Description: Water Bubble Saga is an Android game that features pretty simple gameplay and doesn’t really ask much of its players in order to be much fun. Essentially, all you need to do is fire arrows at the balloons that are floating around. These balloons have water in them that you need to get filling up your cups, each time you pop some balloons, you’re left with very few balloons and the mines will destroy surrounding balloons if you set them off by accident. All-in-all, it’s an arcade game that doesn’t seem to offer all that much, but let’s take a close look all the same.
How it Works: To start playing, all you need to do is download Water Bubble Saga from the Play Store, and you’re good to go. I’m not sure why the title screen says Pop the Balloon, but still.
Once you hit the play button, you’re thrown into the action fairly unceremoniously, with no idea on how to play the game, which is annoying, but it’s not exactly difficult to work it out.
All you need to do is move the bow with your thumb and then pull and release to fire off an arrow at the balloons that are floating around.
The aim of the game is to pop the Water Balloons so that the water inside falls into the cups. At the bottom of the display you’ll see how many arrows you have left, as well as how many balloons are still available, too. When you successfully hit a balloon, without hitting a mine or missing, you’ll see a little water float on down to your cups.
If you don’t fill the required number of cups, then you’ll have to quit the game and start all over again, or pay for more balloons and arrows to keep on going. I really didn’t like how the game quit entirely, rather than just taking me back to the main menu.
Opinion: Water Bubble Saga is a little disappointing if I’m honest. The concept is hardly new, but it could be a lot of fun if the game wasn’t quite so clunky, and the whole thing didn’t look so rushed. There’s no introduction as to how to play the game, it quits when you want to retry the level you’re on and I feel like it’s geared up to get a little more money out of you. Overall, I feel that the developers haven’t quite taken the time to polish things up and make this feel like a full package, but there’s always room for improvement and there is potential here.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Water Bubble Saga ran fine on my smartphone and tablet and I had no issues here.
- Features (3.5/5) – It’s a simple game where you need to pop balloons to fill up cups of water, while this sounds pretty boring it can be quite satisfying and a little addictive.
- Theme (3/5) – The game is let down by a rough presentation, with no introduction on how to play the game, what you should do and some really basic graphics.
- Overall (3.5/5) – With a lot of room for improvement Water Bubble Saga is a game that has a core mechanic that is fun, but it needs to be polished and packaged in a way that reminds players of a game and the graphics need updating.
Pros
- Water Bubble Saga is a game that has a decent mechanic that can be quite addictive.
- Casual gamers will find a nice quick and easy game to play on the commute or when they’re at a lose end.
- Doesn’t ask too much from players in order to have a good time.
- Might be a good game for kids as well, seeing as it’s fairly simple to get to grips with.
Cons
- Game simply quits to your launcher when you refuse to pay for more balloons, rather than sending you to the main menu.
- No instructions given on how to play the game, sadly.
Conclusion: The core mechanic here of aiming and firing an arrow at some balloons is really simple, but it’s also a good deal of fun and you need to have decent aim so as not to hit the mines and ruin your streak. I do wish that there was some sort of introduction on how to play the game, as new players will certainly be more than a little confused when they get going, but it’s not that difficult to get stuck into. I just wish that the game felt more like a completed package, but there’s always time for it to get better.