Bust-A-Move 3 (1996) — Release Date, Cheats, Price & Requirements

Bust-A-Move 3

The second sequel to Puzzle Bobble. It was released into arcades in September 1996 and later ported to the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, Game Boy, Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows. It would be the final…

69 1 September 1996

What Bust-A-Move 3 is

Bust-A-Move 3 is a puzzle game developed by Taito and released in 1996. It was published by Empire Interactive. It is available on Arcade and PC (Microsoft Windows).

The premise, in the publisher's words

The second sequel to Puzzle Bobble. It was released into arcades in September 1996 and later ported to the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, Game Boy, Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows. It would be the final appearance of Puzzle Bobble on the Sega Saturn. Like its predecessors, the player is tasked with shooting balls at groups of balls, creating groups of 3 or more, which are then removed from play. A European remake is entitled Bust-a-Move 3 DX. released in America as Bust-a-Move '99.

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are fantasy. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component. Available modes: Multiplayer, Single player and Split screen.

Where it sits in the Bubble Bobble series

Bust-A-Move 3 is the 31st of 95 entries we hold in the Bubble Bobble series. The next entry was Bubble Bobble Also Featuring Rainbow Islands in 1996. Its critic score of 69 is almost exactly the series average of 68. The highest-rated entry is Space Bust-A-Move at 100.

See all 95 Bubble Bobble games in release order →

How it was received

Bust-A-Move 3 holds a critic score of 69 out of 100. That places it above 29% of the 2,791 rated puzzle games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 1996 averaged 70, so it scored about average for its year.

What it launched against

Bust-A-Move 3 launched on 1 September 1996, within three weeks of Crash Bandicoot, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Die Hard Trilogy and Formula 1. All of them reviewed better.

Released around the same time: Crash Bandicoot, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Die Hard Trilogy, Formula 1.

Bust-A-Move 3 — frequently asked questions