Snorbies – 0.99 (Nepik)

Snorbies is a new bubble popper game from indie developer, Nepik. It’s your typical match 3 or more bubble popper, with some added items to make the gameplay kind of interesting. In the game, you’ll touch the screen to shoot awakened Snorbies at the sleeping Snorbies, making groups of 3, or in hard mode, 4, or more, to make them drop off of the screen. If you don’t make matches with enough of the shot Snorbies, more Snorbies come down from the top of the screen, pushing the big pile closer and closer to the bottom of the screen. If the sleeping Snorbies touch the bottom of the screen, it’s a game over. There are 4 items thrown in randomly with the sleeping Snorbies, grumpy rocks, happy rocks, cups of coffee, and roosters. Rocks fall when you wake up the Snorbie above it, and will wake up more Snorbies as it falls. Happy rocks do the same, but wake up more Snorbies than grumpy rocks. Cups of coffee and roosters fall down when the Snorbie above it is woken up, and are kept in the lower right corner to use whenever you see fit, cups of coffee wake up one snorbie, while roosters wake up a bunch.

However, these added items are only found in Advanced Mode. In Classic Mode, you are faced with clearing out the screen as fast as possible without any help from items. There’s also a Level Mode, which is more like a challenge mode, in which you are given 4 different worlds each with pre-made levels that you need to clear out, and try to get 3 star ratings in. These levels are initially very easy to clear out, but once you get in the later levels, and worlds, the shots that you need to make become increasingly difficult, and almost border on impossible. The items, rocks, coffee, and roosters are added as you progress throughout the worlds. It adds a nice challenge to the game, and is where most gamers who are already familiar and maybe worn out on typical bubble popper gameplay will spend their time.

The graphics in Snorbies are alright, a little fuzzy, but there are some cute yawning animations in the game for sleeping Snoribes. The Snorbies that are awake just sit there and smile with big eyes looking right at you. More could be done here, as the graphics don’t really stand out as a highlight of the game. They aren’t a deal-breaker, but as we all know, graphics are not something you can ignore for long. The scoring system is done exceptionally well though, growing with combos, and multiple hits. But it kind of gets lost in the game, as there’s no OpenFeint or GameCenter leaderboards. There’s also no music in Snorbies, and the constant ‘bing’ effect can get pretty annoying very quickly.

Snorbies is a decent bubble popper game, with just a few things missing. Polish on the graphics, some animations, online compatibility, and music, but at it’s core, it’s a bubble popper worth getting. For a dollar, and being Universal, it’s worth buying, as it has enough content to stay on your device for quite a long time. The challenge it brings with the pre-made levels/challenges is alone enough to make me want it. I do hope to see more done with it in the future though.

Snorbies gets a rating of 3/5 from me.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snorbies-full-version/id455972992?mt=8