Every Tuesday, like clockwork, I check all the new games that have been released on the PS4. I keep up with an ongoing list of planned releases for the year, but sometimes a game will slip through that I didn’t know was coming. This happened recently with Kholat (I saw it available on the PlayStation store the day it was released), but it happened in a big way yesterday with a game that I am compelled to buy no matter the platform: Bubble Bobble.

Prior to this, I hadn’t bought any of the Arcade Archives games available, so I didn’t know what to expect as far as format went. I was a bit surprised to see the price point of $7.99 (I would have assumed it would cost around $4.99), but I dove right in and started playing as soon as it downloaded.

So there I am, blowing adorable bubbles in HD when a trophy pops.

I did not expect this.

What a weird feeling, to play this game that I’ve played off and on for the better part of thirty years, and all of a sudden to realize it had trophy support.

So I kept playing. Another trophy. Then another.

Too good to be true.

Allow me to say right here that I’m not what I would consider a “trophy hunter.” I mean, sure, if I’m playing a game and I see that there are trophies I’d consider to be low-hanging fruit, I will do what I need to to get them, but otherwise, I’m more into having the experience of the game, then moving on to another one. There are, of course, exceptions to this (I have the platinum trophy for both Borderlands and Borderlands 2), when a game is so engaging that I want to see and do everything the game developers created. Those are the times I seek the tougher trophies out. Otherwise, I play the game to play it, and whatever trophies I get, I get.

So as I kept playing, I decided to look at the trophy listing for the game and found it had only a handful and no platinum. And that’s okay.

I got them all in record time. I do love my Bubble Bobble.

But I also have to say, it was supremely weird to play this classic game on a modern controller. My hands are so accustomed to playing on an original NES controller (I still have my NES and use it), that I had trouble with some of the fancier maneuvers with my modern controller. It was almost embarrassing. I was trying to bounce upward on my bubbles and I was (pardon the pun) blowing it. My partner suggested changing the button mapping (which I did), and that helped, but I was still not doing as well as I knew I could.

It’s funny to me that the game has never looked better, and I’ve never played worse.

Oh, irony.

If I had known this version of Bubble Bobble had trophy support, it wouldn’t have made the sale for me, but what a fun surprise to find it did.

Have you ever played a game that you didn’t think had trophy or achievement support but then found mid-game, it did? If so, which was it? Do trophies/achievements matter to you?