Aqua Bubbles 2 has been given away twice previously, the first time in Jan 30th 2008 it received a positive 41% of 366 with 44 comments:
See previous comments from Jan 08 HERE
and in Oct 2008 the game received a positive 58% of 462 votes with 55 comments
See previous comments from Oct 08 HERE
The download is a 4.19Mb zip file that once unzipped and installed takes up 10Mb of space. Installation is a breeze, with the zip file unpacking to a dual setup and activation module plus a read me that gives details of the giveaways terms and conditions. The following is the intro to the game, which open the game when you first start it up.
Quote:
After being saved from the flood, Aquatic was very thankful for the help. However, he wasn't the only one who needed help. It happened so that each waterfall has a keeper. Hundreds of aquatics across the world cry out for help in fighting with the floods. Shoot congestions of aqua bubbles neatly to burst them. Protect the innocent creatures and rescue their little houses!
The latest version has a few changes from its earlier release Aqua Bubbles that has also been given away previously There are now four modes of play, Arcade which is basically the same as Aqua Bubbles , but the developer has now added three more modes called panic, puzzle and recolor.
Arcade Mode:
Bubbles will shift down one layer and a new line of bubbles appear after a certain number of balls have been shot via the bubble gun. The higher the difficulty level and level number, the faster the bubbles shift one line down.
Panic Mode:
If you don’t shoot for a while, the gun automatically shoots for you. The higher the difficulty and level number the more frequently the gun shoots if the player continues to pause. You do get a warning via a countdown to the auto shoot.
Puzzle Mode:
Different colored bubbles form figures/shapes on the playing arena. You don’t get any new bubbles appearing nor any bonuses.
Recolor Mode:
You play this mode similarly to the arcade mode, except that if there are no matched colours in the playing filed, the bubble you fire will recolor those bubbles around the bubble you fire at.
In the arcade and recolor modes, every bubble you BURST or disconnect from the main field increases the water meter level. In puzzle and panic modes every bubble you LAUNCH increases the water meter level. In arcade and recolor mode when the water meter fills up, you proceed to the next level, whereas in puzzle and panic mode the bubbles shift one line down. To complete levels in panic and puzzle mode you have to clear the arena of bubbles, which in panic mode can get really hard when you’ve progressed a few levels and the auto shoot kicks in quicker. The aim of all modes apart from the puzzle mode is to prevent the bubbles from reaching the bottom of the cave.
You can use either the mouse or keyboard to play this game. You’ll find key bindings for using the keyboard in the help menu found in the main menu). You can re-map these if you wish via the redefine button (in options).
You’ll find a detailed help menu that includes descriptions of each mode as well as the eight bonuses that are available in the game (apart from the puzzle mode). These are gradually introduced as you progress through the levels, so don’t expect to see all the bonuses within the first few levels. Bonuses include, dual colour, a couple of score multipliers (x2 & x3), layer move up, freeze, bomb, prompt and recolor bonuses.
From the options menu you can select one of eight different bubble skins including one skin that contains aqua himself. There’s the usual full screen/windowed toggle, which most of you will probably search out initially because the game starts in windowed mode (my reflexive copy does, but it’s Realore that’s giving it away today) as well music and sound sliders. You’ll also find water volume and bubble gun sensitivity sliders as well as the 'redefine' button which I’ve already discussed above. There’s a relax button found in the main menu which clears the screen of widows and menus so that you can relax in front of the waterfall, (even aqua disappears :lol:
On starting the game you are presented with a window that enables you to select the mode you wish to play as well as one of three levels of difficulty; (easy, normal and hard). At the end of a level a window pops up showing you your game statistics such as the best score you made with one shot, the time it took to complete the level and your cumulative score. It also shows you pictorially what bonus you may have earned plus the colours of bubbles you can expect to see in the next level. As you progress to later levels, the number of colours increases, making it harder to beat the level. Unfortunately there’s here’s no save function for any of the modes, which spoils this game somewhat. When you end a game you have to abort it, and returning to the game always starts from level one. :mad: The puzzle mode has 40 different layouts.
Check Lockett’s review from the last time this was given away:
Read Lockets review of the game can be found HERE
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System Requirements:
o Pentium 200 or higher
o Win9x/ME/2000/XP/Vista
o DirectX 3.0
o 16 MB RAM
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Resources
Images:
Reviews worth reading:
User revies from Reflexive arcade
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Alternative Games
The following games are free commercial games similar to today’s giveaway. I’ve posted then so that you can have an even better game giveaway of the day. Some of you will already be familiar with the Gametop site. For those whove not come across it before you’ll find a treasure trove of excellent arcade games that include action, puzzle, arcade and card games as well as a list of abandonware titles such as the first two Grand Theft Auto titles. The only cost apart from taking the time to download these ‘gems’, is that whenever you close down one of these games, your browser will be opened and you’ll be taken to the gametop home page. This can easily be shut down. I’ve never had any pop ups or viruses installed with any of the games I’ve downloaded from this site. Hough recently Gametop have been including the option to add tool bars and even hijack your home page; however this is easily stopped by ensuring the tick boxes are unchecked. Not all games have this annoyance though. One of the advantages of seeing the home page is that you’ll see when a new game has been added to the growing list of free games (these are not freeware games but commercial games that elsewhere you pay money for. :lol:
Mayan Maze aka Azteca:
or
Bubble Match:
Daggleland aka Charma:
or
Venture Flock:
Golden Path:
Yeti Bubbles:
Rainbow Web:
Ocean Quest:
Aqua Pop:
Gem Mine:
Of the above I’d recommend MayanMaze/Azteca and Golden Path and maybe Ocean Quest. Another game loosely based on ‘Bubbles’ is a game called Circulate by Pie eyed Games (who have reduced all their games to less than $10 recently:
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Conclusion:
The game is certainly an improvement on the original Aqua bubbles with the additional modes added. I particularly liked the Panic and Puzzle modes. Overall I'd say it’s okay for the odd moments when you want to fill in some time but can’t decide what to do. I think the game is a little uninspiring, but the kids will probably love it due to the animated aqua figure that resides to the right of the area. Overall I’d say this game is worth about 6 out of 10. A save feature would be a welcome addition to the game if the developer was considering updating it. A few mini games with a different theme to bubble matching could also be added to break up the monotony of the basic game play. For example Phantasia 2, a previous giveaway incorporated an arkanoid into one of the modes, which improved the overal game (IMO).
If you find the music annoying, it is possible to change it by replacing the appropriate ogg files found within the dat/sounds folder of the game. you'll require a suitable audio converter to convert your favorite MP3 to off. You can find several in the audio and video section of the freeware library:
Have a great weekend folks and thank you to Realore Studios, who have given us some excellent games since the game project was started back in Dec 06 and as ever to the game giveaway team for bringing us this fantastic project. (of course I’m fawning, these guys and gals deserve it :lol: )
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