Bubble Trouble 2006

Flash games were so prominent a decade ago and were actually so important to the gaming industry that their time in limelight can be considered an era in gaming all on their own. They were the only way for an independent developer to get original works out without relying on modding an existing game engine. One of the many flash games back then was Bubble Trouble. You can try it out right here with this Bubble Trouble download.

You need a program that can run SWF files to play Bubble Trouble. If you have that, all you need to do is execute the file with the program.

From the very beginning, you'll get a feel for the charming amateurish feel of it. The intro itself has the creator himself singing a tune to a charmingly static image of the main character. The main menu is incredibly basic, with nothing but the most basic essentials there.

The gameplay is also incredibly simple, with you simply running left and right to avoid bouncing balls and pressing space to shoot them as they pass over you. You repeat this over and over to rack up the most amount of points possible. This game also has a two-player mode where you and a friend both take control of a side of the keyboard to play together. If that sounds fun, you should definitely give it a shot with this Bubble Trouble download.

This simplicity is at the heart of what made Flash games special. Of course, they couldn't make quality games like we would find today. Flash games tended to have tiny teams, after all, and gaming was only just becoming popular. With there being basically nothing to dictate what kind of quality flash games should have, it led to them covering almost ever single genre out there. So every single Flash game ended up being special because of their mix of amateurishness and ambition.

For instance, Bubble Trouble falls into the category of Flash games that have an incredibly simple gameplay loop that still manages to be engaging as well as trying to incorporate two player gameplay on a keyboard. There are a ton of different games like this, with another fantastic one being Boxhead 2Play Rooms, which has you fending off hordes of zombies. Boxhead looks like a more violent bird eye's view version of Minecraft, where you can put down fortifications and defended yourself with.

There were other flash games that instead tried to emulate triple-A games with a tiny fraction of the budget. Some of these games boast great graphics (for the time), solid gameplay, and surprisingly great stories. Many of these games have gone on to become proper games down the line. One of them is the Sonny series, games that had their humble start as flash games. They featured some pretty in-depth RPG elements, with a massive skill tree, different builds, and a very engaging narrative that's still unique to this day. Now, you can play the games on mobile, with a completely overhauled gameplay system and narrative.

So the point here is while Bubble Trouble is nothing special by modern standards, it represents a time where Flash games were just trying to find their footing. Playing this might not be all that special, but keep in mind that this was in an era where knowing how to code for fun was still somewhat rare and gameplay design was still in its infancy. This is a very important building block in Flash game development, and consequently, the overall indie game industry right now. It's hard to really hate this game after knowing all that.

All in all, Bubble Trouble is honestly not that great a game, especially by modern standards. It's one dimensional, it's simple, there's basically no depth, and it gets boring after a short while. However, it does stand as a relic of an era that's gone by. You can try it out right here with this Bubble Trouble download.