Review

Gameplay 83%

Panda Pop is a casual bubble shooter puzzle game where the objective is to rescue panda pups trapped inside colored spheres by an evil baboon. To do so, you must shoot bubbles with elemental magic on them. Just touch the screen and drag around your finger to aim, release it to shoot. When 3 are or more are lined up after your shot, they’ll disappear, and if those bubbles had other color bubbles connected below them, they will fall down and pop for extra points.   If you pop a bubble by making a match, you win 10 points. If you pop it by making it fall down after its upper row disappears, you eran 20 points. Getting a high score is not the game’s objective, but you can get a 3 Star rank at the end depending on your performance. To make things easier for you, you have Special “Boosters” at your disposal. There’s the perfect aim, that extends the dotted aim you have to the whole screen, which is useful when you need to bounce a bubble on the walls. You have the 3rd Switch, which let’s you see a couple of upcoming bubbles on your box, so you can switch which color bubble to throw next. And finally you have the Rainbow Bubble, which becomes the color of the bubble it touches when shot. Besides items, you can charge up elemental powers on your bubble by filling lamps at the side of the screen. They get magic from fire, plants, sun and water. Once you fill up a lamp, tap on it and then you can make a shot with a Special Effect. The fire bubble burns the surrounding bubbles, up to 3 layers. The plant makes a vine grow that pops bubble 3 rows up of where it landed. The sun let’s you throw 3 bubbles at the same time, with a small burning effect when they hit. And finally the water element eliminates a whole row of bubbles where it lands. You can even combine lamp magic into a single shot for a super special effect, and if you combine all 4, a dragon appears eliminating 11 whole rows. There are also special bubbles that serve as obstacles in the levels, like the metal ones that can’t be matches, but you can make the fall down, and the frozen bubbles, that you defreze by making popping bubbles next to them. In the levels there are also bubbles charged with elemental magic power, that when touched, will unleash the same effects as your magic lamp charged bubbles.

Graphics 96%

Panda Pop features excelent 2D art and animation. The main mama panda looks great, has many expressions and different moves, looks around where you aim and you can see her reactions to all your actions.   When you free a panda pups, they will fall down by using a parachute and land beside their mother. The also have many different animations like stand up, walk a little, jump around and celebrate when you beat the level. They also show different emotions in their expressions while trapped inside magic the spheres. The backgrounds are beautiful hand drawn artwork based on chinese culture, and every 10 levels the setting changes. First you’ll be in a forest, then at a lake, afterwards you go to the Great China Wall covered in ice. There’s a lot of variety in the stages, and it’s also worth mentioning the bubble popping animation and magic effects look pretty good too.

Production Quality 93%

Panda Pop doesn’t really innovate much, the basic gameplay formula of classic bubble shooters is here, but it sure added some elements not commonly seen in the genre that makes for a fresh experience.   The Boosters are a standard in this kind of games, but the magic elements are something pretty original, and the way that chinese culture is represented here in a great art style makes it pretty unique. And besides the background, the music changes along with each world map area, creating a perfect ambience for you to play in. There are more than one thousand levels, each one with its own challenge. And while the game starts slowly, by the time you get to know all magics, obstacles and bubble types, you’ll found yourself in one of the most content loaded Bubble Shooters available now for mobile devices.

Value for your Money 90%

Panda Pop is free to download in Google Play and the Apple App Store. You won’t see any advertising, but it features in-app transactions for extra lives, boosters and such. When you lose a level, you can buy 10 extra bubbles and things like that, and the price to continue may seem like too much, but a good player should be able to beat every level without the need to buy extra items.

Launch Video

Summary

Panda Pop is an excellent bubble shooter, and you should definetely check it out if you enjoy similar games. If you’re an old arcade fan of the genre, you’ll see some new stuff here that makes for an interesting option to download to your phone. Over 1000 levels await you, so practice your bubble shooting skills and plan ahead how to use your magic in this great puzzle game. Pros

• Excellent 2D Art and Animation
• Over 1000 levels, each with unique challenge.
• Varied backgrounds, music, boosters and special items

Cons

• After 50 levels, it may start to become a litte repetitive

Game Help Guru Rating 97%