Can a game about popping multi-colored bubbles be relaxing?
That’s the premise of Tiny Bubbles, a newly released puzzle game that’s both surprisingly challenging and relaxing all at once.
The $2.99 game (iOS and Android) is centered around what the developer describes as “soap bubble physics,” and, at first, it’s deceptively simple. You’re presented with a series of different colored bubbles, and your goal is to get the colors to match up so the bubbles pop and you can advance to the next level.
But though the challenges start out relatively easy, they quickly get much more challenging, as the game relies on a set of increasingly elaborate mechanics to get the bubbles to align (there are almost 200 levels to play through).
It requires an unexpected amount of thought and strategy for a simple puzzle game, but it’s not overly frustrating either. If you get it wrong, you can try again, and there are in-game hints if you get stuck.
The best part of the game is how it manages to strike the right balance of engaging and relaxing. I prefer to play most of my games with sound effects muted, but Tiny Bubbles has a soothing original soundtrack.
Couple that with the fact that popping digital bubbles is just plain satisfying (seriously, if you enjoy popping bubble wrap, you’re going to like this game) and you’re left with a game you won’t want to put down.
