Word Game Fans Get Their Own Bubble In Paradise
Bubble in Paradise™ ($0.99) by Clickgamer.com is a must-have for the word game fan.
I love to write, so with that comes a love for words. However, I honestly am not that great with games like Scrabble (so as you can imagine, I'm pretty bad at Words with Friends), but I seem to do better with the Boggle-like games, such as Scramble with Friends. Of course, the aforementioned games are best played with others, so what if you feel like playing a word game by yourself? Fortunately, Bubble in Paradise fills that void.
The first thing that I noticed with Bubble in Paradise were the graphics. The visuals are absolutely fantastic, and literally “pop” out at you from the screen. I applaud the developers for making a word game look this good. Each stage has its own unique background, so it feels like an entirely new experience as you make your way through the different stages. The music is catchy too, though I never found it annoying. In fact, when you are about to hit a critical point in the game (about to be game over), the music, as well as the on-screen visuals, will indicate that you are about to get game over. It’s a nice touch, actually, but I still panicked each time, furiously trying to make words on the screen.
The gameplay is rather simple: bubbles with letters will float onto the screen from the bottom, and you must spell words with them. Simply tap on the letters in order, and then submit the word by tapping on the last selected letter (so double-tap the last one). If you have trouble with figuring out what words can be submitted (aka real words), a green check mark will appear near the top of the screen when a word is actually valid. If that check mark isn’t there, then you can’t submit the word (no matter how much you want it to be a real word). As time goes by in the game, bubbles will start inflating; new bubbles won’t be able to get in when the screen is full, so make sure to pop bubbles before they get too big.
As you play, there will be some special power-ups or power-downs that may appear. Power-ups include bubbles that will turn surrounding bubbles into lead balls so they fall off the screen, blow up adjacent bubbles, freeze the game briefly, and more. Power-downs will have bubbles that will inflate surrounding bubbles, increase the rate at which new bubbles come in, and others. Be careful popping those! Sometimes the wrong move will end up in game over, as I have discovered many times.
Additionally, sometimes a lightbulb will appear. If you collect these you will be provided hints when you use them. This is extremely useful when you just can’t seem to find words to spell anymore. However, they are pretty sparse, so you will have to use them only when necessary.
Stars are another item that you will definitely want to keep an eye out for. These will show up very rarely (compared to the other power-ups), but it’s important that you collect them. Why? The only way to unlock new stages is to have a certain amount of stars. There are a total of five stages (with four of them having to be unlocked), so you will every star you can get. Each stage will have a different setting and the pace is greatly increased as you advance (so the game is never boring).
Bubble in Paradise includes four game modes (some have to be unlocked): Normal, Endless ?, Blitz, and Battle.
The Normal mode is basic – just create words until you can’t anymore. Once the screen starts to fill up with letters, you’ll get to see how much time you have (a red bar at the top) remaining before it’s game over.
Endless will have you spelling words endlessly – you can’t get game over. Because of that, I found this mode to be a bit boring, since there isn’t much incentive to make you keep spelling words (unless that’s just something you really like doing).
Blitz is a timed mode, where you must get as many points as you can in that limited time. Once time runs out, it’s game over. Battle allows you to play against others, either locally or via Game Center. The goal is to spell as much as you can and beat your opponent’s score.
If you’re the competitive type (like me), you can compare your score with friends on Game Center. There are also 30 achievements to obtain, so there is a lot of reason to keep playing (or at least until you get them all).
Bubble in Paradise was actually released last December, but disappeared from the App Store shortly after. It only just came back in the App Store at the end of last month, which came as a surprise to me (I never figured out why the game was removed for a while in the first place). However, I’m glad it’s back, and hopefully that means that there will be more people playing this awesome little word game (and more to compete against).
If you’re a fan of word games in general, then you definitely have to give Bubble in Paradise a try. It’s incredibly fun and fast-paced, addictive, and just one of the best word games available. Make sure to check it out in the App Store for $0.99 – it’s a universal app for your iPhone and iPad.
