Shoot Bubble Pet

Shoot Bubble Pet is a bubble shooting game that doesn't add much to the genre, but it offers a polished experienced packed with upgrades and levels. The bubble shooter genre has been around since the arcade classic Puzzle Bobble, and while that game earned a cult following in the mid nineties, the genre really came into its own with the advent of mobile gaming. The basic gameplay and pick up and play accessibility made it a perfect fit for both touch controls and the shorter demands of mobile games. Shoot Bubble Pet takes the existing formula and packs it with content, making it an ideal choice for players looking for a solid dose of nostalgia.

Shoot Bubble Pet's inherent mechanics are a mix of strategy and arcade reflexes. A number of differently colored bubbles align the top of the screen, and it's your job to fire new bubbles at them. Hitting a blob of bubbles with the same color will cause them to disappear, but the sequence of colors that load up in your cannon are outside your control. The result is a game that's about board management. Strategically lining up your shots can allow you to knock out a whole rainbow of bubbles in a single round, but you can just as easily crowd the space with too many colors, making it difficult to clear the space in the amount of time given. Then there are a number of challenging obstacles you have to contend with that force you to dream up new strategies.

This is all par for the course for games of this genre, but Shoot Bubble Pet is a pretty robust package. The original version of the game cam with hundreds of levels, bu the developer periodically adds more to extend the shelf life of the game. Adding an extra level of tactical demand to the game is a variety of different power ups you can use to make progress on particularly challenging levels. A total of ten different power ups are available, and determining when to use them can have a dramatic effect on your chances of success.

Graphically, this game is simple but attractive. The bubbles themselves are characterized as cute little animals that you have to free from their prisons, while your avatar is an adorable little squirrel. It's a basic but appealing style that should especially appeal to younger crowds. Less attractive is the presence of in app purchases and videos. While this is a free to play game, you can expect to have to sit through videos after each level, and using real money to purchase new power ups becomes practically a necessity in the frustratingly hard later levels of the game.