The basic premise behind Bubble Babble is that you must spell words to progress in the game. Your arena is the bottom of a body of water, and the letters used to spell the words are contained within bubbles floating to the top of the water. Using the stylus, you drag the bubbles next to each other to connect them, spelling out the word you want to make. If you accidentally connect the wrong letters, or connect them in the wrong order, you can split them back up by dragging the collected group of letters quickly towards the bottom of the screen. I wish they could have come up with a better method of splitting letters, because I found the quick drag technique quite hard to pull of on many occasions, which is particularly bad in timed modes.

There are 4 play modes in Bubble Babble: Challenge, Target, Mystery and Freeplay. Freeplay is good for learning the mechanics of the game, but it's really not that fun for an overall playing experience. There are no critical goals to reach and no obstacles to block your progress, which means there is really no challenge. Probably the most challenging game mode is Mystery. In this mode you are tasked with building a word comprised of x number of letters, which increases every so many levels. The caveat is that you only get a certain number of letters to choose from each level, so your vocabulary has to be top notch to pick the word out of the letters you are given. Challenge is sort of the middle ground. In this mode you have to spell a certain number of words within a time limit. As the level goes up, the number of words increases and the amount of time gets shorter. Finally you have Target mode. While not as frivolous as Freeplay, because there is a goal and a time limit, it is by far the easiest of the goal oriented modes. Each level you are given a word to spell, and you just have to rearrange the bubbles to spell that word before your time runs out or one of the bubbles escapes to the surface.

As with any good puzzle game, there are items along the way that will help you reach your goals, and other things that will try and stop you. The main deterrent in any of the games, besides the time limit imposed on a couple of the modes, is a puffer fish that comes around every once in a while in Challenge mode. If he's left alone long enough he will puff up, causing bubbles to scatter around a little bit. You can make him go away simply by clicking on him. If you want to maximize your points you need to look for multiplier bubbles, which are bubbles that have a background color different than the norm. These will multiply the score you receive for the word that uses them by a certain factor depending on the color of the bubble. There's also a starfish that acts as a wild card, representing whatever letter you'd like. You don't actually get to specify which letter you'd like the starfish to be, however. You just have to trust that you place it in the appropriate spot in your word for the letter that you want it to be. At any given time you can click on the fish in the lower right corner of the screen, and he will give you hints pertaining to the particular game you are playing. For instance, if you are in Target mode he will remind you of the word you are trying to spell.

With the exception of Freeplay, the main goal of each game is to score the highest number of points possible. You do this by creating longer words, using more multipliers, and in general taking the most advantage of whatever bonuses a particular mode provides for you. Along the way, as you reach certain milestones, you will be rewarded with an additional bonus: a special shell. For instance, the first shell you can receive is for simply completing the tutorial. Other shells are awarded for things such as making the longest word or making a word using all the letters on a level. There's even one shell that allows you to enter a word, and it will list other words that can be spelled with that same combination of letters.

Other than the general frustration due to my lack of spelling skills - which I realize is my fault - I'd say my biggest gripe is the lack of interesting obstacles. Besides time constraints and not being able to come up with the right word on Mystery mode, the only real adversary in the game is the blowfish. A couple of other nifty obstacles might have been things like octopus tentacles that pop bubbles or a clam shell that spits out something that transforms a valid bubble into something that's unusable. The concept of bogus bubbles wasn't even really touched at all. I know there were some creative forces behind this game, and it just seems like they could have explored the possibilities a bit more.

The graphics are nicely rendered. The background has a bit of a washed out appearance to it, which I suppose suits the landscape well. The fish have a cartoony look and are well animated, which is why I wish there were more of them. The letters were all easy to read and the different colors for the multipliers were distinct. The background song is okay, but quickly becomes forgettable. The sound effects work well in the atmosphere, but are nothing extraordinary. I would suppose for a puzzle game they wouldn't need to be, though.

Overall, Bubble Babble was a solid puzzle game true to Astraware style. The gameplay is fun, but some variety could have spiced things up a bit. The heavy reliance on correctly spelling words is also going to be a big deterrent for some, though playing in Target mode is a good way to learn new words in an entertaining matter. The game was aesthetically pleasing, though not necessarily among the best that has come out of the Astraware fold. If you like puzzle games that lean a little more on the educational side, or you just want to test your spelling prowess, Bubble Babble is definitely a good choice for you.

Overall Score: 7/10
Product Page: Bubble Babble Page
You can try or buy the game for $19.95 here