It’s the return of the bubble popping game! Only, it never really left, did it?

When I was in High School (oh, not too long ago) I was an addict of Snood, this pixilated angry-face popping game where you shoot objects in the hopes of creating a cluster of them and thereby having them explode, with any others attached blowing up in the process. It was highly addictive, totally time-consuming, and I spent many a night playing it, procrastinating on papers until three in the morning – a habit I definitely cannot pursue today past my usual bedtime of 11:00 pm.

Bubble Twirrl by mAPPn is an iPhone app version of the classic bubble-popping genre for $2.99, rife with multi-colored bubbles – actually bubbles, in this case – in colors ranging from pink to blue, red, green, yellow, and black, all situated in a hexagonal playing format that spins left or right depending on the directional force with which the fired bubble hits. The object of the game is nothing new to the genre – pop as many bubbles at a time as you can, with a cluster of three like-colored being the minimum to burst, trying to attain as high a score as possible (with a revolving playing field, this is harder than ever). No longer restricted to the static plane that is the norm in bubble-popping games, Bubble Twirrl offers a more multitudinous way of playing – you can fire continuously at a quickly twirling bubble hexagon, making speed and agility a factor along with brooding strategy, and having another three walls to bounce the bubble upon gives you more leeway in geometrical tactics.

That’s right, it’s back to geometry with Bubble Twirrl. Since the balls bounce on all three walls, to land somewhere on the hexagon, you must take angles into account, carefully aiming your ball to land with its green brethren, than atop that lone yellow bubble. As the hexagon grows smaller from burst bubble combos, your fired ball will definitely make at least one full revolution around the hexagon before landing – prediction becomes a trifling task.

Before playing, Bubble Twirrl will coach you on gameplay, which simply entails touching and holding the screen, moving your finger left and ride to aim, then letting go to fire a ball. Simple, nothing to it, right? As it turns out, a game over is really hard to avoid. With new bubbles flying from offscreen to attach to your tiresomely attacked hexagon every few turns, and one ball too close to the firing mechanism is all it takes to lose, you’ll find yourself initially playing for scant minutes at a time, before defeat closes in.  The balls will glow and seemingly pulsate with their ring of fire, as if ready to burst, when they get too close to the firing mechanism, warning you to destroy them as soon as possible.

If the classic game – the cute, colorful bubbles – ever gets mundane and too bubblegum sweet, Bubble Twirrl offers another play mode called “Mysterious,” which, appropriately, is dark and brooding and slightly melancholy. I can’t say I’m truly a fan of the Mysterious setting (not that I heavily prefer the gum-smacking, Easter-egg colored background palette of Classic); when playing in that mode I cannot help but feel I should be in a psychic or oracle’s dusty lounge, ensconced in purple velvet and surrounded by mahogany drapes, a musky taint of incense lingering off the art deco papered walls, and a strict adherence to astrological phenomena spewing forth from my tongue. The balls in Mysterious mode are cooler though – they’re cosmically rendered, more three-dimensional looking, with metallic striations and a nice heavy clacking noise when they hit, and a fire-cracker exploding sound effect when they burst. I much prefer these satisfying sounds to the lighter-than-air bubble pops. At least the music for both playing modes is the same – a soothing and unobtrusive background hum, like underwater pipes blowing bright bubbles while a twinkling galaxy slowly unwinds before you.

Bubble Twirrl offers something new – perhaps not “revolutionary” as they say on their site – for the bubble-popping game genre, and this iPhone app is pretty entertaining until it gets tedious and frustrating. Perhaps some change in levels, or some bonuses or special weapons and balls could add some needed fiery to this game, that otherwise lulls me to a peaceful, bubbly sleep.

For those interested in trying out Bubble Twirrl for free, here are a couple promo codes provided by mAPPn specially for Appstruck.com readers. Out of courtesy for your fellow readers, please leave a comment below indicating you’ve used a code, so that others will know! Thank you.

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