SmileVille Bubble

SmileVille Bubble is a puzzle action game which reminds me hauntingly of Bubble Bobble.

The object of the game is to shoot at the descending faces/bubbles which are in a variety of colours and look much like M&M characters from the old adverts (you remember them?). You’re armed with a ball which changes colour each time you fire. If you hit them with the same colour they will explode and you will receive a score and if you hit them with another colour they’ll be turned into that colour.

To add more of a action element to this game, you must try and clear as many bubbles as possible per shot to score more highly. If you manage to cut away the smiling bubbles by blowing away their connection to the rest of the group then they’ll fall down. But if this happens be quick – they’ll hurt you if you’re directly underneath them.

To add more difficulty to the level you’ll find they’ve cunningly interspersed the bubbles with bits of brick which are indestructible and won’t fall down if you disconnect them from the rest of the connecting pieces. And to add to difficulty you’ll have to run for cover should you hit your ball against the wall or indeed miss everything with your ball because a variety of big fat objects will come crashing down and kill you if you’re not careful. These objects consist of a large potted palm tree, a cow and washing machine (don’t worry I don’t think any animals were harmed in real life).

Interspersed with the various bubbles you can burst are hearts which restore your health and add to your score. Should you play your shots right you can virtually play the game that will never end. Although I can imagine for you achieve a world record with this game for the highest score then you may only need to play for a few hours as I couldn’t survive more than 20 minutes at a time. I kept bumping into objects and got a slight case of death each time and ergo, ended the game!

I’d say that this game would benefit from a form of aiming crosshairs as it’s far from easy to hit the right bubbles particularly when you have to shoot at an angle. I invoked the wrath of the heavy object dropping gods for seemingly miss the targets and inadvertently shoot my ball off screen! Although this would have been almost identical to Bubble Bobble, having walls to the side would have been a great help as bouncing the balls off them to hit the awkward bubbles that are obstructed by blocks or other bubbles, would be useful.

Having said that, I’m quite addicted to the game and like it for what it is and appreciate the thought given to it. Another thing that made me smile was the instructions which were in rather bad English, no doubt it’s better than my attempt to understand the original language it would have been in, but it was fairly understandable.

Rating 78%

Positives

Amusing and fun

Totally addictive

Various levels of difficulty

Moderately good controls

Negatives

No crosshairs to help with shooting at the right object

Instant death made it nearly pointless to move around (it only proved helpful when ducking objects)