Amazing how a simple game reels in players. All you do is shoot bubbles and when you match three of the same color, they pop. That’s about all there is to the game. However, the Bubble Shooter Premium comes with a variety of themes so you can change the scenery for a change of pace. The game rewards you with a screen saver when you earn 50,000 points.

You can do more than make a match and prevent bubbles from reaching the bottom of your screen. Aim your bubble just right and you might knock down a bunch of bubbles that appear below your bubble. If you fail to make a match, the game takes away a bubble until they all disappear. When they disappear, a new row of bubbles appears pushing the bubbles down. You don’t want the bubbles to reach the bottom because that means it’s game over.

The vibrant-colored and soft-colored scenes set the mood for the game. Pick Water and your game takes place underwater where the bubbles float and you can do a few cool moves. Pearls your thing? Try Gems. The stunning graphics and calming music are relaxing — until you get mad at the game if you happen to be a competitive player as I am.

You can play against another player whose game appears on the right side of the screen, but you can’t chat or anything, just peek in. The multi-player — I don’t think that’s the right word to use because only you and one other player appear — game works differently as new rows show up at no particular time. The instructions don’t give details for this variation.

As for the chat feature, I’ve yet to find anyone in the chat room when I check. If you’ve played other Bubble Shooters, this edition offers more themes, more avatars, backgrounds, chat and a screensaver. The game tracks high scores by player, computer (local) and global.

The game should attract those who like the Bubbles series of games and similar style games. Bubble Shooter Premium stands out from the crowd only in its gorgeous graphics and bonus screen saver. Overall, Bubble Shooter Premium is a solid arcade game.

Download a free trial of Bubble Shooter Premium or buy Bubble Shooter Premium.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• Pentium III or faster
• 128MB RAM
• 65MB available hard drive space

[tags]games,Meryl K. Evans[/tags]