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jp's Soul Bubbles (DS)
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| [September 20, 2017 03:18:29 PM]
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Made it to the next-to-last world (Himalayan/Tibetan themed) and I realized I was starting to get a bit tired. Each new world introduces a new mechanic you have to use before moving on to the next world. It's very "by the book" design - competent and solid, but not inspired. Tellingly, new mechanics are usually only used in that world. Mixing them all together wouldn't really work and then there'd be too much to worry about.
I've really enjoyed the general "mushiness" that moving the bubble around has. It's quite imprecise, but purposefully so. It reminds me very much of LocoRoco - in a good way. The game feels more organic, more like "play in the real world".
However, I got a bit bored, looked at the pile of shame and decided to call it quits when I got to a section where I was unable to do what I wanted after 20 minutes of trying (tried to swing a bubble into a secret area, but kept failing).
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| [September 7, 2017 07:18:10 PM]
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The game has 6(?) different worlds and I've made my up the the 4th. Broadly speaking, the core gameplay remains the same - you can do the same things to the bubble all the time. However, it's been interesting to see how each world introduces some new wrinkle that makes things slightly harder. Sometimes the wrinkle is gameplay related, other times it's environmental. Even so, the game is surprisingly sedated in terms of not adding too many things, which I think was a really smart design choices since moving the bubble around is quite squishy and imprecise.
So, there are underwater areas, there are fish you can "deflate", if you make a bubble underwater it contains water (which you then move over a fire to put it out), and so on.
Also, each world is themed to a different native population/culture - there's Australian aborigine, central-american (aztec? maya?), and pacific northwest native (not sure what the name is). The music changes as well, and reflects the theme... I'm not sure what this has to do with the overall theme of the game...but it's been interesting to watch this unfold. I kind of want to play more to see how it ends...but the levels themselves are quite sedate, thus not something to get super excited about playing all at once...
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| [August 31, 2017 10:31:23 PM]
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Played a bit more today and was in for a surprise. At first I was worried that, since I hadn't played in a looong time, I would have to re-play the tutorials (fortunately it wasn't necesarry) and I was also worried that (since I was playing on a plane with lots of background noise) that some levels just wouldn't work. I had the vague (and incorrect) recollection that the game used the DS mic. It doesn't! (or hasn't, so far).
Anyways, so the mechanics for moving the bubble around are cute and all...but then, in level 3(?) I realized that I could pan the camera independently of the bubbles AND create new bubbles wherever - including outside the regular play area. The game deals with this in a really elegant way, you can move your bubble around a bit even though you can't see it and then it pops. No error, no complaints. It's so nicely done!
I've made it on to "world 2" which is Australian-aboriginal themed. The game is mostly the same but they've introduced rocks you can tap on to break as well as these...uh..animals that can grab your bubble and warp it to another location. Sometimes in a helpful manner, othertimes not.
I'll play a bit more to see how it goes, but for now I'm impressed by the general feeling of calm I get when playing AND that it's a game by a small (then?) unknown indie team: Mekensleep. Weirdly I was listening to a podcast where they were interviewing a French game dev...and he mentioned that he had worked on this game (as one of his earlier titles). Wow!
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jp's Soul Bubbles (DS)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Got Bored
GameLog started on: Monday 22 May, 2017
GameLog closed on: Wednesday 20 September, 2017 |
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This is the only GameLog for Soul Bubbles. |
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