Beetle Bomp

In Brief

If you enjoy marble/bubble popping match three or more arcade games on the lines of the Zuma and Luxor series, then Beetle Bomp is one to download. It was originally given away July 15th 2017 HERE where it received a 97% positive rating from 29 votes with 17 comments.

Introduction

Experimental electricity-eating beetles have been released from a top secret laboratory. Sling colorful bugs at each other to make sets of three like-colored beetles, and prevent a much-dreaded infestation. Journey from the city to countryside while dealing with bees, butterflies, centipedes, and persnickety hard-shell bugs. Hilarious animated cartoons tell the story of Lylek, the electrician, and Martina, the insect expert, as they try to solve the buggy mystery before the lights go out for good!

Reference accessed HERE 18th January 2020

Beetle Bomp is similar to those classic bubble shooting games Zuma and Luxor, where you have to remove strings of bugs by shooting groups of two or more to remove them. A combination of three or more will remove those bugs from the string. your Zapper has up to three bugs loaded and you can scroll through then using the RMB. LMB shoots the selected bug. The zapper can also stop further bugs from appearing once the zapper is fully charged. to charge the zapper collect sparks that are sometimes emitted from the bugs when you collect a certain power up by shooting it with a bug that is introduced in level 1 of the game (see the list of power ups in the images below). As you progress through the levels other power ups such as reverse, pause and bombs are introduced. When caught these will automatically activate. The aim is to stop the bugs from reaching the end of the chain. If you manage to stop them before the end and remove all the bugs the queen bug drops eggs from the remaining parts of the chain that the bugs didn't reach. Catch these to earn extra points. The further away from the end you manage to stop the bugs, the more eggs will drop and the greater the extra points earned. You can create more than one profile, making this an ideal family game assuming you don't have a phobia against creepy crawlies like one of our community members Dana ;)

There are two modes of play Quest and Classic. The classic mode runs through all the levels without any story or videos the quest includes a map of your progress and the levels are interspersed with a a cartoon like story board and several videos, which as you unlock are available to watch again via the main menu. Achievements are also included when you attain certain goals such as creating three combos in a row. Combos are when you create a match of three or more that then set off further matches from the surrounding bugs.

You can see several videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE ( French), HERE , HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

Beetle Bomp is an excellent bubble popper well worth downloading. It has all the ingredients of the best ones such as Zuma and Luxor, though I do think the actually game boards are a little boring to look at compared to those classic games as they are bereft of any background imagery apart from some stylized garden pathways and grass verges. That said, the story board and video elements make up for that. I still prefer my favorite Luxor series and the Zuma series to this, but Beetle Bomp is still an excellent alternative, especially if you don't already own those. You won't find either of those franchises on any of the popular free sites, though you can find them on Steam or via Big Fish games. You can download demos of most of the Luxor series and Zuma Deluxe/Zuma's Revenge via Steam (if you don't mind the Steam platform; (My favorites are Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife and Zuma's Revenge!, though there are others just as good such as Atlantis Sky Patrol, Sparkle 2 and Magic Tea to name just a few more that I've enjoyed over the years and all of which were previously given away here, apart from Sparkle 2, but we did get the original Sparkle.)

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

Don't forget to check out the Epic game store HERE for the latest freebie called Horace; a huge platforming adventure which pushes the boundaries of the genre with a profound story of a small robot learning of life, the universe and Douglas Adams. Next weeks game that i will be available Thursday 23rd January is 'The Bridge', a logic puzzle game that forces the player to reevaluate their preconceptions of physics and perspective. It is Isaac Newton meets M.C. Escher combo where you manipulate gravity to redefine the ceiling as the floor while venturing through impossible architectures.

My favorite military simulator ARMA 3 (Armed Assault) is available to play for free this weekend. If you like first person shooters with a massive sandbox area to explore and amazing graphics as well as loads of military vehicles and weapons to use, then check it out HERE . It includes single player, cooperative and multiplayer modes with literally thousands of downloadable missions and mods available via the Steam workshop. The free weekend ends at 6pm Sunday UK time. Also available to play for free this weekend is the medieval base building real time strategy game Bannermen which also ends at 6pm sunday UK time)

There are more free games over at Indie Gala HERE.

If you are looking for a decent and cheap game bundle well worth getting that contains a decent selection of triple A and indie arcade games, check out the latest Humble Choice bundle (formerly the monthly humble bundle) HERE; it includes 12 games of which you can choose 11 for the princely sum of only $12; total worth of those games at this time (none are on sale) is over $300. This months games include Middle-Earth: Shadows of War, Graveyard Keeper, Two Point Hospital, Dirt Rally 2.0 + 3 DLC, Street Fighter V, Bad. North: Jotun Edition, Trailmakers, Unrailed, Whisper of a Machine, Them's Fightin' Herds, Mages of Mystralia and Grip Combat Racing + 1 DLC plus a DRM free game and while subscribed you have free access to a trove of almost 100 DRM free games that would cost a small fortune to buy. It's definitely a brilliant bundle and one of the best combined offers ever {apart from the THQ and Codemasters Humble bundles from several years ago when the developer THQ's and Codemasters whole catalogue of then recent games was up for grabs for $5 each; (both bundles were worth over $400 each) just before THQ went into liquidation back in 2008}.

Finally, check out Delenns thread over in the Game Discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE