This is a copy of the post I made in the comments section with a few bits taken out. I thought we should have a starting point for anyone that may have issues with the game:
The game was originally released in Sept 2003, updated to v1.2 in Nov 2003 and recently given a big overall to upgrade it to v1.28. (Which doubled the number of levels in the puzzle mode from 100 to 200 (40 for each difficulty setting). If you do miss out on today’s giveaway or lose it to a format or upgrade and you really do want this particular version then ensure that you buy it from the developers site, Realore as opposed to some of the more obscure distributors who are still selling v1.2 for $19.95 as opposed to v1.28 for $15.95. In the UK some distributors are even trying to sell this for nearly 12.95 pounds as opposed to the 7.90 it should cost. (Which at present exchange rates is equivalent to over $25) There are alternatives that are just as good such as the recently given away Scarab Shooter and Bubble Odyssey (which you can get free from Freegamepick under the guise of Bubblematch - see below) and Aqua Bubble 1 and 2 as well as Phantasia and Phantasia II. There are others such as the one that Brian Zachary suggested called Smiling Bubbles (available from http://Absolutist.com ) and Shooter Premium Edition and Bubble Golden Pack from the same distributor/developer. There’s a couple of innovative clones such as Bubble Bay that in my opinion gives the genre a much needed lift and another Zuma like one called Bubble Fish Bob, both available from http://reflexive.com
The Game
To be honest there is nothing new being offered with this game apart from the ability to change background wallpapers and change the look of the bubbles from a choice of 11 styles, (though Aqua Bubbles II has virtually the same set) and most of these look remarkably similar to each other. :lol: Also there are five difficulty settings rather than the usual three ranging from Baby, Easy, Medium, Hard and Unreal The difficulty levels differ from each other by the size of the playing field and the number of ice bubbles as well as the speed at which the bubbles approach the out of bounds area. The Baby setting also has a helpful line that points the way to where the bubble will go; though you can get this as a bonus in all the difficulty settings when playing in the advanced mode.
You’ll find four game modes in this version of the Bubbles shooter. All four have two things in common. A temperature gauge to the right of the field that increases every time you shoot an ice bubble and, depending upon the difficulty setting the whole playing area is brought one line closer to the out of bounds area once you reach a specific number of turns; for example, when playing in the Baby difficulty setting you get 11 shots before moving, 10 shots for Easy, 9 shots for Medium etc. So the aim of the game is to clear the area in as few shots as possible before you run out of space. The main difference between this and the likes of Bubble Odyssey and Aqua Bubbles II is that if you do destroy any matching sets it doesn’t give you ‘extra time’ before the playing field descends nearer the out of bounds area, which basically makes this game much more of a challenge than previous bubble clones. The four modes and their basic differences are described below:
Classic:
The playing field is half full of randomly placed ice bubbles. The aim of the game is to get rid of all of the bubbles by creating matches of three or more colored bubbles before any Ice bubbles reach the out of bounds area, by using the ice bubble gun that’s fixed to the bottom of the playing arena
Puzzle:
In contrast to Classic mode, ice bubbles in this mode aren't placed randomly but form patterns. It has 40 levels for each difficulty setting. To clear the field you have to solve the puzzle.. On some playing fields even one wrongly placed bubble can lead to a game over. If you lose the game this is the only mode where you can return to the beginning of the level you last played by clicking on new then resume
Advanced:
This is similar to the classic mode in construction, though you get several bonuses such as bombs and score multipliers
Endless:
Personally I couldn’t figure out how this was different to the Classic mode. Maybe because I was testing the demo, it was locked, though I don’t think so
Other Things Worth Mentioning:
• The ability to change the strength of the gun, which I think enables the ice bubbles to penetrate through a few rows of bubbles provided there is a path for then to follow, though it was hard to see any real difference when I tested it for review on Saturday night.
• You can also adjust the snow effect from the options menu from having no snow to a gentle snowfall, which doesn't interfere with game play but does add a little atmosphere.
• Despite the demo saying it's time limited. The demo I downloaded from Realore seems to be a full version with the hard and extreme levels deactivated. I certainly played the demo for a few hours and it still worked up till installing the full version from today’s giveaway. I make a note of this just in case anyone loses the game to a format or missed the actual giveaway. Despite not having the harder difficulty settings to play I still found it very challenging. Okay when playing the puzzle mode you lose 80 levels, but that still leaves you with 120 levels plus the other three modes of play.
• The game is fully mouse controlled.
• You can swap the next ice bubble with the one you have loaded in the gun by using button 2 on the mouse. (or right clicking)
All Images on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Bubble%20Ice%20Age/
Slideshow:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Bubble%20Ice%20Age/?albumview=slideshow
Game Requirements:
The requirements for this game are very basic and unless you’ve got a computer that was made in the 90’s, your computer should easily cope with the graphic requirements of this game which are only 1Mb. The the 16Mb of RAM you need to run this game is also minimal {and went out with the dinosaurs at least a decade ago}. You can't buy that sort of memory any more) All versions of Windows from 9x to Vista are supported in this version of the game which is v1.28 (though I only tested it using XP with service pack 2)
Conclusion
If you’ve downloaded any of the previous bubble games (Aqua Bubble, Aqua Bubble 2, Bubble Odyssey, Scarab Shooter and SeeSoar in the past six weeks then you wont find much different apart from a better selection of difficulty choices. To be fair though, after comparing this with those I kept (Aqua Bubble 2 and Bubble Odyssey) I found this one was more challenging than either of those, especially when playing on either Medium, Hard and Unreal, though I found Aqua Bubble II more entertaining as it had a more varied selection of modes. So for that reason alone I’ll be keeping this one. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the fact that I couldn’t see any difference between the classic and endless modes. (that may have been because I was bleary eyed when finishing off the testing) And though the advanced mode did have bonus item's (which are always a welcome addition to any game IMO), it also seemed very similar to the other modes. Check out the screenshots and you’ll find it hard to distinguish between any of the modes;(even though I did try to use different bubble skins at one point) I think changing the playing arenas for each mode (that is making them look distinctly different) would have improved the overall look of the game and perhaps helped to give each mode an identity
Its definitely a playable game, but not inspiring enough to give it more than 6 out of 10 and then a very poor six in my opinion.
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Notes and other information
ZF found a freeware version of the bobble theme the other day when Bubble Odyssey was given away called Puzzle Bobble which can be downloaded from the link below. So far every link that ZF has provided in the forums has lead to some excellent games IMO (thank you):
http://djes.free.fr/ or http://www.bgames.org/gamesen.html
You can also get a commercially available bubble smashing match three game from Gametop called Yeti Bubbles:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/yeti-bubbles-download/
Or Bubble Match (aka Bubble Odyssey) from FreeGamePick: (thanks to Josh who pointed that one out the other day)
http://www.freegamepick.com/en/games_bubblematch.html
Both of these sites do have a small price to pay because your internet browser is opened when the game is shut down, You are taken to the distributors home pages, where you can find a growing library of other free (commercial) games from several genres. You can also find a few that are related to the bubble games in the form of zuma/luxor clones such as Aqua Pop:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/aqua-pop-download/
or Azteca aka Inca ball (that was given away recently)
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/azteca-download/
and finally here’s a freeware pocket PC version called Absolute Bubble Shooter for all of you who have palm OS:
http://www.supershareware.com/info/absolute-bubble-shooter-2-for-palm-os.html
