PDA REVIEW

Bubblets

Reviewer: Nick Triano
Posted: 1/11/00

RATINGS Quality Geekness

The Pocket PC's higher-resolution graphics, color, and sound should lend themselves well to gaming applications and would appear to give it a bit of an advantage over the Palm OS. Problem is, just like PPC programs in general, there just isn't a lot of good games out there for the PPC. This may change as/if more developers sign on to the platform. For the time being, though, the selection in the Microsoft Café is pretty thin compared to Palm and EPOC.

Some of the selections are glorious, though, including oopdreams' (don't ask me where the name comes from) Bubblets. Bubblets is a "same game"-type program, like the Cascade game which comes with the Psion Revo Plus/Diamond Mako. The object of the game is to pop as many bubblets as possible, with the goal being to clear the board. You can only pop bubblets that are the same color and contiguous with each other. The more that touch, the higher the score. Strategically, you want to scan the board to set yourself up so the same color bubblets on the board will eventually touch one another so you can pop them and score big. It's a lot simpler than it sounds, but that's what makes it fun.

Bubblets is a much more refined game than Cascade. For one thing, the play area is larger:

And, of course, it's in glorious color. The 3D quality of the bubbles is pretty well rendered. You have the option to select grayscale bubbles,

but these are pretty gloomy compared to the eye candy quality of the color bubbles.

I thought the sound, at least on the iPAQ, was pretty good, especially through headphones. Some of the effects are a little cutesy, like the High Score sound, but I guess this is in keeping with the bubbly nature of the game ...

Skill-wise, this is a tough game, much harder than Cascade. You have several options available for gameplay.

In the Standard mode, the bubbles drop as the ones beneath them are removed--a one-dimensional mode, if you will. As you complete a column, the remaining ones to the left shift.

The Continuous mode adds a twist, allowing you to play for as long as you can keep the game going. As you complete a column, the remaining ones shift and a new column is added. A preview of the row to be added, like in Tetris, appears at the bottom of the screen (the top of the column is on the right.)

A third mode, called Shifter, operates like the Standard mode, except that the top of the stack shifts immediately after the bubbles next to it drop.

Last and most challenging is the MegaShift mode, which is pretty much "all of the above." You really have to play it to experience it.

I would have delivered this review to Geek.com sooner, except I was having too much fun! This game's pretty addictive. Everyone who's gotten a hold of my iPAQ, which I think has been handled more than the presidential candidates, has had a ball, and I've had to wrestle it back from them.

Ratings Defense
Even though Bubblets is a simple concept, it's really well executed and polished. 5 Geekheads for Quality. For Geekness, 5 Geekheads are awarded, too.

The "same game" concept isn't super special, but the program makes up for the run-of-the-mill concept with some nice twists which take it out of the ordinary, like the MegaShift option. Would I buy it? Yes. Is the pricing reasonable? Yes. Is it a "must-have" program? Yup. Is it a Geek.com Pick? You bet. oopdreams has a version available for Palm, too, so you might want to check that out.

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