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Review: Bubble Trouble

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:40 — Bradley
Game reviewed: 

Some Bubbles are Trouble 

Reviewed by Kate Powell

 

Bubble Trouble, by Playnourmous.com, is a new game with the goal of teaching kids about aerobic and healthy exercise habits.

 

ChickenDawg, the little monster with antennae on the right side, is the hero in question who must pop all the aerobic bubbles while missing such un-aerobic bubbles as the Arts and Crafts bubble - heading right towards him in the image above! The number of aerobic minutes you collect depends on how active the activities are, and your score increases by scooting around and collecting the little plus sign bubbles that appear when popping the aerobic bubble. Popping three in a row will get you a bonus, but beware of accidentally popping un-aerobic bubbles because a fish will come and eat any bonuses you have won. The bubble itself will turn into a rock and you will lose a certain number of the minutes you have already won.

 

As you progress in the levels, the options become harder to discern. At the beginning, it is a matter of choosing between sports activities and sleeping, watching TV, etc. Later, however, the game asks you to choose between different types of sports activities (for example, yoga is not aerobic, nor is different weightlifting exercises). It seems a little simplistic to me, as it seems to equate yoga and weightlifting with watching TV and sleeping whereas in my experience, I have certainly gained health benefits from yoga and weightlifting.

 

Perhaps incorporating the idea of balancing cardio vs. non-aerobic/weight-bearing games would be a good lesson for the game and would make it ultimately more educational, although I suppose if you are gearing the game towards kids you would want to steer them away from weightlifting since that can be dangerous at a young age. In any case, I think the game is cute and fun, but does not give out complex lessons. The game needs to clarify what is the targeted age group - clearly those who can read, but is it too simple for many of them?

 

I like that the game uses the mouse, rather than a combination of keys making it accessible for those (like myself!) with clumsier motor skills. I also liked having the list of the high scores next to the game screen (I am competitive so I enjoy feeling pushed to do better). Deducting points and costing kids their bonus, but allowing them to continue playing, seems to give them time to assimilate the lesson of "right" and "wrong" if they do not know many of the answers already.

 


Overall game rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
look and feel rating: 4

The graphics were bright and colorful and the sounds were fun. ChickenDawg is cute and I like the fact that he says funny things like "Dude!" when he hits a "bad" bubble. It all seemed appropriate, well animated and well thought-out.

story rating: 3

As I said in the review, I liked the beginning of the story, but felt it lacked complexity. The instructions, which were in rhyming form, were cute. This would have gotten a higher rating if the story were more engaging and made me want to come back and play more.

playability rating: 3

This game is easy to play, however, I gave it this mixed rating because in playing it on one computer, the game kept freezing and whenever ChickenDawg would hit an un-aerobic bubble, he would freeze and I would have to restart the game. I also had to reboot my computer three times in the course of trying to play the game. I played the game on another computer and it worked fine. I am not sure why it worked on one and not the other or whether it is a problem with my computer or a problem with the game.

fun rating: 2

I think the game, in gearing itself towards younger kids, was meant to be very simple; however, I think this simplicity detracts from the fun. Obviously, too much complexity can lead to frustration, but the way the game is currently, I would probably not return to play again.

learning rating: 3

I didn't really learn much although I thought it did gain a level of interest when I had to discern between different types of sports activities. However, like I said in the review, I feel like the lesson is rather simple. It's true that weightlifting and yoga are not necessarily aerobic (although having taken power yoga classes, I'd disagree with that!) but again it seems that the lesson teaches that anything other than aerobic is bad which is a lesson I don't agree with.

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