Chack'n Pop

In the game, the player controls a small yellow creature, Chack'n, with the objective being to retrieve hearts from a cave, all while avoiding the enemies contained within them.

It is considered to be a spiritual predecessor of Bubble Bobble due to the shared characters and similar game structure.

The player controls Chack'n, a small yellow creature with extendable legs, through a series of single-screen mazes.

[1] He is also capable of throwing hand grenades to his left or right which, after a short period, explode into a cloud of smoke.

[4] Chack'n Pop was released by Taito around April 1984 in Japan, despite the copyright notice of the game saying 1983.

[6] However, the home ports, specifically the Family Computer and MSX versions of the game, sold much better and became one of Taito's "top IPs".

[2] PC Zone said the game "isn't much fun", despite the ideas it presented for the time, and the fact that it was Bubble Bobble's predecessor.

[4] Chack'n Pop is often considered to be one of the spiritual predecessors to Bubble Bobble, mostly due to the similar gameplay structure and shared characters.

Arcade screenshot