IPod Game Reviews: Bust-A-Move

Taito Corporation, of Space Invaders Infinity Gene fame, has recently released its bubble-popping puzzle Bust-a-Move into the iTunes App Store. Originally released by Taito in 1994 as Puzzle Bobble, Bust-A-Move doesn’t bring anything astonishingly new to the App Store.

Bust-A-Move is essentially a match-3 game where the player tries to stick bubbles together in sets of at least three matching colors. A launcher resides at the bottom of the screen. This launcher acts as a cannon that shoots randomly selected colored bubbles to the playing field above. The playing field is automatically populated with descending bubbles. If a player groups three of more of the same color bubbles together, they will pop and free up space (and perhaps release lower bubbles to free up even more space). If the player fails to find a color-matching home for the random launcher bubbles, the bubbles up top will reach the bottom of the playing field and the game ends. A simple concept indeed. But Taito has thrown in a few variables that spice it up slightly.

There are different bubble types available that carry out specific actions during gameplay. For example, a Bomb Bubble will destroy virtually all bubbles it touches. A Rainbow Bubble pops all bubbles that are the same color as the one it hits. For this version of Bust-A-Move Taito has also offered an overworld incorporated with the new Store Mode. Players must guide the character Bub through multiple worlds on his mission to free his friend Chack’n’s family from a set of snow globes.

One nice feature Taito has built in is the ability to battle another player wirelessly over Bluetooth. This takes advantage of the iPhone OS 3.0 capabilities and does not work on older OS versions.

We had a bit of fun with Bust-A-Move but felt that gameplay was a tad on the dull side. We also felt the UI menus are too amateur-looking to be coming from an established publisher. If you’re really into match-3 games, you might be able to overlook the $4.99 price tag. But we feel the price is too high and quality too low to be able to successfully compete with other offerings in this genre.

Bust-A-Move is essentially a match-3 game where the player tries to stick bubbles together in sets of at least three matching colors. A launcher resides at the bottom of the screen. This launcher acts as a cannon that shoots randomly selected colored bubbles to the playing field above. The playing field is automatically populated with descending bubbles. If a player groups three of more of the same color bubbles together, they will pop and free up space (and perhaps release lower bubbles to free up even more space). If the player fails to find a color-matching home for the random launcher bubbles, the bubbles up top will reach the bottom of the playing field and the game ends. A simple concept indeed. But Taito has thrown in a few variables that spice it up slightly.

For more iPhone Apps Giveaway visit AppSmile.com
We pride ourselves in bringing the latest news regarding the Apple iPhone Reviews

Find out important tips about Tech Blog – check out hyperlinked publication.

Popularity: 1% [?]