By Jason Nimer
As
I write more and more of these quickie iPhone game reviews, it becomes easier
and easier to differentiate between the winners and losers. And with so many
losers recently, it's nice to report that iPhone gamers have an honest to
goodness winner in BubbleHead. The game's title doesn't reveal too much, but the
wary and those able to follow my advice will get more than their money's worth
out of this one.
BubbleHead puts you in control of a little green bubble who looks as though
he could have been an extra on Invader Zim. Using the iPhone's touch screen and
accelerometer, you guide BubbleHead through a number of levels, avoid hazards
and picking up stars, which add to your point total and extend the time with
which you have to play. Sounds just like every other iPhone game, huh? Yeah, but
this one is actually fun for more than 30 seconds.
By touching the screen, you set BubbleHead in motion and tilting and twisting
the iPhone will move him around the levels. You'll want to avoid the various
obstacles (sports equipment, fast food and computer parts, just to name a few)
and pick up as many stars as possible while doing so. There isn't any story or
real goal, but BubbleHead has enough personality to keep people picking it back
up every so often. Since I downloaded the title, I've unknowingly been playing
it more than all the larger, more ambitious iPhone titles, mostly because it's
quick and its just plain fun.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this title is the random mode.
Instead of playing through the differently themed stages of the normal mode, the
game throws all the obstacles at you at once, and it makes the game very, very
difficult. Supposedly you can enter your scores here on some type of online
leader board, but I didn't have a chance to mess with that option. Not that it
mattered, though; random mode has quickly become the preferred way to play.
Overall, BubbleHead is a joy to play. You can hop in and out of the simple,
addictive gameplay easily, making it the perfect 30-second time waster a good
number of iPhone games strive to be. The game is a strong effort from the
developers CrowdCafe, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll do for
their next iPhone release. Put this one on your iTunes download list.
Final Rating: 90%
