Soul bubbles was released on June 13th 2008 and, oddly, is a Toys R’ Us exclusive game. That is you won’t find it anywhere else, which may or may not be why you’ve never heard of it.

The game’s premise is fairly simple. You play the role of a soul herder. You guide a group of souls from one location to the next via a bubble. You can make new bubbles, divide bubbles, combine bubbles, and deflate bubbles to your heart’s content. Things are not as safe as blowing a bubble around sounds. Dotted along your path are a menagerie of obstacles and enemies. From sharp thorns to soul hungry bugs. To throw more things on the pile, each world introduces a new quirk that you have to work around. An example of this are special fruits that when combined with a bubble with a soul in it allow you to fire bullets.

As far as game play goes, everything is fairly fluid and nothing is going to be troublesome or obtrusive. You choose what mask you want to use via the d-pad or x,y,a,b, buttons. Thus, the game is lefty-friendly. The masks are what you use to cut, deflate, or create bubbles. Using the stylus to carry out the actions is no problem at all. To blow the bubble you simply slide the stylus across the bubble and in the direction you want to send it. To cut it you slide the stylus across the bubble and to rejoin you move the stylus from the center of one bubble to the center of another. Deflating is very simple all you do is touch the bubble until it’s the desired size. Drawing a circle creates a new bubble. The last 4 actions require you to be wearing the mask required.

This is fairly self-explanatory, but if the bubble pops and your souls are left exposed, they’ll die. The game gives you plenty of time to draw a bubble around them and save them.

The puzzles that are presented to you are usually not that difficult. You can probably solve them without thinking at all. This sort of detracts from the game, but it isn’t too much of a problem. The quirks that are added to each world are usually very refreshing. I was slightly disappointed that the majority of these things weren’t carried over to other worlds aside from the final one.

The music is for the most part non-existent. It IS there but you’ll probably ignore it. Usually they’re fairly calming melodies that fit the mood of the game well.

There really isn’t too much replay value to the game. You can try to get an S rank in everything or you can try and get the golden watches for each level. The golden watches are gotten for completing each level VERY quickly. I’ve tried my best, but have never gotten one.

Overall I found the game to be a very fun experience. It may not have been very difficult, but I found a large amount of enjoyment in the game play itself. I’m not quite sure WHAT it was, but it was very fun guiding the bubble through each level and solving the slight puzzles that dotted each level. It isn’t very long, but it is a nice game to play before you go to bed every night. The length of each level ranged from 5 to 15 minutes if you’re going for everything. If not it may take you as a little a third of that. I’d recommend this very unique game to anyone looking for a fun experience, but something that isn’t too difficult.
 

[Editor’s Comment] - A huge thanks to n00b who took the time to review this game and share his opinion!