LogFAQs > #978078681

Currently Playing: Bub-O Collect

What Is It? Yet another indie puzzler that is way too easy and mildly broken. The Playdate special, as I like to call it.

Gameplay Overview: You are a thing, and I'm sorry but that's as specific as I can get. You shoot bubbles. You can bounced those bubbles off of walls and ricochet them off barriers, but they also pop if they hit something spiky. You need to collect all the flowers in a stage either by walking into them or bubbling through them, and then you need to make it to the exit portal without popping your bubble.

Here's The Game Page! https://play.date/games/bub-o-collect/

Here's Some Pictures!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b367b858.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4f66856d.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/50d9698d.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3c2aca5a.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6d9ac741.png

Thoughts:
-Bub-O Collect is a game staring Bub-O from the well-known Bub-O franchise.
-No, seriously, theres apparently multiple of these: https://gabeswarr.itch.io/bub-o-collect
-The store page advertises MORE THAN 45 LEVELS! so Im assuming that means 46.
-Bub-O is some sort of monstrosity. Hes a bubble generating gun thing I think but Im not sure.
-He sees another bubble bloing monstrosity with a bow and immediately falls in love with it.
-She wants flowers though. Yes, yes, I remember courtship.
-There is like this little instructions bit on the menu that shows you how to play but its in Bub-O hieroglyphics and I cant understand what the hell theyre telling me half the time, But uh, sure guys. Ill try this thing youre showing me.
-Theres these things I need to move around but I cant figure out how. I try both buttons and neither works so Im out of ideas.
-I try to go back to the instructions bit but you cant access it once youre it the game. The menu only lets you quit out to the Playdate home screen. Hey Bub-O. This is a dumb idea. Dont tempt me into quitting your game to find the instructions because Im hanging on by a thread here.
-Oh duh I need to use the crank. Have I mentioned before that Im not a smart person. I somehow forgot theres a crank on a console that is crank focused.
-Ok I fly through the first 15 levels in like 15 minutes.
-So the concept here is essentially you shoot bubbles and you need to bounce them around the level in such a way to collect all the flowers. There are walls they ricochet off of and if they are slanted they will bounce in that direction. So you use the crank to redirect the bubbles into the flowers.
-I am a sucker for interesting, clever indie puzzle games if they have a new mechanic and use them in interesting ways. This is a new mechanic, or at least one I have encountered a lot. But they do not use it in interesting ways.
-All of the puzzles here are like uh okay I guess Ill just bounce it in the places I can bounce at and see what happens. Most of them are super simple so you have like a line or two and it is incredibly obvious where things are going to bounce.
-This game is also kind of glitchy, which is insane. Theres like 45 minutes of content here. How could this game not get through 45 minutes without having a seizure? PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, MAN.
-One level the paddles you rotate become misaligned. Like I did the level right the first time but walked into a spike so I had to retry. And when I retried the two paddles were now askew by one turn and there was no way to get them to bounce like I needed to. I had to quit and restart.
-In another level a flower just straight up despawned. It was there my first attempt, then gone my second. I had to quit out, again. STOP TEMPTING ME INTO QUITTING.
-Oh theres like special hidden apples or something? I had no idea these were even here until I accidentally walked into a wall. Oops. Well Im missing like 15 at this point.
-After I give the flowers from the first fifteen levels to lady Bub-O, she sees a different flower and I have another group of 15 to do. Hey, lady, please just take the fifteen flowers and let me quit like the game wants me to.
-This is so boring. One level you just walk around in a loop and win.
-Oh, I forgot to mention if you bump into certain wall, your bubble pops and you lose. Like after you shoot the flower, you have to carry the bubble to the exit without breaking it. Theres some extremely minor movement puzzles that are essentially are you dumb enough to walk into the spikes or not? several times. In some of these levels.
-They try to add new tricks but not much do anything. The most interesting is the flowing water which will move your bubble up one space or down one space when it gets shot through depending on the direction its flowing.
-Ok middle fifteen beat. Final group of fifteen please?
-Yeah she wants more flowers. Fine, lady. But no more after this I got to get back to playing slitherlink.
-There are portals now which are fine but some levels have like four and there isnt any indication which exits were linked to which portal until you use it the first time. So you just kind of guess and see where you get spit out at.
-Theres a lot of sloppy stuff like this and its weird for a game this short to feel this unpolished.
-Oh theres a boss?
-Well there was a boss.
-So after you get Bub-ina all the flowers she sucks them all up and turns into a one eyed monster that shoots spikes at you. WOMEN, AM I RIGHT GUYS?
-I beat her my first try without taking damage, just so you have an idea of the difficulty here.
-Hm, do I call things quits or do I go back and find all the missing apples?
-I go back and find the missing apples because why not.
-If you look on the screen during levels, you can find walls with a small indent or spike blocks that have a little hole in them. Walk into these and youll reveal a secret passage and in like 90% of levels thats where the apple is. Some require you to do this multiple times.
-Aw man, your reward for finding more apples is more game. Thats like finishing your homework and your reward is you get extra secret bonus homework.
-Well the final three levels arent anything much harder, except for level 47.
-In 47 I get all the flowers but the exit portal doesnt open up. This happened to me before and I quit out the game and did the level again and it fixed things. This time it does not fix things.
-LET ME IN.jpeg meme energy right now.
-SERIOSLY LET ME OUT
-I try like forty different ways and none of them work. I refuse to let this game be at 99% completion.
-I check the forum but Im one of like six people who bought this and probably the only one who actually played it so I find no help. THANKS FOR NOTHING SIX OTHER PEOPLE
-Ok, I finally did it. I collect every single flower by hand, except one in the middle and I use the shortest shot to get it instead of the longer one. The portal finally opens.
-Cool. Love playing the same level 28 times and cursing the gaming gods because the game is glitched out.
-Well. Done. Finally. Goodbye forever Bub-O. I will not be looking into any of your other games. No Bub-OECU for me, thanks.

Time Played: Most of the game was like 45 minutes but tack on another hour for glitch fighting
High Score: 48/48 levels and 48/48 apples. Good for 100%
Beaten? Yep. Done.
Grade: Curse of 3 is likely to strike again
Favorite Part So Far: Final boss fight against female Bub-O was a fun idea even if it was way too easy