Bubbles

"If they'd cleaned up some dirty tricks, this game wouldn't have gone down the drain so quickly."

I had never heard of the game Bubbles before visiting the free video game section at Shockwave but was glad when I shook off the old favorites for something new. Fortunately I shook off the something new pretty quickly when I'd beaten the built-in all-time high score, as I would not have been glad to see that I'd spent two or three hours on this game. It's a cute game, a non-violent one, and it might have been even better except for some logical faults that seem to stack the odds unfairly against the player.

You start each level off as a small bubble. There are, according to the excellent and thorough attract and demo mode, crums[sic], ants, and greasies that you can pick up to gain points(double if they are near the drain, toward which crums and greasies) and to increase your bubble size. Once your bubble grows to a certain size, he grows a smiley face, and you can safely go down the sink to the next level, plus one. Alternatively, if you pick up all the crums/ants/greasies you advance to the next level, which introduces an interesting twist of strategy, because you get points based on how big your bubble is, which are four times as great if you skip a level. In the meantime, you must contend with razor blades(which always kill you), cockroaches(which appear after the sink hole flashes red and will kill you unless you touch them with the broom, which comes from a cleaning lady that appears and disappears by the sinkhole--but you must touch the broom and not just the lady--you also get credit for any dirty stuff she's swept up), sponges and brushes(which can be knocked around and possibly into the drain if your bubble is big enough to smile--but it makes you smaller.) More bad guys appear as you get better, but you receive an extra man at every 25000, insuring a seasoned player could keep at the game for a while. The huge twist--and one I do not fully agree with--is that your ''enemies'' will be able to remove dirt as well. This may leave you with nothing to pick up and no smiley face, causing you to lose a life once you complete the level, because your bubble goes down the drain.

There are other minor unfair things, too. It can be too hard to kill the cockroach with the broom. You've got to be spot on, and even with a second or two to aim it is no sure thing--your broom is tiny! Surely a grace range of 45 degrees wouldn't be too much? The cockroach can swerve at the last second, and you really can't. Since you already have to move around quickly, this is an excellent reason for the game to take your quarters a bit more quickly. Add to that that a bad board can really put you in trouble(if the enemies get to the dirt first, you are out of luck) and even good players may become frustrated. It necessitates bringing a full board back *whenever* a bubble dies, which although you thankfully retain your bubble size can make things tedious. But just because things are tedious doesn't mean you get a lull--your play begins right after you die, which seems about as bad sportsmanship as a computer can muster. As a coup de grace, the sound at the end is one of the most annoying of all the games I've played. A shame really, because the graphics are entertaining--the brushes and sponges really do look a bit surly. It's funny when the sink fills up at the end of the level or when your bubble really grows. Cockroaches are an entertaining menace(when the computer doesn't virtually inspire you to shout ''bad call, ref,'') especially when you knock them on their backs with a broom, and this is one game where little blips do work out.

The concept of this game is very entertaining and with perhaps another monster or piece of dirt or two and the correction of what seem to me to be elementary logic errors(logic errors will happen in video games, especially if you don't have a lot of computer memory. Those which take advantage of the player's credulity without giving anything back in amusement or playability are wrong) would have made it a real winner. As it is perhaps it is the planning that needed to be cleaned up the most and not some sink.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/00, Updated 11/14/00