REVIEW: Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure on Xbox One

Review by Jon Donnis

Many of us grew up in the 90s, and of those of us who did we all remember Puzzle Bobble (also known as Bust-a-Move), a simple bubble bursting game.

And over the years there has been 100s of clones and re-imaginings of this format. Well, the latest attempt at just that is Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure.

For those of you who do not know the drill, these types of games work on one main principle, you fire bubbles up the screen and try to hit other bubbles of the same colour, get 3 or more in a row and they burst, once the screen is clear you win. Simple as that. Throw in bonus bubbles like bombs etc and there ya go.

Now before we go any further, let us all admit that Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure is an excellent name. 

Rusty Spout is the name of a pirate, he sails around in his ship, looking for adventures and a desire to help people. Cocco is an evil pirate or has kidnapped all of the children from Rusty's village, so Rusty needs to defeat Cocco and he needs your help to do it.

That is the story, and in the story mode the game includes 5 different worlds, each with 10 levels, and a boss fight every 10 levels.

As you progress through the story mode you will unlock new characters which you can then use in the Endless Mode and the Battle mode.

This is all pretty standard stuff, the endless mode is exactly what you think it is, just an endless game whereby you try to rack up as high a score as possible, and the battle mode is the multiplayer mode.

A special mention also needs to go out to the "Colour Blind Mode", this simply puts numbers on all the different coloured bubbles which makes it much easier for people to differentiate the bubbles, not to mention easier if your TV is a bit dodgy, or you just want that extra certainty.

Here is a video I made showing the colour blind option while playing Endless Mode.

The Good

This is a classic style of game, and it is done well, nice and clean graphics, simple gameplay, easy to pick up and play.

The Bad

The cannon that you fire the bubbles from seems a bit slow when you move it, and you then have another button to slow it down further for more accuracy, surely this would work better other way around? Also the fact that the bubbles drop based on time passed and not bubbles shot, this makes this a game of timing and not skill, I would prefer an option where you could choose, in fact both of these complaints some people will prefer, so why not give people a choice?

I would also note that this game really does increase in difficulty pretty quick, the story mode which you need to progress in to unlock the other modes, including the battle mode, is pretty tough, and once your lives run out, you have to start all the way from level 1 again. 

Overall

Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure does a decent job within the bubble bursting genre, although it is not without its problems.

It is only £5.79 on the Xbox store so it is not going to break the bank, if you enjoy these types of games, then give it a shot.
I score this game 7/10

Review by Jon Donnis