Soul Bubbles is one of the best puzzle titles on the Nintendo DS. It successfully combines well paced gameplay, with fun game mechanics and an excellent audio-visual presentation to provide a complete package that should not only appeal to fans of the genre, but to anyone looking for an entertaining game on the DS. The game puts the player in the role of a young Spirit Herder, whose job is to care for lost spirits. Drawing a protective bubble around the spirits will keep them safe and allow them to be moved around the maze-like levels. The aim is to move the lost spirits to each level’s Gateway Cube.

There are eight increasingly hostile environments to explore with five stages in each one. Each world has its own theme, as well as its own special gameplay feature, which helps to progress the experience. Each world has been lovingly crafted with plenty of small details to help provide a sense of a living, breathing environment. The game is controlled through a combination of touchscreen and button control. Everything is well implemented and responds correctly to the player’s input. Bubbles are moved around the mazes by blowing air at them. Thankfully this does not involve blowing into the DS microphone, but dragging the stylus across the screen. A longer drag will make the Spirit Herder blow a stronger wind, while a shorter drag will only blow a short breeze. The bubbles react very realistically and happily bounce around the stage. The physics feel believable and never make the player feel as though they are not in full control of the action. Bubbles can also be drawn, cut, joined together, inflated or deflated with ease and moving the bubbles around is intuitive and fun.

Each of these abilities is used to create ever more interesting and challenging puzzles. Everything looks and sounds great too, with nicely drawn graphics, chilled out music and a really distinct artistic concept. The game runs well and there has been some real thought put into the level design, game balance and theme. While the action never gets too hectic, puzzle game fans will enjoy the increasingly devious puzzles and the excellent pacing which keeps the tasks challenging right up until the end. There are plenty of hidden collectables to find and some extras to unlock, but once everything has been found, there really isn’t that much to keep players coming back.

Personal Thoughts I really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Soul Bubbles and the go-at-your-own-pace exploration. The controls work fantastically and are perfectly suited to the DS touchscreen. While puzzle game fans will absolutely adore it, I also think that fans of other genres will be able to appreciate Soul Bubbles as well. The most important part of any game is how fun it is to play. Soul Bubbles is immediately fun and it never lets up throughout the entire experience. I thought the pacing was almost perfect. Anytime you feel like the game is starting to get boring, it quickly introduces another play mechanic and a new variety of puzzles to keep you interested. It is this close attention to pacing and balance that makes Soul Bubbles so fantastic.

If Soul Bubbles had come out early on in the DS’s life-cycle, it would have been a mega-hit. Sadly, coming out in late 2008 with the store shelves flooded with any number of DS titles, it will be lucky to register a blip on the retail radar. That is unfortunate as it is these types of titles, which feature fresh ideas, themes and gameplay that need to succeed to ensure the video game industry doesn’t stagnate into rehashing the same games over and over.