is a 1983 puzzle arcade video game developed and published in Japan by Namco. 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. The player can also uncover treasure chests that will have the player searching the stage for items in order to access a special bonus stage. It ran on the Namco Libble Rabble hardware, one of the only games to do so.
Described by Namco as a "bashishi game", it was designed by Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani and composed by Nobuyuki Ohnogi. 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. It was also inspired by a game he played during his childhood, where the objective was to tie ropes to short metal poles on the ground. The game was known as Potato in early development as Namco considered making the game a tie-in with a potato chip manufacturer in Japan; however, these plans later fell through. 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. A North American release was planned by Midway Games but later cancelled.
In Japan, Libble Rabble was praised for its unique gameplay and colorful visuals. 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. A Super Famicom version was released in 1994, followed by home ports for both the FM Towns Marty and X68000 — the Super Famicom release included a special cover slip for the face buttons to recreate the original game's twin-stick gameplay. It was digitally re-released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2009. In 2021, ports for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 were released internationally under the Arcade Archives brand line up.
Gameplay
At first glance, the gameplay resembles Taito's Qix. The player controls two "arrows", one red (Libble) and one blue (Rabble) with a line strung between them. The object is to wrap the line around poles and surround Mushlins and enemies with it. The player can either close the loops themselves (worth more points for the Mushlins) or move both arrows to the same edge of the screen. The player clears a "season" when they harvest all the Mushlins.
Along the way, various enemies will appear and try to stop the player. The most common are four little hooded critters (Hobblins), which start each season in the corners. If the player catches enemies in a loop, they will be sent to the top of the screen for a short period of time. Other critters such as fireballs (Killers), sparks (Changers), and Demons will also appear. These can be killed by closing a loop around them. Sometimes, scissors-like enemies (Shears) appear, and if they cross the player's line, they cut it. If the player's line is ever cut by Shears or Demons, a new one is instantly made: directly between the two arrows.
Every so often when the player closes a line, a detector goes off indicating that the area they have closed off has a treasure chest somewhere. To actually uncover the chest, the player must surround a small enough area which covers just the chest, and no other possible hiding places. The game guides the player along that step, first by challenging them to uncover a chest at the start of the game (and then by revealing the locations of the chests in the first two seasons). When the player actually uncovers a chest, six bonus creatures (Topcups) will pop out, then make for the edges. The player must corral them with the line and then close the loop to score the bonus for them: they mean bonus letters. If the player manages to complete a bonus word, the season is automatically cleared out and the player moves to a bonus stage where they must try to uncover and collect chests (to collect a chest, the player needs to close a loop around an opened chest) within a time limit.
The player loses a life if any of the assorted critters touch one of the arrows or if he or she runs out of time (the border is the player's timer, and extra time can be added by looping Mushlins and plants), and the player gains an extra life at 40,000, 120,000, 200,000, 400,000, 600,000 and 1,000,000 points by default. After the 100th season, the season counter will stop at 99, similar to how Galaxian and King & Balloons round indicators would stop after 48 rounds.