Game: Bubble Dogs
Genre: Puzzle
System: Steam (Windows) (also available for Android)
Developers|Publishers: Rivardus
Controller Support: None
Price: US $0.99 | UK £ 0.79 | EU € 0,99
Release Date: May 1st, 2024
A review code was used, with many thanks to Rivardus.
Bubble Dogs is a sweet little Watermelon Game clone that features a whole lot of man’s best friends. In order to win in this game, however, you’ll have to match way more than two identical circles.
The History of the Watermelon Game
I just adore talking about the history of the Watermelon Game, mostly because how it got so popular here and in Japan is so weirdly funny to me. I have been known to write about it a couple of times previously on Ladies Gamers, mostly in my review of the Watermelon Challenge and the Suika Game. While the original in this genre of dropping fruit onto one another type of game was Synthetic Watermelon, it was only popular in China. A company that makes projectors in Japan called Aladdin X used a Japanese copy of this game, called Suika, as a game to show off its projectors.
It became so popular among the owners of Aladdin X projectors that people began sending messages to the company, hoping that it would release Suika to the general public. Eventually, they did, releasing Suika on the Nintendo Switch in Japan only in 2021 and international releases in 2023.
This ballooned into a sudden spike in all sorts of themed versions of fruit-combining games, moving away from fruit and into other categories like pets, people, and planets. Bubble Dogs continues this proud tradition but manages to make itself stand out in the sea of replicas by taking the regular formula and shaking it up a bit.
The Gameplay of Bubble Dogs
Much like Suika and all those that have come before it, Bubble Dogs has you drop round objects on top of other round objects in order to combine them. In Bubble Dogs, however, you need to make whole bubble families of dogs. There are baby dog bubbles, pink mommy dog bubbles, and blue daddy dog bubbles, and you need at least one of each to make a family and have the bubble disappear.
There are also Dog Kibbles, which are made by making one of each kind of family. They can be combined with other Kibbles to make Dog Paws; then Paws can be combined to make bones, which gives you extra points. After you have a big pile of pups, you can get quickly overwhelmed by a massive amount of doggos, and you can end up losing really fast, just like with other Suika games.
The Look and Feel of Bubble Dogs
Like many indie games, Bubble Dogs has limited, repetitive music and sort of generic dog noises that play. The sound design isn’t great. The bubbles don’t always fall where you click, which makes this game very difficult to control. I think the idea of Bubble Dogs was good, but I think it’s a little bit lacking in its execution.
Bubble Dogs was kind of fun to play, but the feel of the randomization made for some really frustrating playthroughs. I counted one time that I got seventeen male dad pugs, some baby pugs, and not a single female pug to match up with them. It looks like the developers chose to go with pure randomization rather than trying to make it enjoyable to play. This feels like a big mistake on their part.
Conclusion
Overall, Bubble Dogs was kind of fun. It’s a simple game that feels familiar to play. As much as I love Suika-likes, I couldn’t love Bubble Dogs, which is so incredibly sad. Because a puppy-themed Suika game should have been right up my alley. I would prefer a slightly more expensive game with a lot more thought put into it.
Final Verdict: I Don’t Like It.
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Bonjour, je suis le créateur de Bubble Dogs. J’ai tenu compte des remarques qui m’ont été faites et j ai fait une grosse mise à jour. Je vous propose de le réessayer. Et si vous changez d avis merci de m’en faire part, même si c’est par un message privé sur Steam. Merci d’avance, et merci d’avoir pris le temps de rédiger un article sur mon jeu.
Hello, I’m the creator of Bubble Dogs. I have taken into account the remarks made to me and I have made a big update. I suggest you try it again. And if you change your mind, please let me know, even if it’s through a private message on Steam. Thank you in advance, and thank you for taking the time to write an article about my game.