OK. I'll admit it now and get it over with. I'm addicted to video games - and have been since 1981 when I played my first game of Pac Man. All these years later, I am the proud owner of a Nintendo GameCube. And, because I'm a woman who hates sports (and sports games), I'm always on the lookout for games that aren't something my boyfriend would play (he loves sports games, unfortunately). I don't want to play football, shoot aliens or airplanes, stomp on Donkey Kong's foot 50 times to get 10 coins, and don't want to build my own amusement park, zoo or anything else. I want a video game I can get addicted to and one that I can play without having to actually WORK and THINK! I found those qualities in my latest video game purchase, Super Bubble Pop.


Game Overview:

Super Bubble Pop is a one or two player game that is somewhat like Bust A Move, the old Super Nintendo game, but is also quite different. The similarities pretty much stop at the fact that they both involve bubbles popping when met with same-colored bubbles.

The object of Super Bubble Pop is to clear the rectangular game grid of bubbles by shooting bubbles at two or more same-colored bubbles in a row either horizontally or vertically so that you can clear the grid, gain as many points as possible and also advance to the next level. The bubbles are always multiplying and advancing toward you - and as you shoot new bubbles at them, they are also piling on top of each other. Sound crazy? It is!


Characters, Difficulty Settings, Options, Etc.:

Before you begin playing, there are a few things you can customize:

Characters: Choose from one of three characters to play as. One looks like a robot-person, one is a teenage girl and one is a teenage boy. As you get to the harder levels, you can unlock two other characters to play as.

The Look Of The Bubbles: Make the bubbles look like anything but bubbles if you want to - they can be pieces of fruit, aliens, cue balls, bubbles with card suits or computer symbols inside them, or several other looks, including my favorite - regular bubbles with a covering of snow.

Jukebox: Choose what type of music you want to listen to while playing.

Difficulty Settings: There are four difficulty settings, including a Training mode. The other three are Chilled, which includes one additional bubble color to pop and uses more complex bubble patterns; Groovin', which adds two additional bubble colors to pop, as well as faster game play and less easy aiming; and HardCore, which adds three additional bubble colors to pop, faster game play, less easy aiming, and "concrete blocks" will appear faster (I will get to the concrete blocks in a moment).


Playing The Game:

As you go through the game and are frantically popping lines of three or more same-colored bubbles in an effort to clear the grid of bubbles, you will come across "special bubbles" that are behind or on top of a line of bubbles that you popped. These include bubbles that can give you extra time to clear your grid and gain more points, automatically advance you to the next level by collecting three of these types, and concrete blocks that can work in your favor or against you. They can work against you by stopping any bubbles you fire down that row, but also help to stop advancing bubbles.

Special Attacks: There are nine special bubbles that have their own jobs - among these are creating an earthquake that bursts a lot of bubbles, swapping colors of bubbles, and freezing rows of bubbles.


Two Player Mode:

There is the option to play with an opponent. You will need an extra controller for this mode. In the one-player mode, the game grid encompasses nearly the entire screen. In two-player mode, the screen is divided in half and each player has a smaller grid that is about half the size of the regular one-player grid. During two-player mode, you can set handicaps, match points, and do four things you can't do in one-player mode: temporarily make your opponent fire in slow motion, make your bubbles temporarily go into your opponents grid, jump over into your opponent's grid to push their rows of bubbles up, or swap your entire play area with your opponent.

Super Bubble Pop does not allow more than two players to play.


My Experience:

I love Super Bubble Pop because it has the same addicting qualities as Bust A Move and Tetris. It also somewhat reminds me of a favorite Super Nintendo game I have - Tetris Attack. All of these games involve lining up and matching shapes and/or colors to clear the game grid. If you think that Tetris is very addicting, expect to be addicted to Super Bubble Pop as well.

The graphics are very sharp, crisp and clear. This a very colorful game - every time bubbles pop or you get a "special bubble", the colors sparkle and look even better. I am not really one for spectacular graphics, as I'm there more for the game itself, but I do want to mention that this game is visually very colorful and sharp.

The music is your typical video game-type of music - and there are many "tracks" to choose from. For those who love video game music while they are playing, there is plenty to choose from here.

This game is easy to learn but is difficult to master. The instruction booklet does not say how many levels there are, but I would guess that there are several hundred. I've been playing for a few months and have only achieved level 20. I also have not unlocked one of the special mystery characters.

This game is suitable for men and women, as well as children and teens of all ages. I can easily see my 40 year old boyfriend playing this (he has not seen this game yet), as well as my 55 year old mother (who was addicted to Tetris and Bust A Move!). I can also see my neighbor's six year old son playing this as well, although I can envision him getting bored quickly due to the lack of animated characters and shooting action such as airplanes, cars, etc. that are in the video games that he normally plays. I think that the lack of variety in this game (such as grid shape, other ways to play, etc.) may bore any gamer easily, especially those who like a lot of action. But for the type of gamer who doesn't care about action but likes a good puzzle game like Tetris or Bust A Move, this will provide lots of escapism fun.


Other Details:

Super Bubble Pop is published by Jaleco Entertainment and was originally published in 2002. This game has a rating of "E", meaning that it is suitable for all ages.

You can save your game data by inserting a memory card that contains one free block of memory into Memory Slot A on the GameCube console before turning on the console.

I purchased my Super Bubble Pop at Amazon.com for just $14.99. It wasn't on clearance - this is the normal price. This price makes this game a steal. I have not seen this game at stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City or Wal-Mart as of yet.

Recommended: Yes