Bubbleware is a game that was created within 48 hours as part of the Montreal Game Jam 2025. Almost 20 people contributed to create a microgame collection that feels inspired by and is a homage to Flash gaming from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s. If you remember Newgrounds, you’ll be right at home here.
Bubbleware’s premise is that it has over 20 microgames that either require you to complete them within five seconds or survive them for five seconds. Either way, you’ll use movement controls and a single button to press or hold to achieve the goal. Players have five lives, and each failure removes one, whilst a pass adds a point to your score. How long can you survive?
The first few minutes are less about score chasing and more about trying out the controls. Bubbleware does not give any clues to controls and sometimes what to press isn’t obvious. The running events aren’t button mashing. Instead, you press and hold down a button. Often the challenge is knowing what requires tap controls and what is a holding button press. Once you’ve got the gist, most of Bubbleware’s microgames are very straightforward. There are a few simple reaction time-based games that lose their charm early because of their simplicity and lack of challenge. Others emulate simplified arcade shooters like Asteroids or silly versions of sports like American Football on the moon.
My favourite parts of Bubbleware are when the game gets a bit unhinged. Line up two faces so they kiss. Smack the wobbly butt with the maximum power. Stab a straw into a juice carton dead centre. Blow up chewing gum so it doesn’t explode, but instead transports you into the sky. Jump onto a giant arm that’s trying to punch you. There’s a lot to be said for the silliness of it all, and that also comes through in the game’s sound design. Various voices are constantly whispering, declaring, or shouting “Bubbleware” in various accents. Success is often greeted with gleeful sounds and pop culture references. It all adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
Where Bubbleware doesn’t quite land correctly is the lack of a leaderboard and a couple of randomly generated levels that can catch you out unfairly. One game spawns cats in bubbles to burst, and if a cat spawns with 0.2 seconds to go, you don’t have a hope in hell of surviving. Strangely, because almost all the other microgames are so simple, it is likely this or your boredom will end your game if you are a seasoned microgame champion. Some games are tight on time, but within 10 minutes I’d already crossed over 60 points as a top score.
Thankfully, Bubbleware is completely free. Add it to your collection and dip in and out in short bursts. That way, you won’t get muscle memory and get sucked into a never-ending microgameathon. I’d love to see the gang behind Bubbleware create a Bishi Bashi Special style of microgame collection, as I think they’d do a great job. This feels like an appetiser for a main course I’m not sure will ever come.
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