Of all the WiiWare games that Nintendo had on display at its recent media summit, Nnooo’s Pop was easily the simplest, with sights seemingly set on the much-discussed casual contingency of the Wii audience. There’s a visual style that evokes the dreamy aquatics of Sony’s flOw, though instead of weirdly abstract sea creatures, there’s just bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles.
These multicolored bubbles will float up from the bottom of the screen, and your job is to pop them using a Wii-remote-controlled cursor. You get points for simply popping bubbles, and you can create combos by popping like-colored bubbles, earning you exponentially bigger scores. All the while, there’s a countdown timer at the top of the screen that replenishes as you pop bubbles, though any time you might earn during a combo isn’t added to the clock until the combo is broken, requiring you to be somewhat mindful of how much time you have left on the clock and how long you let your combos go on for. You’ll occasionally see special power-up bubbles that can slow down the speed of the bubbles or increase your combo multiplier, as well as skull bubbles that will automatically kill any combo you’ve got going.
The multiplayer game in Pop, which will support up to four players, changes things up a little. It’s neither purely competitive nor cooperative, since each player maintains their own score, and you can trigger power-ups that have a negative effect on the other players, but everyone shares the same countdown timer. An interesting idea, though in practice it seems like you’ll either play cooperatively, or you’ll play like a big fat jerk that doesn’t want the game to last very long.
Pop definitely comes across as a pretty thin wisp of a game, verging closer to tech demo than a full-fledged game, though there’s something to be said for exploring the various limits of WiiWare, even if its the lower limits. Based on what I played, I’m not sure I ever need to play Pop again, but then again, it would seem that Pop isn’t really meant for me.
20 Comments
The inevitable name “Poop” is going to be used.
I don’t know if I could pay a retail price for that. More like something you would download if you ask me….
The designer would make a great interior decorator.
I’ve been waiting since ‘88 to play a new Duck Hunt… this will have to do for now.
@joshuapohl: It is a download. It will probably cost $10 to $15 to download from WiiWare.
@joshuapohl: It’s WiiWare…
I saw this in Game Informer yesterday and it looks interesting. I don’t know how long popping bubbles can be fun.
Looks like an ok flash game, but I’d never pay any money for this
It will be a $5 dollar Wiiware title. Looks alright, but I probably won’t be buying this.
Sounds like a cool free internet flash game, but not something I’d paid money for.
Looks like a waste of good money. They should put this out for free.
$5 isn’t exactly an exorbitant price to pay. Quite being so dramatic.
I want this way more than I should.
Looks like a flash game I’ve played. I don’t own a Wii, but I wouldn’t pay more than a few bucks for it if I had one.
I’m sorry but WiiWare is not looking so good.. just my personal opinion
Gotta love the name of the studio. Nnooo!!!
The game looks fun tho.
It looks incredibly simple, but sometimes the most simplest games can be the most addicting.
Cant say I’d pay for it…
Popping bubbles??? COME ON!!! What in the world is going on, everybody knows that popping bubbles in real life is pretty much great, u know, mixin’ water with soap, and makin’ a lot ‘o’ bubbles to pop, that’s really cool until you step on a few already popped bubbles and you slip, and you hurt your ass badly, and you go insane, and you don’t wanna pop more bubbles and the it’s all fuckin’ over.
I know Jeff is real adamant about people not being “snarky” when it comes to previewing and reviewing games, but this is trash, plain and simple. There is no need to respect the work of these developers, “games” like this won’t ruin gaming, just piss off enough people to where they won’t be as interested in these little downloadable games. Oh, and I get credit for being the first to use the term “Shovel WiiWare!”
I played such games on my PC when I first a got web cam,I dont think its goig to be THAT great of a game… unless it costs less than 2$ or FREE.
good info but i don’t know