BabyBubblez! review (iPod/iPhone)

♫ “Higher and higher he flies
Gliding with the warm wind stream”

10 word description: Create flowing breeze that guides the bubble through the world.

Draw the curvy, winding windstream, lift your finger and off he goes ...

10 word review: Relaxing, endearingly cute looking maze/puzzle/line-drawing hybrid. Different.

At any time, you can zoom out to see where you are and where you need to go

You will like this if you enjoy: Maze navigation games with puzzle elements. Timing based action/puzzle games … in a maze. Line-drawing games without the whole “overwhelmed by too many things to do in a limited time” game mechanic.

Timing is required to float past the dangerous bees

The good news: Cute graphics – bees are amusing, baby/bubble is rather disturbing, but in a fun way. Interesting gameplay, where you don’t directly control the baby/bubble but draw “The Windstream” to guide the bubble around the maze and also blow some of the hazards out of the way. Easy and intuitive control (breeze drawing) method. Good level design and well paced introduction of new features.

I'm not sure about the significance of this chuckling toddler in a ladybird suit, but he looks happy so he's probably ok

The bad news: A few occasional issues with the responsiveness of the baby/bubble when starting to move along a Windstream. Also, the view doesn’t scroll around a centred baby/bubble but waits for the baby to come to rest near the edge of the visible area and then the view adjusts. This could be improved, although it’s hardly a major problem. Slightly non-intuitive zoom out method.

Another example of a zoomed out level, because it's pretty

Arcadelife verdict: It’s a strange, relaxing and likeable game. There’s no logical reason why a bubble with a baby’s face would be trying to avoid bees and no rational explanation why an unseen godlike character (you, the player) would be manipulating Windstreams in order to help the baby/bubble to reach its desired destination unscathed. This is pretty much what videogames should be all about – doing something fundamentally inexplicable as skilfully as possible.

Instead of a tutorial level, this freaky hand occasionally appears to introduce some new feature or method of interacting with the environment

Arcadelife rating: 79/100

Version reviewed by Arcadelife is 1.1

GoodyPlay website link

Arcadelife played and reviewed this game on:
4th gen iPod Touch (OS 4.3.5)