Puzzle Bobble 2 has the same gameplay as Puzzle Bobble (see review in Issue 2). Not to be repetitive we avoid describing the game again, so we will just talk about news and curiosity of this version, taken in part from Bust a Move 2/2x FAQ by Matt Bennett (Puzzle Bobble in America is known as Bust a Move). There are two different games, Puzzle Bobble 2 and Puzzle Bobble 2X. The only differences I've found between them are different levels and in PB2 we have the possibility to select the difficulty: practice (only 5 rounds), normal and X.

Special Bubbles
Star bubble - The Star Bubble bursts all the bubbles that are the color of the first bubble it touches. If you hit two bubbles at the same time, it will not burst bubbles of both colors, only one.
Bowling Ball - The Bowling Ball pops all bubbles in its way as it makes its way to the top. You can bank the Bowling Ball off the walls to clear out a larger path of bubbles.

Obstacles
Jama Bubble - A clear bubble that cannot be busted. You have to pop the bubble(s) that are holding it up to get rid of it.
Jama Block - This block will never disappear. If you shoot a bubble at it, it will stick to it. Jama Blocks make up the boundaries of some of the levels.

Puzzle Game
Puzzle Game is the normal 1 player game in PB2. There are 6 stages with 5 rounds each for a total of 30 rounds. Of course each stage gets progressively harder. In PB2 you get to choose which path you want to take on your journey to the last round.

Player vs. Player
Player vs. Player mode is a split screen competition between two people. Whichever player has his/her bubbles drop past the deadline first loses. The rounds can be set to 1, best 2 of 3 and best 3 of 5. In player vs. player you still want to match bubbles up, but you also want to bury your opponent in stacks of bubbles to make it harder on them. The way to do this is to drop bubbles off the matches you make. Yep, the way to score big is also the way to bury your opponent under a pile of bubbles. As you drop bubbles off a match, they will go over to your opponent's side and appear on their playing field. Therefore the more bubbles you drop off a set of matching bubbles, the worse you make your opponent's life. The main weapon in a player vs. player game is building a "bomb". Setting up a bomb consists of building a tree of bubbles off of two matching bubbles ("the trigger") such that when you finally get the matching bubble, you can drop the bomb on your opponent. Just be careful when bombing players because your bomb can build up fast. If you don't get the color you want or you accidentally block the path to the "trigger" you can quickly find yourself falling below the deadline. One way to avoid this and still bomb effectively is to build secondary triggers into your bomb so that you have a way to get rid of some of it if space is becoming limited.

Player vs. Computer
Player vs. Computer is the same as player vs. player except you play with a computer opponent. You travel across the land of PB2 challenging each computer opponent. These matches are best 2 of 3. The computer opponent gets harder and harder as you successively beat each one. The game ends once you beat the last opponent. The rules of play and strategy are the same as player vs. player.

Endings
If you don't want to know the endings to PB2, don't read this section.
U - You find the treasure
V - Relax and be free
W - You are getting married
? - You are now king
X - You make new friends
Y - Relax and be free
Z - You get the Medal of Honor

Scoring System
You get points by popping bubbles. If you match 3 touching bubbles of the same color, you get 10 points for each bubble popped. This gives you a minimum of 30 points for each match. The big points come from dropping bubbles off a matched group of bubbles. Here's an example: say you have 2 red bubbles on the bottom row with a blue bubble stuck to the bottom of them. You get a red bubble and make the match. You will get 10 points per popped bubble, in this case 30 points, and you get 20 for the blue bubble you dropped off the reds. As you can see, the first dropped bubble is worth 20 points. For each bubble after that, you double the amount of the previous bubble.
1,310,720 is usually the highest score you can get on a level but sometimes you can score 5,242,880 or even 10,485,760! I'm not sure why you can get these but it seems to happen when it's a level where one shot (a hard shot) can bring down the whole stack and you knock the whole stack down quickly.
In addition to scoring points off the bubbles, you also score points based on how much time passed on the level. So the way to score big points is to drop big stacks of bubbles - and do it quickly.