Bubble Gun

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Mega Man 2, Bubble Bobble, Gradius III, Cave Story

You know that "Heart" tends to be a sucky power, right? Well, that's pretty hefty compared to bubbles!

In video games, bubble-based weapons tend to be a Joke Item - slow, inaccurate and laughably non-lethal. But sometimes they manage to be a useful Nerf Arm.

Enemies hit by a bubble weapon sometimes find themselves Floating in A Bubble.

Sometimes this trope will be Bubble Subverted.

Examples of Bubble Gun include:

Anime and Manga

• Caeser Zeppeli from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has an attack where he infuses soap bubbles with Hamon and launches them at his enemy.
• Bubbles in Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z uses a huge bubble rod as her main weapon. When Him got his hands on the girls' weapons in one episode, he proceeded to use them much more efficiently...
• The Bubble card in Cardcaptor Sakura, which turned out to have been created only so Clow could, uhh... give Kero's big form a bath.
• Since Sailor Mercury's Shabon Spray was nothing more than a blast of mildly annoying bubbles, she preferred to be Mission Control until she got a power upgrade.
  • ... a blast of mildly annoying bubbles filled with fog!
• Naruto Shippuden, in a recent filler arc, has a dude what attacks with bubbles. They seem to work a'ite for him.
• The Hunting Grounds in Kimba the White Lion has stationary turrets that shoot out small bubbles that trap their target inside a giant bubble. Why bubbles instead of bullets? So the animals in the Hunting Grounds won't be killed by the turrets when they're supposed to be killed by paying hunters.

Comics

• The Marvel Comics villain Madcap uses a gun that shoots bubbles. People think this is how he is able to induce madness in people, but in reality, it is only to attract attention to himself in general and the gun in particular, so he can use his innate power of making you as loony as him.
• The indie comic book The Jam had a peculiar weapon made from a trumpet by a Mad Scientist—when you blew into it, it created a big bubble around the target. Scarier than it sounds, as the bubble was harder than steel and airtight.
• A recent issue of Gold Digger had Gina using a force field bubble gun as a new non-lethal weapon. It traps its target inside a floating bubble.

Film

• Marvin's weapon in the climax of Looney Tunes Back in Action.
• Yellow Submarine - the Blue Meanies' opening volley in their attack of Pepperland lands a huge dark impenetrable bubble over the band playing on the bandstand.

Literature

• One of Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon novels had the Granbretanian bad guys using a bubble cannon. The bubbles were so corrosive they would dissolve anything they landed on. Fortunately for the good guys, the machine blew up after only a short time, killing one of the villains in the process.

Tabletop Games

• In Yu-Gi-Oh, there is an equip card exclusive to Bubbleman called Bubble Blaster.
• Warhammer 40,000 s Orks have the Bubble Chukka Speedster among their many crazy cobbled-together super weapons, although it has so far only appeared in the Epic 40,000 spin-off game. The weapon on the speedster fires giant self-contained force-field bubbles at enemy troops, trapping them inside for a time and causing any shots fired from within the bubble to bounce round inside it and probably hit the firer on the rebound.

Video Games

• This is the main "weapon" in Milons Secret Castle. For more annoyances, they shoot at an angle and don't have that long a range!

"Why not a sword or magic lightning bolts or fireballs or a gun or undefined pixelized pieces of shit? FUCKING ANYTHING BUT BUBBLES!!!"

