Review: Bubble Babble — Is Astraware Fishing For Kind Words?

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They say that if stand in the surf at just the right time of day, you can actually hear the ocean talking to you.  As the waves crash against the sand and rocks, many have claimed to hear a sort of singing or speaking in the undercurrents, calling them out to sea.  Of course, the more practical among us know that these sounds are actually mythical creatures called Sirens, luring the sailors to their doom.  Or maybe there are fish who live underwater, forming sounds and words in the bubbles which can only be heard when they pop against the surface.  At least that is the explanation you will hear from Astraware in their latest offering: Bubble Babble.

Bubble Babble is one of the least complicated games I have seen from Astraware lately.  In this one, you will want to follow you fish guide, Wordsworth Smartygills, as he floats letters to the surface in tiny bubbles.  Your goal is pretty simple, drag the letters around the ocean to form words.  To form a word, all you have to do is press two bubbles against each other to join them.  Once a fully formed word reaches the top, you will receive points based upon the difficulty of the word and how many special letters you have used.

Along the way, there are a few friends who can help or hinder your performance:

• Stella is a starfish, and everyone knows Starfish are wild chameleons.  Stella can fold herself into virtually any shape, or at least any letter of the alphabet.  So, you can add Stella to any word (in any position) and she will create the letter which belongs in that position.

• Z the Pufferfish is not quite so helpful, however.  He will swim into the middle of your letters and puff himself out, creating quite a nuisance and knocking your letters all about.  Fortunately, Puss is fairly ticklish, so just tap his belly and he will swim out of your way.

• Multiplier Bubbles are not friends, but they can help you.  At times you will find letters encased in red or yellow tinted bubbles.  Use these bubbles to form a word for an extra bonus.  Kind of like landing on the double or triple word score in Scrabble.

There are four modes of play, although the basic gameplay is the same in all of the modes.  The primary mode is Challenge.  There, you must race against the clock in order to built a designated number of words.  When time runs out, your game will come to an end.  As you reach higher levels, your goal to complete the level will steadily increase.

• In Target mode, all you have to do is reassemble the assigned word by using the lettered bubbled on the screen.
• Mystery mode is not quite as ominous as it may sound.  Here, you are given a minimum number of letters to use in order to form your word.  Just find the word hidden among the bubbles to move on to the next level.
• Finally, Freeplay is the mode for those of you who just want to enjoy some underwater relaxation.  Turn off the clock, no hidden words or goals.  Just form as many words as you can.

Overall, I thought the gameplay was enjoyable, though there was not enough variation between the different modes and levels.  As such, I found that after a while, the only thing which kept me going was my quest to complete the seashell collection.

Yes, Astraware fans, that’s right.  Like many of the more recent Astraware games, this one also includes a trophy case, or to be more accurate, a shell collection.  Shells are awarded for reaching various milestones throughout the game.  But watch out, because not all of these milestones involve actually winning or even completing a round.  Some shells may be awarded for losing well.

But even these shells were not enough to keep my interest for long.  What this game really needed was a mission mode or story mode, in which forming words would advance a story told between levels. 

I think the game would also have benefited from more sophisticated graphics.   While they lived up to the Astraware reputation of fun and cartoonish, they frankly got a little stagnant after a few levels.  Every level in every mode carried the exact same background image.  It would be nice if at least the background changed, or if Wordworth would move around the screen a bit, or if just about anything would happen to add variation between modes and levels.  But they did not.  And as a result, every level and every mode looked exactly the same, which I felt did a real disservice to this game.

I thought Bubble Babble had a lot of potential.  I am typically a fan of word puzzle games, and it started off great.  I really enjoyed the four modes of play and testing different strategies in order to complete my seashell collection (still one missing).  In the end, however, I found that the shine quickly wore off.  Between the stagnant backgrounds and never changing gameplay, I quickly found myself moving on to different things. 

What I Liked:

• Four modes
• Seashell rewards
• Really, an interesting and enjoyable concept

What Needs Improvement:

• Game does not seem to advance or become significantly more challenging.  I think this could have been remedied by the addition of a missions or story mode.
• Background graphics are extremely stagnant.  Little movement and no change from one level to the next.

Vital Stats:

Name: Bubble Babble

Developer: Astraware

Version: 1.0

Test device: Sprint Mogul with Windows Mobile 6.0

Also Available: Windows Mobile 2003 and higher, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Palm OS

Where To Buy: Astraware

Price: $19.95 (currently discounted to $9.95)

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