As the title would suggest, this is a sequel to a game called Gubble. If you played the original Gubble, you would recognize Gubble D. Gleep, a cute loveable purple alien, but this time around, he isn't in a green pod, but he can jump, duck, run, and even fly. The storyline goes like this, well actually there is no storyline. Even the help file did not have an introduction to the story. All there is to explaining a story is the readme, which says, "While sleeping, you were swept away to a strange alien world controlled by robots. Your mission is to take apart 150 beautiful 3D structures by finding tools and using them to remove all of the hardware." So basically you go around levels, trying to jump on the designated buttons and unscrewing all the screws using the tools given to you, none bearing any significance.

The view in Gubble 2 is isometric and it is also very well done. Rarely are you put in a view such that you cannot see the character. It isn't as straight forward as a top down view, but surely looks a lot better. The platform you play on is like a checkered box, if you jump, you jump over 1 box and land on the next. The checkered platform gives limited freedom in movement. The movement in the game is very standardized. The graphics adds a numerous amount of touches. The flowing waters, moving machines, etc. The animation is also very smooth, getting eaten by a plant and seeing it spit you out is as smooth as any animation can get. The explosions look great as well. The only thing lacking in the graphics department is probably the variety of graphics, due to the limiting of the movements. The sound effects adds the "cuteness" touch to Gubble D. Gleep. His gibberish in a cute voice has enough variety to keep it from being annoying (ie. Croc) and the sound effects overall depicts a good cartoonish world.

The puzzles are mildly hard, probably geared to people ages 12-16. The "action" part of the game is simply jumping around avoiding bombs. Solving the puzzle requires you to jump over mines, pushing tools to block your enemies' path, using a shield to block the bombs, and even getting eaten by the right plant so it will throw you in the next land. There is lots of different things to do in this game to end up solving the puzzle. The puzzles, however, are aimed at younger people, therefore many times, can be on the easy side.

All in perspective, Gubble 2 does enough to entertain fans of this genre, but it doesn't do anything different to make it a great, and stand out game, like Heart Of Darkness (which earned an 84%).

Graphics: 15 / 20 Crisp, cute looking graphics gives this title a good cartoonish atmosphere. Animations are also very smooth although both are lacking in variety.

Sound: 13 / 15 The sound effects are very well done. The "humorous" gibberish is non stop and the variety makes it cute sounding rather than annoying. The music is a decent score, sounding mostly like the background would describe. In a jungle world, the music will play the usual africanish music. Not too original but not too bad.

Gameplay: 23 / 30 Well, it's nothing new. A typical puzzle platform where you run, jump, and duck to avoid obstacles to reach buttons to be clicked, or screws to be unwind. This game concentrates to the puzzle aspect a lot more than the action aspect. There also seems to be a grid for your predefined jumps and walks. The lack of storyline however brings down the grasp the game would have, seems like you're solving these puzzles with no reason but to open a gate to solve the next.

Fun Factor: 10 / 20 For all the puzzle loving people out there, there's much to do here. Over 100 levels should keep people enticed with this game busy, however, the puzzles geared towards young people may be too easy for some.

Multiplayer Play: 0 / 5 Nada. I don't think there is a multiplayer platform game available.

Overall Impression: 7 / 10 It's a cute platform puzzle games with some good puzzles to keep fans of this genre entertained, although a storyline might give more purpose to solving those 100+ levels.

Wow does this remind me of the classic Amiga games I used to play back when I was a lot younger. The object is to take your little character around to areas that look like coins. Each area is called a Zymbot and completing each one of the Zymbots can open up blocked areas in the main large map. A lot of people I have talked to didn't really seem to think much of this game, passing it off as being kiddie and non challenging. I beg to differ to say the least. Maybe it is the nostalgia of playing an old school type isometric game. I don't know but here is my breakdown of this classic piece of software.

Graphics: 15/20

Even though the graphics aren't spectacular and beautifully rendered 3dfx Glide scenes, they are very functional for the game itself. Really nothing more could have been done to improve this isometric view in terms of the graphics. D3D wouldn't have made a difference in the overall feel of the game and I am glad the programmers put more time into the puzzles and engine than making super good graphics for a nothing game.

Sound: 10/15

What can I say? The sound is your typical arcade beeps and whistles. Nothing spectacular in this department, but then again nothing fancy was needed. In the middle of a difficult puzzle the last thing I thought about was the sound effects. This rating is based on the fact that the music didn't get on my nerves which a lot of games music unfortunately has the distinct honor of doing.

Gameplay: 25/30

Cool gameplay. Control of the little guy is very easy with the arrow keys and the information boxes that you pass over during the middle of some of the earlier levels explain exactly how to use the different keys that are needed to jump or duck or drop a hologram image of yourself. Another nice feature is the fact that when you die the game keeps track of where you last were and autosaves for you.

Fun Factor 15/20

The game is no doubt fun if you can get by the first 15 levels or so. After this the difficulty level begins to increase to a somewhat challenging level.

Overall Impression : 12/15 This game may not get all the Unreal or Quake fans excited, but if you can give this a shot and be a little patient you will find that this game is a nice thing to load up when you are bored on IRC or something and feel like a quick 15 minute challenge. Then you can put it away and play it again at another time.