• • In its Japan-only sequel Doremi Fantasy, Milon's bubble weapon shot in a straight line from the player and traps any enemy in a bubble upon contact, which fly up and off the screen when the player touches them. This is especially useful during certain boss battles where the boss stays on the upper side of the screen and throws projectiles at you, which you can trap in the bubbles and bounce back at him.
• This is one of the reasons why Spyro: Enter The Dragonfly was so badly received. The main goal of the game is to catch dragonflies with bubble breath. Awkward, short-ranged bubble breath. And you know what else? The dragonflies are running away from you!
  • And running (flying?) pretty darn fast, I may add.
• Bubble Bobble!
• In The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask, the first ranged attack you can get is one where you (in Deku Scrub form) shoot bubbles out of your mouth/nose/whatever.
• In Lego Star Wars 2 in the Game Boy Advance version, you could buy a version of the blaster that shot bubbles instead of lasers. Of course, you could also buy ones that threw eggs and chickens.
• One Power-Up Letdown in Earthworm Jim is a gun that only "shoots" bubbles. Emphasis on the quotes, as the bubbles don't even go forward. Because the Genesis version didn't allow weapon switching, picking up the bubble gun in the final stage will completely screw you sideways.
  • When playing with a three-button controller, at least.
• Mega Man 2 has the Bubble Lead, which seems like one of the more useless weapons you get, until you realize you need it to beat the last boss. Mega Man X 2 had the Bubble Splash, which fires a stream of little bubbles that arc upwards, and its Charged Attack is the series' standard "orbiting shield", which allows X to jump even higher underwater than he can normally.
  • Bob and George hypothesizes that the Bubble Lead actually does its damage because it induces lead poisoning.
    • The "Lead" in Bubble Lead has nothing to do with the heavy metal, but with the "lead" that rhymes with "feed"; a phonetic translation from Japanese to English reads "BABURU RIIDO". If it were truly were named after the metal, the phonetic translation would have been "BABURU REEDO".
  • Mega Man Battle Network features this weapon and it is largely laughable...up until the point you get hit. The attack is normally unimpressive, slow, easily dissipated and low in damage. However, when it DOES hit, it traps the target, allowing a follow up attack on the hapless target. To top it off, it DOUBLES the damage of electric attacks so you can intentionally set up a bubble starfish so that you can follow up with an Elecpulse.
    • It also features a series of water-elemental gun chips that use bubbles (Bubbler, BubCross, etc) which despite their frothy appearance are no less effective than their more conventional counterparts.
  • Bubble Lead is also useful to get those pesky sproingy things (who are immune to most other types of weapons) out of the way.
    • And, since it hugs the floor, it can be used to scope out the invisible pitfalls in Wily's Castle.
  • 7 features the Danger Wrap, an attack that encases enemies in bubbles that have bombs in them, which then explode, damaging the victim. Holding down will skip the bubble part entirely, just dropping bomb.
• The Bubbler in Cave Story is pretty much useless at level 1, is okay at level 2, but can come in handy if you know what you're doing with it in level 3: the bubble "cloud" is quite useful and a full barrage does considerable damage.
  • It's balanced out by having regenerating ammo
• Weapons in Kingdom of Loathing can be crafted from Bubblewrap ore, among other things.
  • The bubblewrap crossbow subverts this: "It shoots individual bubbles, which will make your enemies' fingers sore. Eventually. It also shoots regular bolts, in case you want to use it as a regular crossbow. It's probably more effective that way."
• There is a small case of this in Yoshi's Island with Crazee Dayzees that attack you with bubbles which do no damage, though you can bounce quite high if you jump off of them.
  • On the other hand, bubbles shot from these fellows (and especially their Amazee cousins) are quite painful in the Paper Mario series.
• The Pokémon series has the Water-type Bubble and Bubblebeam attacks, both of which have a chance of reducing Speed. Even though the latter's around twice as powerful as the former, it's still a middling attack at best (and the former's pretty much useless after the first dungeon).
• In Kirby Squeak Squad, Kirby can gain the Bubble Kirby ability that lets him shoot a constant stream of bubbles, or one large bubble if you charge it. Its only use is to turn enemies into Ability Bubbles that he can store in his stomach for later use.
• La Tale has this with the very first water spell, named Bubble Bubble.
• The World Ends With You's frog Noise use this attack. Certain versions include poison bubbles in each cloud, which deal greater damage. While a simple slash is enough to destroy the bubbles, it's very easy to get decked by them. Not to mention that you're usually fighting more than one at a time, and those bubbles linger.
• In the arcade/TG16/Virtual Console game Ninja Spirit, maxing out the katana's power turns it into a bubble-lightsaber.
• The Androsynth spaceships in Star Control uses acid bubbles as their main weapon. Bubbles have little damage, but are slowly homing at the enemy while bouncing around chaotically, which makes them effectively bigger for the purpose of hitting a ship than for being shot at. Good at making defensive clouds, slowly whittling down pursuers or softening up a foe before using the ship's other ability.
• The SEGA Genesis Ghostbusters game also featured a Bubble Projectile, which carted unruly ghosts off to wherever they came from. Sometimes it didn't work...
• In Tales of Legendia, Norma's sole physical attack is blowing bubbles at enemies through her straw. Needless to say, it's best to keep her casting spells at all times.
• Custom Robo has one of these. It's weak, but it has slight homing.
• Resistance: Fall of Man has one of these. It kinda fires bubbles...organic bubbles. That explode.
• The Unreal Tournament mod Unreal4Ever has a Bubble Gun.
• Namco-Bandai's Tail Concerto has Waffle Ryebread pilot a small mecha that shoots bubbles... to capture little kitten bandits. In the final stage, The Police Robo absorbs energy from the stage itself and shoots Laser Beams.
• Bubble Tanks. Everything is made of bubbles in this game- your character, the Mooks, the Experience Points, and of course, your tank shoots out harmful bubbles to damage the enemy!
• Several of Patchouli's Water Sign spells in the Touhou fighting games utilize bubbles. Some are large projectiles which doubles as shields that can soak up a lot of the enemy's projectiles, while others can trap enemies in a giant bubble if they connect.
• Kimmy Howell, an optional boss in No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle, wields a double-sided beam katana that emits a flood of pretty bubbles when she spins it. Unlike most examples, however, they explode with surprising force and cannot be blocked. The best defense is simply to get out of Dodge.
• In Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Aqua's starting Shotlock, Bubble Blaster, is her only water based attack.
• The Martian bubble gun from Zombies Ate My Neighbors simply traps most enemies in a bubble for a few seconds. However, it's one of the few weapons that will kill giant ants in one hit.
• Just Cause 2 has the bubble gun, found in a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. does absolutely no damage to enemies but on the plus side it doubles the machine gun ammo you can carry.

