One of the genres to see major success on the Nintendo DS (outside of brain training) has been the puzzle game. Making few graphical demands and typically incorporating the unique touch-screen, puzzle games are a natural fit for the handheld, but developer Mekensleep has taken this concept a step further by adding in some entrancing physics to the traditionally static playing field with Soul Bubbles. Ostensibly a meditative, soothing bubble-pushing game in which you must move tiny, vulnerable souls through a dangerous gamut of environmental hazards, Soul Bubbles can create some surprisingly tense moments and succeeds at demonstrating that the confluence of physics-based puzzle-solving, quirky characters and beautifully illustrated backdrops is a potent and amusing combination.

Bubble Blowhard

You play as a novice shaman tasked with shepherding wayward souls back into the fold by encasing them within magical bubbles and blowing them home using the DS stylus. To do this, you have a collection of spirit masks that enable you to futz with your bubble creations in a variety of useful ways. The bird mask is for drawing bubbles, the elephant mask is for collapsing bubbles by sucking air out of them and the tiger mask is used to slice bubbles into smaller pieces or join those pieces back together. These three masks make up the simple base on which Soul Bubbles expands to encompass a satisfying litany of interactions that all revolve around manipulating evanescent bubbles.

Bubbles, as Soul Bubbles aptly demonstrates, can be used in a staggering variety of ways and the gameplay quickly goes from simple and easy to complex and rewarding. As your shaman proceeds through his metaphorical world-tree environment, you begin to discover new interactions between bubbles and said environment.


Craggy gas vents, for example, emit fumes that can be captured within bubbles and have two distinct varieties: light, floaty gas and heavy, sinky gas. Both of these types of gas are required in order to escape the environment by breaking through barriers (like strips of cloth that block your path) with buoyancy or by being detonated through contact with fire. Some enemies can be exploited as well, like a rambunctious piece of living coal that must first be doused with water (captured in a bubble from a nearby reservoir) before exploding furiously in retaliation and destroying anything in its general vicinity.

The hazards you encounter are mostly designed to hinder your progress rather than kill you, and indeed your shaman is never in any personal danger, only the delicate souls in your charge are vulnerable. As such, Soul Bubbles is a fairly relaxing, slow-paced gaming experience in which your chief enemy is the puzzle at hand and the only real risk is not finishing it.

That is not to say that there isn't a degree of drama, because if your souls are left unprotected outside a bubble, they will gradually decay until they disappear. Now, the only real negative impact of losing souls is on your score (unless you lose them all, in which case you must begin a level over again), but try finding solace in that fact while your souls are exposed, frightened and engaging in a frenzied dance while shifting to a pulsing red color from their usually placid blue.

Soul Bubbles does a magnificent job of feeding its unique approach to strategy and puzzle-solving at a constant yet measured pace, never leaving you with one bubble manipulating technique for long. So, while it might not focus on anything resembling frenetic or frantic gameplay, it's hardly boring. It's particular brand of puzzle play is refreshingly cognitive, to the point that you could almost get away with calling it a brain training game and not get yelled at. With its relaxing themes of protecting nature and general non-violence, Soul Bubbles feels like a calm respite from the stormy sea of other more brutality-focused titles.