By Brad Cook

The next time you want to get away from it all, visit tropical Bubble Island to bash bubbles, pop balloons, and win prizes. Just watch out for meddlesome birds, aggressive spiders, and other critters. Choose the role of Kale or Malia as you play through the more than 100 levels in Arcade mode.

Each level features a group of bubbles that you burst by hitting bubbles at them and creating groups of three or more like colors. The matched bubbles explode, along with any bubbles that are connected only to them. In many levels, the bubbles are attached to balloons that float away when the bubbles they’re attached to are eliminated.

The balloons get heavier as you add bubbles to them, so release them before they reach you or you’ll lose. In levels without balloons, Kale, Malia, and their crab helper stand on a platform that moves toward the bubbles every few seconds; if you reach the bubbles, you lose.

Plenty to See and Do

You travel around Bubble Island in Arcade mode. Every ten levels, you face off against a boss, such as a spider or a monkey, who you defeat by stunning them with a balloon and then hitting them with a bubble. Defeat a boss and you earn another piece of the island map, gaining access to a new area full of bubble-bursting fun.

Some levels in Arcade mode also feature special items, along with clothing, that you collect by bursting gift bubbles, one of 16 types of power-up bubbles in the game. Grab all of the special items and unlock extra levels in More Fun! mode. For a change of pace during your stay on the island, try Crab Fever mode, which challenges you to burst as many bubbles as you can in a game that ends only when you fail; there are no balloons or platforms, but a new row of bubbles appears at the stop of the screen every few seconds.

The game keeps track of your statistics in Arcade and Crab Fever modes, along with your progress collecting all 30 items. You can also change Kale and Malia’s outfits, or their crab helper’s shell, any time, assuming you’ve found new ones during your Arcade mode journey.

As you travel across Bubble Island, you’ll find increasingly difficult challenges. In East Quay, a tourist named Richard will ask you to get rid of a parrot that has been bothering him. Reaching that boss and defeating it won’t be easy, so strengthen those bubble-bursting muscles and get ready.

Tips and Tricks

• You typically have just 10 seconds to hit a bubble, or your character will do it for you.
• You can bounce shots off the posts on the sides of the screen. That trick makes it easier to hit bubbles that are on top of others, but don’t shoot the bubble off the screen. If you make that mistake, a bird will fly by to add a bubble, and the rest of the bubbles will have their colors replaced by question marks for the next shot.
• Hit a balloon with a bubble of a different color and you’ll deflate the balloon. Hit it with a bubble of the same color to release it faster.
• If there are one or two bubbles of the same color left, your next bubble will automatically change to that color.

Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere:

Sixteen special bubbles help you during your adventures. Hit them with any bubble to activate them. Sometimes your crab helper will serve up special bubbles for you to hit.

Bomb: Destroys every bubble touching it.

 

Super Bomb: Even more powerful than a regular bomb bubble.

 

Color Bomb: Destroys only the bubbles it touches that are the same color.

 

Ice Bomb: Freezes all bubbles it touches. It and the frozen bubbles all burst when hit by any bubble.

 

Wave: Pops all bubbles in the same row.

 

Mine: Explodes only when struck by a bubble.

 

Chameleon: Takes on the color of the bubble it touches.

 

Balloon Inflate: Causes the balloon to rise.

 

Balloon Deflate: Cause the balloon to drop. (Yes, you don’t normally want the balloon to get closer, but sometimes making it descend gives you a better shot at some bubbles higher up.)

 

Move Left or Move Right: These bubbles cause the group to shift in the desired direction.

 

Hidden: Reveals its color when struck.

 

Gift: Drops a special item or a piece of clothing when struck.

 

Flower: Changes the color of all nearby bubbles and makes new ones appear in all empty spaces.

 

Solid: You can only destroy these bubbles by popping the ones that hold them.

 

Semi-Solid: These bubbles match adjacent ones on one side, but their solid side makes them indestructible.

 

Switch: Cause all solid and semi-solid bubbles to become regular ones. Sometimes you’ll find two or more Switch bubbles of the same type in a level. Choose one to hit and the others will be destroyed.

 

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• Site: Bubble Bash
• Publisher: Apple Inc.
• Developer: Gameloft
• Genre: Puzzle & Trivia

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