The player is tasked with using two colored arrows, Libble and Rabble, to wrap them around pegs and surround small creatures known as Mushlins to "harvest" them under a time limit.

Iwatani came up with the idea for the game after an experience at a crowded disco hall, where he envisioned himself tying up people with ropes and throwing them out of the way.

Iwatani soon passed off development to Makoto Sato due to being overwhelmed with other projects, who added additional ideas such as treasure chests as he felt the game was too simplistic.

Retrospectively, it has been praised for its bizarre yet interesting premise and addictiveness, some labeling it as one of the most underappreciated games in Namco's arcade catalog.

Iwatani conceptualized the game based on an experience he had in a crowded disco hall in the early 1980s, where he envisioned himself using ropes to tie people up and throwing them out of the way.

[1] It was also inspired by a game that he played during his childhood, which involved tying ropes around short metal poles stuck in the ground.

[1] Due to the game's size and graphical effects, a new arcade board named the Namco Libble Rabble was created to fulfill these conditions, designed by hardware engineer Toru Ogawa.

[1] After seeing the prototype build, Sato found the game to be too simplistic and decided to incorporate new ideas to try to add a layer of strategy to it.

[2] Namco designer Kazuo Kurosu, known for his work on Rally-X and Bosconian, showed disappointment towards Sato's ideas and found them to make the game less appealing.

It was then followed by versions for the Super Famicom and FM Towns Marty in 1994 — the former of which includes a special D-Pad cover that can be placed over the buttons to recreate the game's twin-stick control layout.

A PC version, developed by Japanese company MediaKite, was released in 1997 and later included in the 1998 arcade game compilation Namco Collection Vol.

[5] Japanese publication Amusement Life applauded its unique twin-stick controls and interesting gameplay, saying that it made it stick out from other games in arcades at the time.

[7] In a retrospective review, Retro Gamer magazine stated that it was a "true, underappreciated classic" of the puzzle game genre, favorably comparing it to Taito's Qix.