Bust-A-Move 4

The game features a total of 640 levels. This installment of the series introduces two new features: the pulley system and chain reactions. The pulley system consists of two groups of bubbles attached to either side of a pulley. Popping some on one side will cause that side to be "lighter" and therefore rise.

The other side lowers in response. If a pulley is shaking and a bubble is attached, the resulting heavier side will lower. This requires added strategy to prevent one side from moving too far and therefore losing the game. One possible strategy is to form a bubble cluster between two pulleys to prevent them from lowering or rising at all.

On the planet Bubbleluna lives the twins Bub and Bob. One day, the sun fails to rise because the Fairy of the Night, Cleon, has stolen the light source known as the Rainbow for Full-Moon Madame Luna. She splits this rainbow into seven light bubbles. Bub and Bob then set off to retrieve these bubbles and restore the light and peace to their planet.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Puzzle Bobble 4 on their April 1, 1998 issue as being the eighth most-successful arcade game of the month. Like the second Puzzle Bobble game, PC Zone shunned the Windows version for its bad performance on low resolution and older PCs, scoring it 30%.

The game was showcased at the February 1998 AOU Amusement Expo in Japan.