Princess Bubble Story

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in multiple bundles. I highly recommend you compare and contrast bundle contents using the handy chart on this page.)

Princess Bubble Story is a family-friendly Match-3 Puzzle game released on Nintendo Switch in 2023 in which players aim and shoot bubbles from beneath various multicolored bubbles above, trying to match the color of three or more adjacent bubbles, with the aim of clearing all of the bubbles in each of the game’s levels. And if it sounds like I just described Puzzle Bobble AKA Bust-A-Move, that’s because I did – this game is clearly copying the Puzzle Bobble formula here. In fact, this game is so similar to multiple others game from the same publisher, including Bubble Puzzler and Bubble Shoot Farm, that I have copy-pasted much of the text for my reviews of these games, changing only the pertinent details.

However, as I often say, it’s not necessarily bad for a game to be a copycat, so long as it’s a good copycat, so the question is, is Princess Bubble Story a good copycat?

I’ll start by noting that the gameplay here isn’t exactly like Puzzle Bobble. In that game, the bubbles hanging above you would drop down a little every few seconds, and if they got too low, you would lose. Princess Bubble Story is much more lenient here – if you get bubbles underneath a line, the entire game field will shift down to give you more room. Instead, you are limited both in the amount of time you have, and the number of bubbles you can shoot, making for a different, but not necessarily insubstantial challenge.

Well… while it’s not necessarily insubstantial, the truth is that if practice this game is much easier than Puzzle Bobble most of the time, and the only time it feels especially difficult is when the randomly-generated bubbles you’re given to fire keep refusing to give you the one color you need, which can make for some frustrating repeating of levels due to no fault of the player. Additionally, the game has a purple fuzz monster sometimes shooting out other fuzz monsters onto the gameplay area that need to be cleared to access the bubbles behind them. However, the frequency and placement of these hazards is also random.

All of this makes for a highly inconsistent challenge level. One playthrough of a level can be super-easy, while another playthrough of the exact same level can be impossible to complete. Some levels can even be completed in a single move if you’re fortunate enough in what it starts you out with. All of this doesn’t outright ruin the game, but it does make it worse than it could have been.

I should also mention that for younger kids who like playing dress-up, there’s also an on-screen princess you can customize using unlockable clothing and facial features, though this has no impact on the gameplay. It’s a nice inclusion, in any case.

All of this is presented with a mostly pretty good presentation, which uses clean, colorful 2D visuals that pop (ha) off the screen. And speaking of “pop”, the game’s bubble-popping sounds are really satisfying. Really, there are only a few places where the presentation is a bit of a let-down – first, the interface is a bit too much like a mobile game. And second, the instrumental soundtrack sounds like it’s public domain, which means the music sounds pretty generic.

The only other complaint I have here is that $10 seems a bit high for what’s on offer here, but the game seems to have a decent number of levels, and the game’s 2-player mode is nice. Really, the only thing that truly seems missing here are an endless mode and a VS. AI mode.

However, overall, as far as Puzzle Bobble copycat games go, Bubble Puzzler is pretty decent. You may want to wait for the game to go on sale to get a decent price, and the easy difficulty (when the RNG isn’t messing with you) may not appeal to everyone, but overall this is a solid Match-3 Puzzle game, and a pretty good one for younger and less-experienced gamers.

tl;dr – Princess Bubble Story is a Match-3 Puzzle game that’s clearly copying the Puzzle Bobble formula of aiming multicolored bubbles at bubbles hanging above to try to match them and clear them. However, while this game lacks originality, it’s a pretty good take on this formula, albeit a pretty easy one – this isn’t a game to get if you’re looking for a challenge. However, for younger and more casual Puzzle fans (particularly those who like princesses), this is a good choice, especially if you can get the game on sale.

Grade: C

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