So what happens when you combine my all-time favorite video game (Pac-Man), with one of my favorite puzzle game series (Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble).  You get Pac-Man Pop!  It’s a new free-to-play puzzler downloadable on iOS and Android devices (reviewed on iPad here).  So you know I had to check it out!

Gameplay is similar to many other bubble popping mobile puzzle games.  Colored bubbles sit at the top screen, and you must aim and fire bubbles from the bottom to match three to make them disappear.  If you run out of bubbles before the objective is cleared, it’s Game Over.  I have to wonder if Taito wishes they would’ve had a stricter patent on their Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble franchise since most everyone has copied it by now.

There are three ways to play as you move up the map.  In “Save Your Pets,” Pac-Man’s dogs are trapped in bubbles and you must match or drop them to set them free.  When all are freed you win the stage.  I love how Pac-Man’s dogs look like Chomp-Chomp from the old Hanna-Barbera Pac-Man cartoon from the 80’s.  Namco may try and deny that the cartoon didn’t influence the characters, but we know better.

The other two modes are “Pop the Ghost” where a giant ghost monster sits in the middle of the screen and you must hit it with a bubble to pop it.  But bubbles surround the ghost that you have to clear, and you must do this three times, each time the ghost gets smaller and harder to hit!  The last mode is “Collect the Fruit.”  Here you must pop bubbles that have fruit in them by popping them with another bubble.  But watch out because ghost monsters creep down from the top of the screen, and if they reach the bottom, they’ll take away some of your moves!  You can send them back up to the top by hitting them with a bubble that’s the same color they are.

If you can get three stars in most levels by reaching a certain score, you can enter Pac-Attack mode which is like a point-boosting bonus stage.  Shoot bubbles at ghosts who are chasing Pac-Man around for points.  You can also use power-ups to give yourself an edge in a particularly tough stage.  Unfortunately, due to the free-to-play nature of this game, things get impossibly hard between stage 30 and 40 unless you start using power-ups, and eventually you have to start buying them with real money.  Plus, the game gets kind of repetitive anyway.  And it’s hard to see the color bubbles that the puppies are trapped in.  I will say, though, that I love the character designs of Pac-Man and the ghosts in this game.  They’re so adorable!

Kid Factor:

Aside from hitting ghosts with bubbles and making their eyes run away, nothing too terribly violent here.  If you’re OK with your kids playing the arcade classic Pac-Man, they’ll be fine with this game, too.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and parental supervision is recommended for the in-game purchases.

Tags: Game Reviews