red. 3) G % % % % % % % % % % % - then the fun begins - the four red's popped % % % % % % automatically! 4) G % % % R R R R R % % % - as a result, the neighboring %'s turn red % % R R % % again! 5) G % % R R % % - those reds pop once more, change the rainbow % R R % bubbles, then everything is quiet. (Note the left and right branches are both connected to the top. 2 - a "Gem" bubble. It's the same one used in PB2/BAMA, looks like a bubble with lightning inside. When you hit it with a yellow bubble, all the yellow bubbles on the screen and the gem bubble disappears. When you shoot it with a red, the red goes away... etc. 3 - a "Metal" bubble/ball. The same one from PB2/BAMA again. Looks like a black bowling ball. When fired, it destroys any bubble it touches until the metal bubble hits the ceiling. 4 - an "Inert" block. The same used in PB2/BAMA, yet, again. Looks like an orange octagon, can only be dropped or destroyed by a metal bubble. When these go past the bottom border of the screen, they simply drop off, but won't kill you like when a normal bubble goes past the bottom border. 5 - a "Stablizer" block. This acts as the "ceiling" in PB1 and PB2. Any bubbles linked to it will behave like bubbles linked to a ceiling in the previous games. For example, we could have scenarios like these... (# is used to symbolize the Stablizer block) ____ - the actual ceiling # G - the only way to drop the blues is to pop the greens and the G stage is cleared. B B ____ - the actual ceiling B R R - here we have more bubbles above the stablizer block as well! Even # G after we pop the greens... G B B ____ B R R - ...these bubbles are still attached to this block and thus is # "stable", we'll have to pop the reds to clear this stage. =============================== 1p game: puzzle mode and vs computer mode ----------------------------------------- Puzzle: 3 difficulties - Practice, Normal, and (verify) Hard? In practice, you're limited to XX number of stages. (unsure) In normal, your character start at a branch of letters much like the way PB2 puzzle mode works. (See diagram) D E F And so on and so forth. Each "letter" contains more than \ / \ / one stage, actually about 5 or so. After you've completed B C each "set" of puzzles, you select a direction and choose \ / a new "player" to play the next "set". A First of all, the stone slab that acts as the ceiling is now gone from the game, replaced by the "Stablizer" blocks. On a single screen level, when the screen drops, you only sees the bubbles coming down on you along with the stablizer blocks with nothing above it (see diagram). _______ _______ # # # # G B R -> # # # # -> etc... G B R ------- ------- Some levels are "longer" than it seems and a progress indicator is right next to the level display. I've only seen these with "normal width" levels, and most of the "wide" levels are only single screened. On these levels, you'll only be seeing "part" of the level, as the screen drops, the existing bubbles drop by one row and an additional row of bubbles are displayed at the top row... Here's an illustration: # # B W Y # # B Y R Y B W Y # # P O G B Y R Y B W Y _______ _______ _______ _ R R R R P O G B Y R Y | This G G G R R R R P O G | is -> G G G -> R R R R | what G G G | you | see | ------- ------- ------- - So what happens when the bubble you shoot hits the ceiling? Well... it bounces back! The ceiling now behaves just like the side walls provided there's absolutely nothing above the ceiling! The bubble now bounces off the side walls and the ceiling and will stop only if it hits another bubble/block. When it's reflected off the ceiling and go straight down to the bottom border it simply disappears and the next bubble in queue can be launched. Useful when you wanna ditch useless bubbles if you have that kind of space in the middle. Here's an illustration of that: 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. Green is on the launcher _______ _______ _______ _______ 2. It hits the ceiling... G 3. ...comes back down... # # # : # # # # # 4. off the screen and gone! R B -> R : B -> R : B -> R B Now you can fire the next one. R B R B R : B R B G --(G)-- --(|)-- --(|)-- --(R)-- R R R B As I said before, bubbles don't always bounce back off the ceiling, here's a scenario where it'll appear to be stuck to the ceiling. # # # # Here the purple sticks to the top because there's R G B R G B actually bubbles above the ceiling - you just don't R G B Y R G B Y see them. Usually you know a level only truly ends when _______ _______ you can see the stablizer blocks, but even those tends Y P Y to appear in different locations of the level as they G -> G get harder. B B --(P)-- --(|)-- 1p vs Computer mode: Dunno much about this, I suspect it uses a system similar to SPF2T/X's where you choose one character and fight off the other 9. Or it could be the good ol' Bob against everyone storyline like in PB2. But I think they want the gamers to use different characters and different strategies, so maybe the first system is more likely... =============================== 2p vs Mode ---------- The rules are pretty much the same as in PB2/PB. Except for the character specific attack patterns and bonuses/penalties. =============================== Thanks to: Mairah O'Callahan Reed Salazar Ballesteros (reedosan@uci.edu) Victor Greulich (vgreulic@oscar.ctc.edu)