Help Adventurous Aliens Find Their Way Home With Bobblers
Bobblers ($0.99) by PigTail Games is a charming game of toss-the-alien that is original and creative. The engaging and casual gameplay will give you hours of enjoyment without making your eyes hurt or your thumbs cramp.
The game starts you off with one unlocked world containing 60 levels and one unlocked world with an unknown number of levels, since I haven’t made it through all 60 of the first world’s yet. There is no tutorial and it took me a few attempts at touching, flicking and pinching before I figured out what to do. You touch and hold the alien blob known as a Bobbler and stretch his body out, like a rubber band or a slingshot. Then, you aim his stretched out body and let go. He will fly through the air and hopefully land at the finish line. Each level gets just a little bit harder as you progress, but nothing so difficult that you can’t make it through a level fairly easily.
The graphics are creative and original. The Bobbler makes a funny face when you stretch him out, smiles big when he crosses the finish line and looks surprised when you accidently let him drop off the rock into the abyss. Additionally, your Bobbler will get increasingly smaller as it takes you more flings to cross the finish line. When you complete a level, you are given stars based on how many times it took you to fling the Bobbler to the finish line. When you get to the scoring screen your Bobbler drops onto a scale and the gauge rises until it reaches the appropriate star.
While the game is original in its mechanics and creative in its look, it runs a bit slow. This can be good for a casual afternoon of boredom-avoiding distractions, but it starts to get irritating after a few rounds. Each level starts off with your Bobbler being dropped from a spaceship, which takes about five seconds. When you make it across the finish line, celebratory confetti shoots into the sky, which takes another five seconds. Additionally, the scoring page, which can be skipped, takes up another five to 10 seconds. This may not seem like much, but 20 seconds per level of cute graphics starts to get old pretty fast.
Overall, this game is imaginative, unique and easy to play. The slow pace at which it moves is a little irritating, but only slightly detracts from the enjoyment of the game. There is no tutorial, so be aware that you must touch and stretch your Bobbler to fling him across the screen. Even with the minor problems, it is well worth $0.99.
