Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

It is believed that many domestic players have played a game called "Zuma", whether playing in Internet cafes or downloading through Mini Game on their computers. Zuma has brought unforgettable memories for players. If you want to select the "top four Internet cafes for leisure", it must be one of the finalists.

I believe everyone is no stranger to the picture of ▲.

On Mini Game sites such as 4399, I believe you have seen many games that are similar to "Zuma" but with different painting styles. Among them, there is a game called "rotating Bubble" (Puzz Loop), which may not be as famous as Zuma, but it came out five years earlier than Zuma, or even before Zuma developer Baokai was founded.

The game ▲ is the prototype of "Zuma" (picture shows the title screen of PC reproduction plate)

In terms of time, "spinning Bubble" is the forerunner of this kind of game, but now it is not known, and the company that made the game has been forgotten. So, let's pick up the past life and this life of the "spinning bubble".

From import and export trade to the game "Rotary Bubble" was released on the arcade platform in 1998 by Mitchell Corporation from Japan. Many Chinese players may have no idea of the name Mitchell, but in the arcade industry, the company can't be ignored.

For example, the "Bubble Bubble" game "Pang" series is made by Mitchell and has a number of knockoffs; domestic players may have played a game called "straight feeling" (American name Polarium) on NDS, which has been Sinicized by the mind wandering agent and used as the first game of NDS, which is also the work of Mitchell.

▲ Mitchell, Inc.

Founded in 1960, Mitchell was mainly engaged in import and export trade in its early years, similar to Taidong, a vodka businessman, and IREM, a marshmallow machine startup in the same period. It wasn't until the founder's son, Lui Ozaki, took over the company in the 1980s that Mitchell's main business turned to the gaming industry, working as overseas intermediaries for some game makers, and then dabbling in homemade games.

In 1989, Mitchell developed its first homemade game, "Mad Motor," a combination of racing and fighting. It was almost an unprecedented design at that time, and EA's "violent Motorcycle" would not be available until 1991. Unfortunately, "Mad Motor" was stillborn and was not successfully released.

However, the release of "Pang" (commonly known as "playing Bubble") in November of the same year made Mitchell famous in the arcade industry, and because of the contacts accumulated by doing overseas trade intermediary business earlier, Mitchell also had a certain cooperative relationship with large companies like Capcom, took in employees of TAD who had been disbanded, and even absorbed Capcom's production team of "attacking Flying Dragons." And made his spiritual sequel "Ottoman Warrior" in 1992, which can be said to lay the foundation for the development of the popular style "Rotary Bubble" in the future.

The spiritual sequel of ▲ 's attack on the Dragon, the Ottoman Warrior.

If the English title "Puzz Loop" of Bobble Dragon is not "rotating Bubble", if it is translated into Japanese katakana, it is a combination of the words "Puzzle" and "Loop". The way to play is to rotate the battery to aim and fire, eliminating all kinds of colored balls in the level.

▲ "rotating Bubble" promotional material

At first glance, "spinning Bubble" sounds a lot like TAITO's "Puzzle Bobble", but it doesn't play the same way as "Bobble"-the design of the level is not vertical, the fort in the game rotates 360 °, and the color ball is a long string of color balls marching along the track, and players need to eliminate them all before they reach the end of the track, increasing the tension of the game. And this is the most familiar "Zuma" game.

In the process of elimination, in addition to a variety of auxiliary props, there is also the opportunity to play a "chain", making the game more enjoyable in play. And such rules, also used by "Zuma" and various imitation "Zuma" games, have become the key elements of this kind of games.

There are two orthodox works in the series of "rotating Bubble" games, the first of which was later transplanted to home phones and sold under the title "Ballistic" in Europe and the United States.

▲ PS Portable version of Rotary Bubble, released by Capcom in Japan

In 2001, Mitchell released the sequel "Puzz Loop 2" on Capcom's CPS-2 substrate, which is exclusive to arcades, and the art style has changed from sci-fi style to cartoon style and added storyline.

Seeing this, some viewers may have to ask: since "spin Bubble" came out earlier than "Zuma" and the game is highly similar, isn't Baokai afraid of being sued for suspected infringement?

Hey, don't say, between the producer of "spinning Bubble" and Baokai, there is really a lawsuit because of this matter.

One day in 2003, less than a year after he officially moved into the office building, Baokai made a Mini Game inspired by the Aztec culture of South America and featuring a stone frog. Immediately after the launch of the game became a popular style around the world, and later in mobile phones, PDAs, handheld, mainframe and other platforms to blossom, but also later launched an orthodox sequel.

Also one day in 2003, Ozaki Lui, president of Tokyo-based Mitchell, found that such a game was popular in the office. The game was played much like its own "spinning bubble", but it was not a "rotating bubble"-- you know, Mitchell never officially brought the series to the PC platform, let alone transplanted the game to PC. Obviously, this is a copycat work of "spinning Bubble".

And this game is the "Zuma" that many Chinese players are most familiar with, and the 2009 "Revenge of Zuma" is its orthodox sequel.

The rules and contents of "Zuma" are the same as "spinning bubbles". Even the props that can slow down the rolling of the color ball do not fall to the ground. The biggest difference between it and the "spinning bubble" is that the turret is replaced with a frog, and the background and color balls are decorated with texture maps. If you have played these two games, you will feel that the two games are almost carved out of the same mold.

