I was inspired by the recent blog post talking about mobile games by jdaaron, which got me thinking about the games I grew up playing before I had a cell phone. Specifically, the kind of games that were accessible to people without having to pay or use a separate gaming console. I was reminded of the embarrassing amount of hours I spent on addictiongames.com and miniclip.com. One game above all caught my attention, which was a game called Bubble Trouble. You play as some kind of alien (maybe? I’m not sure! They never say) dressed as a spy, and your goal is to shoot the bouncing bubbles so that they do not hit and kill you.
The appeal of this game is the accessibility — anyone with a computer and internet connection can play — and the simple, yet challenging levels. It is much like the games we played at the difficult games night, where the frustration of losing at a seemingly easy game keeps you around. This era of the internet thrived off of these games, and the migration from gaming website to the now more popular mobile games still has the same premise, despite the changing platform. There is almost no barrier to entry, and the games are just complex enough to keep people going.
Specifically with Bubble Trouble, I think the game has an appeal in the protagonist with almost no backstory, dressed as a spy–something most kids playing miniclip and addictinggames at the time would love. These games are designed to draw you in through their mystery but keep you playing off of their frustration.
Not only did I love Bubble Trouble as a kid, my family did. I would spend a lot of time getting as far as I could on this game that seemed so much harder back then. When it became too difficult, one of my older siblings (typically one of my older sisters) would take control and get as far as they could from their. Alternatively, my oldest sister would start playing a game on her own and my other sister would come get me so we could watch her beat the levels that we could never imagine. The accesibility of these games not only allows kids to play it, but allows kids to bond over it and watch others play it. By making this game an experience that all of my family could take part in, Bubble Trouble became more than just a game; it became a family past time. I think that flash games are very important parts of the childhood of kids born around the year 2000 and I would enjoy reading more about their effects.
YES! So much of my early “gaming” was on the dinky little kid’s Flash games of the late 2000s and early 2010s. RIP Flash and I whole-heartedly second HunterGatherer’s ending line about the impact of Flash games on “our” generation. I also wrote about the accessibility / lack of barrier entry of specifically Fireboy and Watergirl and other coolmathgames.com in a blog post, but I like what you said about the specific level mechanics. I do think the clear progression with appropriate difficulty again helps the popularity of such games.
Oh my god Bubble Trouble. I totally forgot about that game and I too, like the other commenters, have many fond memories of the Flash-game era and Miniclip. It’s interesting that Flash was able to create a community like that. Most of the games were single player and there wasn’t a lot of social interaction involved, but it’s cool to see how large of a community there was. Almost everyone I know has played games that I remember off Miniclip.