QuickAdvice: Eliminate Alien Bubbles In Bubble Nervous HD
December 13, 2010
Bubble Nervous HD ($0.99) by VETASOFT is a match three puzzle game where you must eliminate alien bubble life forms.
If there is one category of games that the iOS platform excels at without any problem, it's the classic match three puzzle games. Bubble Nervous HD is another one of those games.
You are Professor Milo, and you have discovered these alien life forms that are shaped like bubbles that are colonizing on the planet. With the help of your daughter, Lisa, and a dog named Fidji, you find out that these alien bubbles can be eliminated by dipping them in a liquid and grouping them together in clusters of three or more.
You start off in the Story Mode, and from there you will have to find and collect stars in levels by clearing the screen of all the bubbles. Be warned though - not all levels have stars. You'll have to keep playing to find the stars for unlocking more game modes.
There are several other game modes to unlock, including: Rush, Time, 4, Edit, and 5 Mode. Each mode takes a certain number of stars to unlock it, so you have to go through Story Mode first. There are over 120 levels in all, so there is plenty of game time to go through.
The Edit mode is the final mode and takes 50 stars to unlock, but this is where you can edit your own levels. I haven't got to that point yet, but it sure sounds like a nice and unique mode to look forward to.
I didn't unlock all of the other modes yet, but Story Mode is the basic mode. You'll be given a certain amount of time each level to clear the board by matching the bubbles in groups of three or more. The time varies with each level, with some getting a short time period and others getting longer ones. Because of this, some levels will stress you out and others will relax you. If you fail to clear the board within the time limit, it's game over and you have the option to try again or quit.
The part I didn't like too much about the game are the controls. Instead of being intuitive and taking full advantage of the large touch screen area of the iPad, the developers opted for a set of buttons at the bottom.
On the left there is a slider to move Dr. Milo's hand with the bubbles left and right, a rotate button to switch the bubbles around before dropping them, and a button to drop the bubbles. When you combine this with the wobbly hands of Dr. Milo, it can result in some inaccurate drops. I found myself thinking I had it aligned correctly and then dropping them only to see the bubbles drop one space off, which threw my entire strategy out of whack.
I hope that the developers can change the controls so that they involve dragging to move around and tapping to rotate. I think this would be a better method of control overall, and especially since his hand is not the steadiest of hands.
The game options include adjusting the volume of the music and sound effects. I found these to be quite pleasant, which surprised me. Most puzzle games have music that gets tiresome after a while, but I didn't find that to be the case here.
Of course, there is Game Center integration with plenty of achievements to go for. The game will also automatically save your progress so there's no need to worry about any interruptions.
This is a good game, but the controls irk me. Overall it's a fun game with great music and graphics, but the controls are the weak point, in my opinion. It can make the game more frustrating than it needs to be. It could just be me and my own unsteady hands though.
Bubble Nervous HD is good and definitely a nice little game to have on your iPad for those moments you want something to do.
