Bubble

Discovered this after deleting a different addictive game, which I had deleted so I would focus on more important and necessary tasks at home. Now I sit down for a quick game and suddenly, it seems, I may have lost a couple hours. Anyway, I really like this game but wish it allowed you to replay the same set as a practice option. When I was doing the Hoyle Bridge game, I could go back and rebid with the ficticious partners and see what worked better. That made me a much better player in actually bridge games with friends. Well, I guess there would not be the same carry over value here but, when I sometimes come to realize that I have completely cut off a connection, it would be nice to be able to back track and see what alternative approach may have worked better. (It would be fine with me if the do-over games did not count to the max scores..

Not only does one get bubbles, but the makes have numerous different sets of objects. I was last playing the children’s toys option. This is kind of like jewel — the player eliminates contiguous like objects, but the objects don’t keep being replaced, which I would actually prefer. I enjoy this kind of game — I’ve really been missing my jewel game since I upgraded my computer. These are both games where one can sort of play in a trance — great for being calming, or idling away time while waiting on hold. I don’t really want a game that is timed, and sends me to new levels whether I would like to go there or not. I have realized, from seeing what kinds of solitaire we play, that I am very different from my brother — he likes hard games that are rarely won, but its a big deal when he does. I am much more concerned with the actual playing. I don’t want some game where I am likely to get stuck at some point, or switch to a new level when I’m enjoying the one I’m on, I just want to play, to practice strategies. I really don’t care about the score. If you’re like my brother, this might be to placid for you, but I enjoy it.

I really like this game. If you just want a quick game and don't want to think about it too much, you can just take small groups and settle for a lower score. Sometimes I DO just want to zombie out and numb the brain a little, so that's good. Other times I want the challenge of getting the largest possible number of bubbles in a group and get the highest score I can out of each setting and thats even better, so I like this game regardless of my mood. It can be a challenge or just a relaxing time waster. I don't think the guy who complained because the value of the pieces keeps changing quite gets the point of the game. The more pieces you connect, the value per piece goes up, so your score goes up. The point is to get as many pieces connected as you possibly can before breaking them. That's how you get the best score. It's not possible to get a huge score with each setting--that just makes it more challenging.

The problem with this game is that not only do the colored pieces vary by arrangement from game to game, but the maximum and minimum values per connected piece vary. Therefore as soon as you get a high piece value (38-40) and you connect a bunch of them and get a high score… it will take you a very long time to even have a shot at besting your own score. The reason is, those high value pieces only show up every 15-20 resets / new games. To make this better, the values of the pieces should not change, only the arrangements and which color gets the highest value. IOW you can't have a minimum value of 17 on game and 28 the next and another game where there are no values in the 30s, etc. The five values should always be the same or within a vary narrow min-max range in order to feel like you have a shot every game at doing better. I hit one arrangement of 1330 points for a single connected group (40 pts each) and I now can't get close to that without starting a new game over and over many times, until I again get a puzzle with max value 40.

In an era of hardware taxing graphics and 3D imagery, this is a throwback to better days. While most games like this try to add in music tracks, missions or multiple ways to play that can easily create a frustrating experience, this one is graphically pleasing and simple to play - only one thing: get points in the biggest groups possible. While it seems simple, it is much like chess - easy to learn, but will eat up your time while you attempt to master it. The addition of displaying the points gathered with each click on groups of two or more will, quite possibly, cause you to continually play to see if you can beat the last set of group points you gathered. I highly recommend this for a quick break or to spend time with a fun game without having to blow up zombies, shoot people or run around endless mazes or point grind.