Bubble Pirate Quest on Facebook isn't the treasure we were hoping for

If you like bubble popping games, there's no question that you've got a ton of options to play on Facebook, from Bubble Safari to Lost Bubble, and adding to that selection is Bubble Pirate Quest, a game with questionable design choices that stop it from being the great pirate treasure we were hoping for.

Like so many other bubble-popping games on Facebook, Bubble Pirate Quest is level based, with levels coming with limited amounts of bubbles and the requirement to clear a certain number of bubbles from the top row of the screen before you run out of bubbles to shoot from your cannon. The game technically works as you'd expect, with barrels at the bottom of the screen to catch falling bubbles (rewarding you with bonus points), power-ups like those that give you extra bubbles to shoot in a set of three levels, lives that deplete as you fail stages, and leaderboards that track your high score against those of your friends. Still, there's one major thing that Bubble Pirate Quest has going against it: cluttered menus and level layouts.

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While I'd normally be the first one to applaud a developer for its use of bright colors and fun shapes or patterns, Bubble Pirate Quest goes too far the other way. There's way too much going on in a single scene, making it hard to tell which colored bubble is available next, as it's half-hidden in a questionably helpful pirate parrot's hands. What's more, the blue and green bubbles are far too similar in shade, so it can also be hard to even tell which color bubble you're shooting. Sure, the game offers a trajectory line that matches the color of the bubble you're about to shoot (which helps), but why aren't the bubbles simply colored better to begin with?

What's more, the game contains a lot of advertising pop-ups encouraging players to purchase items with Facebook Credits, and some are even timed so that there is no way to close them until the timer counts down. Mid-level pop-ups are present too, only these come in the form of flying stars and words of encouragement that cover the screen for a few seconds after you destroy a large section of bubbles with a single pop. This isn't a huge complaint in and of itself, but these little issues matter when they're combined with everything else the game does to work against a player's enjoyment.

Ultimately, there are tons of other games in the genre that provide less distracting graphics and pop-ups, so Bubble Pirate Quest is one Facebook game that can easily be avoided.

Play Bubble Pirate Quest on Facebook now >

Have you tried Bubble Pirate Quest? How do you think it compares to other bubble-popping games on Facebook? Which game is your favorite in the entire genre? Sound off in the comments!