Bubble Ducky

Few things in life are more relaxing at the end of a long, hard day than taking a bath. Just thinking about easing back into warm bubbly water, soaking those aching limbs, maybe listening to some music, and playing with our rubber ducky is enough to make us sigh happily. If only we could enjoy such a stress busting activity throughout the day! Well, thanks to Digital Chocolate, perhaps we can.

You see, Bubble Ducky has much in common with a hot bath: it's instantly appealing with some genuinely fun visuals, easy to slip into and even oddly therapeutic in its own unique way. Oh, and it's full of bubbles, multi-coloured bubbles which you are tasked with removing. To do this you move a targeting cross-hair around the screen and select groups of 2 or more similarly-coloured bubbles (all the connected ones helpfully juggle around when the cursor lands on them) which can then be popped. Do so and all the bubbles above will obey the inexorable call of gravity and fall down, where hopefully they too will meet similarly-hued chums of their own (or more likely will completely ruin another carefully lined up group you'd been working on earlier).

The ultimate aim is to get the biggest score possible by bursting as many bubbles as you can. When you clear the screen or reach a stalemate point at which you can’t continue, a suitably adorned rubber duck will zoom onto the screen to rate your performance and hopefully add you to the high score table. As well as personal pride, players in the US can also chose to take part in a mobile league system for this and other selected Digital Chocolate games, with cash prizes as well as a place on the leaderboard up for grabs.

Whilst the formula sounds incredibly simple, there's actually a considerable amount of strategy involved. Big clusters of bubbles count for more points and bubbles that burst below a tide line marker are at a premium. Hence you have to balance the urge to line up huge bubble-formations against the need to ensure balanced progression. These considerations, combined with the lack of time pressures, ensure bath-length rather than shower-time sessions as you ponder the knock-on effects of various moves.

Disappointingly there's just 3 levels of difficulty and this represents a certain lack of depth, but the bubble layout is created randomly each time you start so there are effectively limitless grids to explore. But while progress can feel a little too random at times, there's no variation in the number of bubbles or screen layout and the lack of a proper reward for clearing a level is a little disheartening, we can't help but like it. There's easily enough action to submerge yourself in the short-term and though this isn't an experience you'll be religiously returning to every day (say, like a shower? – Ed) you will definitely feel need to plunge back in from time to time.