Web Original

• Neopets has the Bubble Blower ability and the Bubble Gun.

Western Animation

• SpongeBob SquarePants - The Dirty Bubble IS a bubble - who can laugh menacingly, he talks like Paul Lynde and...well, he IS dangerous, really!
• Donald Duck in Quackshot uses a revolver that fires plungers, popcorn or bubblegum ammunition. The latter, when fired, results in a slow-moving projectile that oscillates when in flight. Marginally useful since it can travel through walls, and in the case of the Transylvania level, delete false bricks that the bubbles pass through. Also, it may be the game's first lethal weapon, capable of taking out bad guys instead of merely incapacitating them.
• Filmations Ghostbusters was fond of this, as variations appeared throughout the series. If I may?
  • The Bubble Blaster, a seldom-seen weapon, could trap ghosts in bubbles.
  • Sleepytime Bubbles could engulf people a la Rover and put them to sleep.
• The Superhero Episode of Jimmy Two Shoes had Heloise become Trouble Bubble Girl. Jimmy and Heloise laugh at this until Heloise shows how effective they can be.

Real Life

• The Alpheidae, or pistol shrimp, have a bubble gun embedded into one of their claws. This gun is no joke—the bubble it produces heats the surrounding water to a temperature of nearly 4700 °C (nearly as hot as the surface of the sun) when it collapses, producing a shockwave that can kill small fish at short range. At a measured loudness of 218 decibels at 1 meter, the gun also makes pistol shrimp one of the loudest creatures in the ocean.