A 1990s video game for the Apple Macintosh, created by Ambrosia Software. Originally created for the late 1990s operating systems, it has been ported to Mac OS X.
The protagonist is Blinky the fish, a small yellow fish who swims around a playing field, pushing or popping bubbles. Each game has several enemies that spawn from the bubbles, and a level is completed once all enemies are defeated. Enemies include Chombert, a slow and dumb piranha; Remington Eel, who is faster and can push bubbles; Normal the Shark, who is faster still and, in addition to pushing bubbles, can spit a bubble to trap the player; and Haarrfish the starfish, the fastest and most unpredictable.
Each level also features three bubbles with jewels in them (four in later levels) to earn extra points. Bonus bubbles will also float up from the bottom of the screen. These can be letters in the word EXTRA, or any assortment of power-ups. Later levels also have dynamite bubbles which will explode anything within two tiles… including Blinky if the player is not careful.
Tropes present:
- Attract Mode: Stay on the title screen long enough, and a playthrough of Level 1 will be shown.
- Cheat Code: Pause the game and type "Extra" to get an extra life (up to eight), "Invis" to become temporarily invisible, "Catch" to temporarily trap all enemies on-screen, or "Score" to get 9,000 points. However, using a cheat will keep you from appearing on the high scores list.
- Another one: Hit L on the title screen to start at any level up to 30. This also disables high scores.
- Easter Egg:
- Hit X on the startup screen to reveal a secret poem.
- Hit any of the function keys while clicking on the logo, and various hidden messages will appear.
- Endless Game: After level 50, it presents random levels as levels 51+, sometimes changing only the background or enemies. If you pass 99, it will continue to present further Level 99s until you run out of lives.
- Game Mod: You can swap out the graphics and music. The OS X version added a level editor.
- Helpful Mook: The enemies who can push bubbles (everyone except Chombert) can also squish other enemies with their bubble-pushing. They can also pick up bonus bubbles for you in this fashion.
- Normal's spit bubbles can also ensnare other enemies.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Normal can sometimes trap himself in his own bubble.
- 1-Up: Collecting all five bubbles that spell out E-X-T-R-A will award an extra life and temporarily trap all enemies. There are also point threshholds that get bigger as you advance in the game.
- Power-Up: Some of the bonus bubbles contain power-ups that will temporarily trap all enemies, render you temporarily invincible, or randomly add bubbles that bounce back when pushed.
- If you kill three or more enemies at once with the same bubble, you will get a multiplier bonus that stays around until you lose a life. If you can keep doing this without losing a life, the multiplier can go as high as five. Multiplier bonuses will multiply the points you get from the clock at the end of each level.
- Pun: The Game Over screen says "Fin!"
- Punny Name: Remington's name is a pun on Remington Steele.
- Timed Mission: Rounds are timed, and you receive points for any time left on the clock. However, the round won't end if time runs out; the enemies just start moving faster and no time bonus is awarded for finishing.
