Help a little pig pop colored bubbles and free rubber duckies during his bath time with Bubble Bath Blast, a free-to-play puzzle game for iOS (reviewed on iPad here).  The game plays similarly to the classic puzzler Puzzle Bobble (or Bust-A-Move, depending on where you live in the world).

In the game, you use the touch screen to aim colored bubbles and shoot them to the top of the screen.  They can bounce on the walls, too.  Match three or more bubbles of the same color and they disappear.  You win the round if you can pop all the bubbles that have rubber ducks in them, or by making them fall by popping bubbles around them that they are attached to.

Bubble Bath Blast uses a bit more strategy than Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble, however.  You have a limited amount of moves, and if you use them all up, it’s Game Over.  Luckily, you always get that little line that tells you where you’re aiming, so no guesswork is involved.   There are many types of special bubbles at the top of the screen that have different effects.  Some will change color when you touch them, others will change when you make a match, and there are also fan bubbles that’ll pop anything that touches them.  So you have to plan more carefully when trying to pop the bubbles you want.  You can switch out the bubble you’re aiming to the one that’s next in line, but it’ll cost a move to do so.  There are also special bomb bubbles and other items you can use to clear out bunches of bubbles, and while you get a few for free at first, you’ll have to buy more once those are all used up.

The game has several of the annoyances that many free-to-play titles have.  If you lose, you’ll have one heart taken away, and if all five are gone, you’ll have to watch a few hours for them to fill up again so you can keep going.  Also, at about level 30, the game gets pretty near impossible unless you buy items.  Also the music is incredibly repetitive.  This game just makes me rather play the original Bust-A-Move game, and I’m thinking about downloading it to my iPad, although I have it on just about every system I own.  But Puzzle Bobble is one of my top 3 favorite puzzle games, along with Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and plain ol’ Tetris.  I like the idea behind Bubble Bath Blast, too, but the in-game purchases and the difficulty kind of turn me off of it.

Kid Factor

Nothing violent or objectionable here, although I do feel bad when the little pig cries when you lose.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, but the game is pretty easy to figure out by playing.  Younger players may get frustrated with the difficulty of later levels, and parental supervision is recommended for the in-game purchases.  Otherwise, Bubble Bath Blast is good, clean fun.

Tags: Game Reviews