Looking at the popularity of the imitation of "spinning Bubble" in the world, the president of Mitchell was angry at that time-- he thought that the game made by a manufacturer who had been established for more than half a century had been copied by a "nouveau riche" in Seattle, USA, and what was more deadly was that it had become a popular style. In Ozaki's view, Baokai's practice is tantamount to theft, not only took away their ideas, but also may have stolen their property.

"you know it takes a lot of energy and money to conceive a game and finish it. Stealing other people's ideas is doing bad things, and that shouldn't happen in the game industry." As a result, Mitchell sent a lawyer's letter to Baokai, suing Baokai's "Zuma" for plagiarizing his own "rotating bubble" infringement.

However, Baokai said that this is just a normal reference. Jason Kapalka, the producer of Zuma, said that they were indeed inspired by the "spinning bubble" when they made the game, but it was only a normal reference, not plagiarism at all.

The producer of "Zuma" says that his game is not plagiarized, but there is some truth in it. Compared with the almost immutable track in "spinning Bubble", the track of "Zuma" is more winding and tortuous, and each level is a different track design, and some of the tracks of the level also introduce a similar "overpass" design, which makes the level more challenging and increases the playability of the game.

The orbit design of ▲ Zuma is more complicated than that of rotating Bubble.

However, the president of Mitchell did not accept Baokai's reply, saying that their reply was "shit". Ozaki insists that Baokai is well aware that their actions were outright plagiarism from the start. So in 2004, Mitchell immediately launched a tort lawsuit against Bao.

However, a year later, there was no substantial progress in the lawsuit, and the original lawsuit did not follow. Mr. Ozaki gave an interview when the NDS game "straight feeling" was released, talking about the infringement of Zuma. Because of the lawsuit in the United States, Mitchell has to face a jury of Americans who are biased against Asians and companies from Asian countries. This means that this will be a very disadvantageous situation for Mitchell-in other words, the lawsuit filed by Mitchell against Baokai is likely to be lost.

Dave Roberts, then CEO of Baokai, responded that there was no unresolved lawsuit between Baokai and Mitchell, insisting that Baokai did not violate any laws, copyright and creativity of Mitchell, and cited many examples of imitating "Zuma"-such as Mumbo Jumbo's "Luxor" series, Wildfire Studios's "Tumblebugs" and so on.

The lawsuit between Mitchell and Baokai came to nothing.

The silent cry of defending orthodoxy Mitchell almost lost his strength after the inconclusive lawsuit with Baokai. Although Mitchell is not an ordinary person in the game industry, the popularity of its works is not on a par with Baokai's works. In order to defend the orthodoxy of their own "spinning bubble", it can be said that a lot of efforts have been made.

In 2004, Mitchell made a remake of "rotating Bubble" on PC. The remade version chooses the fairy tale cartoon style in art and adds some new elements. Just because of the popularity of "Zuma", other manufacturers also began to produce all kinds of works imitating "Zuma", and the "founding master" such as "spinning Bubble" was so forgotten.

Compared with all kinds of imitation works, the official authentic "rotation bubble", whether it is images, special effects or music, is a bit rough, and the game itself is a bit out of date and does not have any advantage in these imitations. As a result, the official orthodox work did not get much response after it went public, and was finally buried in a pile of imitations. This version of "spinning Bubble" was also transplanted to iPhone by "Little Bee" Hudson Soft in 2008, and it didn't get much response either.

▲ "rotating Bubble" PC remaking screen

But the 2004 PC remake, which defended Mitchell's own authenticity, issued a less loud protest against Baokai's Zuma and various copycat works.

▲ "rotating Bubble" PC reproduction main menu

Then, in 2006, Mitchell developed instant spinning bubbles on NDS, which was released by Nintendo. However, in China, the "instant spinning bubble" is called "instant Zuma" by some Mini Game sites, completely unaware that it is also part of the series to create this type of "rotating bubble".

▲ "instant spinning bubble" American version cover, this is really not "Zuma"

Two years later, Nintendo released "spinning bubble" (Magnetica Twist in the United States and Actionloop Twist in Europe) developed by Mitchell on WiiWare. The game supports somatosensory operation, you can use your own Mii to play the game, and four people can play at the same time. However, the puzzle mode in the NDS version has been removed due to capacity reasons.

In 2012, Mitchell developed "Row throwing" on 3DS (row throwing, English title Tokyo Crash Mobs). The way the game is played inherits the "spinning bubble", but the color ball is replaced by people in line in this game, and the picture of the game is still a live performance, and what players have to do is to throw people out and into the team. The whole style can be said to be very curious.

However, after completing the development of the game, Mitchell terminated the development business and finally closed its business. As a result, the sand sculpture wind of the "Zuma" game became the last song of Mitchell.

Until the end of 2012, Mitchell has been launching a new work of "spinning Bubble", as if it still wants to let the world know that Zuma was pioneered by Mitchell and that Baokai's Zuma is just a copycat.

The end.

A year before Mitchell closed business at the end of 2012, Zuma's maker Baokai was acquired by gaming giant EA. What it means to be acquired by EA, which is known as the "studio killer", the result is self-evident-although Baokai is still there, it is now doing all kinds of Krypton mobile games for EA, which is no longer the Baokai of that year; as for the end of the developer of "rotating bubble", it has turned to dust under the action of time.

And the case of Mitchell and Baokai, which is right and wrong, with the acquisition of Baokai and the fading out of Mitchell, has also become a thing of the past gone with the wind.

However, the game "spinning Bubble", which inspired Zuma, has become a forgotten classic and remains in history.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: game Research Society (ID:yysaag), author: president

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