How’s your summer going? Today we’re digging in deep, and going back once again to the golden age of arcade games and reaching for something pretty obscure. What we found in said retrogame obscurity was Bubbles from Williams Electronics from way back in 1982. In Bubbles, you play a blob of soap and your goal is to clean this a filthy, filthy sink.
Are you already cleaning obsessively?
Yes, in these crazy times of Coronavirus where we spend most of our leisure time a) avoiding COVID-19 and b) obsessively disinfecting surfaces, what kind of person would want to play a video game where you are doing exactly that? Well, apparently I am that kind of person and no, the irony of playing Bubbles in 2020 did not escape me. Hell, you don’t even really need Coronavirus taste the irony of simply playing Bubbles immediately after doing the dishes!
So, back to Bubbles. Yes, you start off as a little blob of soap and you maneuver your way around this disgusting sink in order to clean up the dirt, avoiding enemies such as giant ants, razor blades, sponges and scrub brushes. You would think that the sponges would be your BFFs but no, they are not in this to help you until you grow big fat on the dirt that you absorb. Once you’re big enough you can kind of push them away, although they do still inflict some damage. Interestingly, the effect of your soap blob growing larger as you eat can be seen as kind of a pre-cursor to Agar.io or Slither.io which takes this concept to the massive multiplayer arena. Another fun fact: Bubbles was another design from legendary game concepteur/designer Python Anghelo.
Check yourself out some crazy Bubbles gameplay right here:
Year: 1982
Developer: Williams Electronics
Publisher: Williams Electronics
Designers: John Kotlarik, Tim Murphy, Python Anghelo
Platform:Arcade
Genre: Action