{"id":8638,"date":"2021-02-21T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playlab.uta.fi\/?p=8638"},"modified":"2021-02-21T13:00:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T11:00:11","slug":"by-odins-bubbles-shooting-and-popping-with-a-viking-ish-paintjob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/by-odins-bubbles-shooting-and-popping-with-a-viking-ish-paintjob\/","title":{"rendered":"By Odin\u2019s Bubbles! \u2013 Shooting And Popping With A Viking-ish Paintjob"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those looking for a mind-boggling game of breakthroughs and plot-twists, turn away at once! Bubble Shooter Viking Pop <\/em>is none of these things, and less, and even less than that, perhaps. A mobile finger-tapping exercise through which the player tries not to fall asleep, this un-sensational piece of software is perfect for those times you\u2019re waiting for something\u2014anything\u2014else to happen.<\/p>\n

\"Colourful<\/a>\"The<\/a>
\nThe bubbles go pop. WOW.<\/em><\/p>\n

The gameplay revolves pretty much entirely around shooting colourful bubbles from the bottom of your screen into diverse masses of colourful bubbles inhabiting the rest of it. Three or more bubbles of the same colour makes the whole cluster go pop<\/em>. In order to advance to the next stage there are different objectives to fulfil. Pop bubbles to save the dragons trapped within; pop bubbles to make a route for a Viking ghost to get to Valhalla; pop all the bubbles. Such variation to make lesser games blush in awe and jealousy, if not outright shame. While some sharper-minded players might wade through the stages easier, most of the time I found good old spamming and hoping to be the best approach. Stages later on might pose some difficulty now and then, but in the end there\u2019s nothing brain-breaking to be found. All of this is cloaked in a distantly Viking-ish theme which feels more like an afterthought than anything else.<\/p>\n

Still, the game is entertaining enough. There\u2019s not that much to do given it\u2019s a basic bubble shooter, but as a specimen of that very genus it does work well enough. The presentation is remarkably pretty for a product whose origins are rather shrouded in mystery. Bubble Shooter Viking Pop <\/em>could very well be a one-person job, or the product of an actual team of game developers. I suppose we\u2019ll never know; at least my detective skills are far too lacking to bridge the information gap. There are different kinds of events introduced rather frequently, so while the game is shockingly<\/em> filled with microtransactions to help the player get through stages that choose to present difficulty, there\u2019s no need to actually buy anything with real money. I managed to play through three hundred levels, and shopped exactly zero times.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> \"An<\/a>
\nSurprisingly enticing graphics lend the game an air of mystery. Who <\/em>actually made this?<\/em><\/p>\n

I find it somewhat difficult to explicitly recommend Bubble Shooter Viking Pop. <\/em>It feels like a mashup of other games\u2019 assets and ideas, though I\u2019ve no idea what the games in question would be. I wouldn\u2019t tell anyone to avoid it either, though. If, like me, you happen to stumble upon this strange bubble popper, consider downloading it. If you want to. Perhaps you\u2019ve just played Assassin\u2019s Creed: Valhalla <\/em>and need a closer look at mighty Odin\u2019s bubbles?<\/p>\n

An end note, then, to compress my feelings on this unremarkable puzzle adventure which I will, in spite of its shortcomings, remember for some time. I\u2019ll borrow the undying if somewhat abridged words of one Dr. Seuss: \u201cDon\u2019t cry because it became too repetitive for you to enjoy anymore, smile because you managed to sit and tap through over three hundred stages of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Publisher: LinkDesks
\nDeveloper: LinkDesks
\nPlatforms: Android, iOS
\nRelease Date: supposedly sometime in 2020
\nGenres: Puzzle, bubble pop, mobile
\nPEGI: 3<\/p>\n

Pictures: screenshots taken by the author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mobile experience best played using a fraction of one\u2019s brain capacity, Bubble Shooter Viking Pop is a leisurely mobile experience for those with too much time on their fingers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":8642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1320,490,264],"class_list":["post-8638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-bubble","tag-mobile","tag-puzzle","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}