Bubble Safari Multiplayer: Everything you need to know

While this morning's official announcement of FarmVille 2, along with the reveals of ChefVille and TheVille were definitely exciting, Zynga's Unleashed press event also came with news players can enjoy right now (rather than waiting): Bubble Safari now has multiplayer!

If you head to Zynga.com, you can experience this multiplayer right now, by simply loading into Bubble Safari and clicking on the bottom button of three, located on the right side of the screen. The button you're looking for is a game pad with yellow, red, blue and green circles, as seen below.

From there, just click on the large blue "Play Now" button to see the Bubble Safari gameplay area transform, as you're given the opportunity to play with strangers in a "Quick Match." Eventually, we'll be able to play with our zFriends or Facebook friends as well, but for right now, random play is all that's available.

Each Quick Match sees you going up against three players in real time in a 90 second effort to earn the most points. You'll each have your own boards to play, which are comprised of limitless amounts of bubbles and plenty of beehives. These beehives have timers, which send bees down to attack your cannon every few shots, causing you to fire a few bubbles in random direction (something you can't control), adding to the challenge. You'll be able to track your competitors' progress, as the in-game leaderboard updates as your scores fluctuate. At the end of a match, you'll be able to challenge your competitors to a rematch, or can back out and look for a new set of competitors or go into the single-player game.

While Bubble Safari is the first game to offer real-time multiplayer on Zynga.com, we know it won't be the last. We'll make sure to bring you all of the news surrounding future multiplayer experiences as soon as we learn more. Stay tuned!

Have you tried the multiplayer mode in Bubble Safari? How do you think it compares with the slower single-player experience? Which mode do you prefer? Sound off in the comments!