Discontinuation of Bust-A-Move Islands and LINE Puzzle Bobble

"Why Jen is annoyed she can't enjoy comfort gaming. We all have guilty pleasures, right? In every form of media, there’s a kind of comfort in certain things. For instance, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since the very beginning. There are areas of Azeroth that I know better than areas around where I live. There are TV shows that I know word for word. It’s nice to enjoy some familiarity, even if your inner snob knows there’s better out there. That’s how I felt about Bust-A-Move Islands. It wasn’t the best of games but it was simple to dip into and enjoy. It became a game I could play while watching TV, working my way through levels. I could never get past a level in the mid 120s but I didn’t mind. Sometimes, I’d go back to the beginning instead. It wasn’t a clever game but it was fun."

- Jennifer Allen

Bust-A-Move Islands, known as LINE Puzzle Bobble (LINE パズルボブル LINE Pazuru Boburu) in Japan and Puzzle Bobble for Kakao in Korea, was a mobile game released in 2013 for Android and iOS. It was a successor to the previous two iOS Bust-A-Move / Puzzle Bobble games, featuring similar graphics and gameplay elements. The Japanese version of the game was hosted through Naver Corporation's LINE messaging service and the Korean version of the game was hosted through Kakao messaging service.

Unfortunately, both games Bust-A-Move Islands and LINE Puzzle Bobble were discontinued for unknown reason.....

Background
On June 15, 2015, Taito shuted down the Bust-A-Move Islands' North American servers. The American version of the game was discontinued only 6 months after its American release, it also delisted from App Store and Google Play Store, players will no longer to play this game on their mobile phones. Not only that, this discontinuation will cause players lose their game save data, there was no turning back.

However, it also happened to LINE Puzzle Bobble, as of December 4th 2018, the service for the LINE version has been permanently shut down as well before the Bubble Bobble for Kakao was shut down on March 15, 2019.

Taito later re-released the game in 2017 outside of LINE and Kakao as a paid app, titled Puzzle Bobble Journey (a.k.a. Bust-A-Move Journey in America), which it has microtransactions, after the players completed the map 3, players will need to cost their money to unlock 9 maps (from map 4 to map 12).

Reception
Unsurprisingly, after the game was discontinued, fans of Bust-A-Move / Puzzle Bobble were sad or angry because they can't connect to the game's servers today, Jennifer Allen said the game was discontinued probably the game doesn’t feel good enough. Taito Corporation discontinued their online game apps (Including Bubble Bobble for Kakao) by the end of 2018 and early 2019 before they begin their plan to publish their games for eighth generation consoles.

The Only Redeeming Quality
As mentioned above, Taito later re-released the game as Bust-A-Move Journey, so American fans of Bust-A-Move can play this game again. However, this game is a paid app.