ININ Games has shared further details about a new game mechanic that will be be introduced in the Bubble Bobble 4 Friends for Switch.

The new mechanic is called “Extend” and serves as a way for players to upgrade their dragon characters with additional abilities such as longer range and elemental attributes. A full explanation of the system can be found below:

EXTEND: Skill Upgrade System

This is a new skill upgrade system that will allow players to boost their dragons with additional features. To unlock the upgrades, players will need to collect letter bubbles, each containing one of the letters of the word “EXTEND.” In every stage, one of those special letter bubbles appears briefly and has to be collected before it bursts. If the player manages to collect all letters of the word “EXTEND” within a world and also win the boss battle, the player will receive either a new skill or an upgrade to an existing skill to become even more powerful.

The following skills can be unlocked:

Long Shot: increases the range of the bubbles.
Thunder Bubble: attacks enemies in a horizontal line when bubble bursts.
Bomb Bubble: The bubble explodes after some time and causes damage.
Stop Wind: air flows are interrupted for a short time.
Dash Skill: lets characters pass through enemies unharmed.
Before entering a new world, players can equip their dragons with the skills they’ve learned so far, using a variety of tactical variations to master even the most difficult stages and clear a stage particularly quickly.

Apart from skills, there are other features that increase the replay value of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends and spur players on to ever wilder maneuvers. Chain reactions from multiple bursted bubbles with captured enemies generate more and higher quality food for players to collect—the higher the number of bubbles, the more points and food you get as a reward. Special bubbles, such as bomb or lightning bubbles, provide new aspects of the game and tactics.

Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is scheduled to launch on November 19 2019 in Europe and Australasia, with the US and South American releases coming sometime in 2020.

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