Following in Sony’s footsteps with its goodwill program following a large breach in Playstation Network’s security, RIM is trying to get back into the good graces of its users with a suite of 10 apps, gratis.
Far be it for me to look a gift horse in the mouth, as really, the outage barely affected me, but we at IT World Canada thought that at least you, the reader, would like to know a little about the apps you’re getting and whether they’re worth the download.
First up, Gameloft’s Bust-a-Move clone, Bubble Bash 2.
I did think it was a little weird for RIM to include any games at all in its slim 10 app offering and the fact that they account for 1/2 of the 10 is just hilarious, but as an apology, isn’t gaming a nice little treat?
Only thing is, much like the brick breaker game I formerly played on my Blackberry Pearl, Bubble Bash 2 is completely un-suited to the Blackberry’s “controls”.
Even though I have an in-fairly-working-order touch-pad on my Bold 9700, the finesse that Bubble Bash 2 requires (squeezing bubbles into tiny empty holes between more bubbles they to their darndest to stick to) is nigh-on impossible. A bit of analog control would have been nice but the guide arrow seems to flit between a handful of preset positions, none of which seem to allow for any truly skilled shots.
See, in Bust-a-Move, you could give yourself some breathing room by aiming a little higher and making a particularly accurate shot, bursting the “bubbles” that structurally held whole stacks together. It would bring the tower down in one satisfying shot. This, in BB2 and with the limited controls of a Blackberry, doesn’t even seem in the realm of possibility.
Between that and the worst load bars I’ve seen in a mobile game, it’s really hard to even recommend downloading this game free.
I know expectations for a Blackberry game, and particularly a free one, shouldn’t be high, but being playable is still one of them. To be honest, unless you’re on WiFi and aren’t paying for the bandwidth, and you have the burning desire to suffer, I’d skip this one entirely as, between the awful controls and the slow response, it won’t make you feel any more appreciated.
Thanks RIM, but no thanks. I’m calling this 0/1 so far.
JD
