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October 16, 2006
Bobble's Bubble Bursts
What if they held a boss battle and nobody came? That's the quandary facing Taito and Codemasters as their latest release, Bubble Bobble Revolution for the Nintendo DS, includes a game-halting bug. Apparently the big boss battle in Level 30 isn't much of a battle at all because the boss never appears, meaning that the game just sits there on an empty level waiting for a boss who will never come. The remaining seventy or so levels are unreachable. Oops! Go Nintendo has this quote from the publisher and a rather shaky video of the empty level:
"We have been looking very hard into this issue with Nintendo and have now determined that all of the cartridges that have been shipped in North America are faulty. Needless to say we are extremely sorry that this situation has arisen and would like to apologise to you for this issue.
We have already started the process whereby a corrected version is to be manufactured and will ensure that all customers have their copies replaced. Unfortunately this will take 8-10 weeks (simply because of the time required to manufacture new carts). We will update you with what you will need to do to get a replacement game, as soon as this has been determined."
Hmm, well, good luck with that. I'm curious how this kind of issue was missed during final testing. Did nobody on the testing team play Level 30? I'm assuming here of course that this is an issue in which the game fails to load the Level 30 boss stored on the game card. I really hope there isn't some programmer out there waking up this morning and slapping his forehead as he realizes "Damn! I forgot to create the boss for Level 30!"
(via PoisonMushroom.org)
Posted by MattG on October 16, 2006 at 08:30 AM in Nintendo | Permalink
Comments
*lol*
It's actually kinda funny - almost like the game glitch ending in Conker's Bad Fur Day.
I'm glad I don't have a DS cuz I know BB would be one of the first games I'd pick up, I just noticed it at a game store this past weekend. Thanks for posting this article, I now know to wait ;)
Posted by: Freaky Lynx | Oct 16, 2006 9:14:23 AM
It sounds like this might just be a physical flaw with the cart - like something that's corrupted part of the cart with the code for loading the boss, or something like that. I doubt it's anything in the code of the game itself, because you'll notice this is only a North American issue - everything apparently is fine for the European version, Australasian version, and Japanese version.
Posted by: Tetsuo | Oct 16, 2006 1:33:13 PM
Wow, that should become a legendary bug. The madness of it, so strange. Imagine playing up to level 30 (no doubt a tough task in itself) and then finding that you can't do anything. Urgh.
Posted by: Mr Butterscotch | Oct 16, 2006 2:31:03 PM
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That's exactly what I think. That's hilarious.
But then again, that type of faulty merchandise can easily become a valuable collectible.
Who knows, maybe I'll look for the faulty version on eBay. I won't get upset about not being able to play it to the end as it stands that I don't even own a DS..., yet.
Posted by: Xat | Oct 17, 2006 2:06:35 AM
Why dont they just release a patch on nintendo wifi? or maybe the demo kiosks? Wouldn't that save much more money then remanufacturing EVERY CART?
Posted by: | Oct 17, 2006 3:45:12 AM
Hmm... maybe because that's NOT POSSIBLE?!
'Nuff said.
Posted by: Smarter-Than-Thou | Oct 17, 2006 3:52:45 AM
the beauty part of it is, you can't GET to the next level, so the kids keep coughing up quarters
Posted by: dk | Oct 17, 2006 4:18:29 AM
Wayne's World quotes ftw!
Posted by: C303 | Oct 17, 2006 4:21:42 AM
As a former game tester, I do not remember ever testing a retail copy of a game on a non-debug console. This is something that might have been caught early, but like every software fault that is discovered late, this should be costly to fix.
Posted by: Steve | Oct 17, 2006 4:47:59 AM
I remember in the UK, they released the movie tie-in game for 102 Dalmations. The game was out for a matter of 4-5 hours before all stores recalled the product. Apparently you couldn't get off the first level!
The funny thing is the game was never re-released.
Posted by: Wolfie | Oct 17, 2006 6:43:21 AM
I've worked for a software testing company before, and this scenario is totally possibly. We approved a gold copy of a game for a studio but when we went to FTP the file back over with our test notes we ftp'd the wrong revision and so they printed the wrong version of the game as a gold copy... whooops!
Posted by: bobby | Oct 17, 2006 7:25:50 AM
release a patch THEN remanufacture the cart
how would that save money ?
Posted by: maht | Oct 17, 2006 7:26:12 AM
looks like someone just lost a job.
Posted by: antonone | Oct 17, 2006 8:21:47 AM
Hmmm. I think I'm going to keep my cart. Buggy carts are going to be rare and actually go up in value, right?
Posted by: | Oct 17, 2006 12:03:21 PM
I remember the same thing happened with dexters lab on the gba. The spanner never appeared in the inventory so you couldnt finish the game. Bam, who were the publisher of the game tried to stiff us and refused payment on the final fixed version and instead released the last version that had been submitted, which they later found out had a very serious bug.Stuff like this happens all the time and I wouldnt be surprised to find out thats the case here.
Posted by: smiff | Oct 17, 2006 2:13:24 PM
Sounds like it is only the North American version that has the problem. So the (Japanese?) testers must not have tested the North American english version up to level 30. Maybe there is a missing english text file on the cartridge that goes with the boss? If we all spoke Japanese, we wouldn't have had this problem. Different languages FTW lollerpops!
Posted by: Neil | Oct 17, 2006 2:31:38 PM
I used to be part of the MAME Devteam and this sounds remarkably like the protection code some arcade games used to foil bootleggers. The game would work normally (or so they thought) until something like this bit them in the ass. Then *all* of the bootleg boards were worthless after word got out that the hardware was bad.
My guess is they have the original code running on an emulator and they forgot to implement some hidden tidbit of protection code buried deep in the roms. The irony of product getting nailed by their own protection code years later is simly hilarious (unless you bought the bugged cart...)
Posted by: weirdal68 | Oct 18, 2006 6:03:15 PM
i cant believe this i bought the game and i know not everyone kept a reciept and i dont have one how am i gonna get mine replaced?
Posted by: memememe | Dec 27, 2006 8:59:14 PM
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» Someone forgot to tighten the levels from buttonmashing.com
Via Matt from PTB, it looks like the new Bubble Bobble game for the DS has shipped with a game-crippling error theres no level 30 boss. So ya, all those hundred levels you paid for? You aint seeing the last 70.
Opps. Im sur... [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 17, 2006 9:08:33 AM
