Puzzle Bobble: Vacation Odyssey Reviews
Overall, Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey is a decent title and a fun time for a solid few hours of casual enjoyment. You can play it standing or sitting, which is a plus. But it’s got some annoyances that will get on your nerves after a while. Besides the finicky aiming mechanic, there isn’t really the mind-blowing immersion that we look for in a great VR game; this is an experience that would have been pretty much the same if it were in 2D: a casual, amusing little puzzler that you pick up for short periods and then put away. When you’re asking players to strap on a fairly heavy VR headset for longer periods, you really need to give them a more thrilling and unique experience than this.
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey translates the franchise's beloved gameplay successfully into the VR space. With a ton of devious puzzles and a few different modes to play around with, there is plenty of content here to keep bubble poppers busy for a while. The slightly twitchy aiming can be difficult at times, but overall the game is exactly what fans might expect.
If you like casual, “time filler” games this could be a good choice. If you’re a fan of the franchise, I’d just about say it’s worth it just to feel like you are actually firing the bubbles yourself. A fun puzzler!
If you have fond memories of early Puzzle Bobble games, you’ll get a sweet nostalgia kick out of Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey. It looks fantastic, and with 100 campaign levels alongside an infinite and duel mode, there’s a generous amount of content for its modest asking price. There’s a lot of fun to be had, no doubt – but you’ll not be able to shake the nagging feeling that it’s just not quite as enjoyable as its 2D counterparts.
It's amazing that there's a Puzzle Bobble VR game, never mind a 3D one so if you're a fan of the franchise then you definitely have to play it. With that in mind, Vacation Odyssey could have gone a bit further to make it a more well-rounded and intuitive experience.
Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey maintains the classic gameplay while adding freshness. Some aiming issues cause frustration but can be fixed with updates. Otherwise, it deserves more recognition.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As a VR showpiece, and when played with a Dualshock 4 in the headset, it’s a pretty clever reinvention of the Puzzle Bobble style that’ll give you a few afternoons of fun before drying up, but playing without PSVR, I honestly can’t recommend Vacation Odyssey just due to how light and plain it is. Truly, the PSVR is what the game was made for in mind, and with that much fun, I can easily recommend it for the price if you have one of those lying around, but for those without PSVR, you may want to wait with caution.
Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey marks the premiere of the saga in three dimensions, with a game style very similar to that of the 2D installments but at the same time giving it a different and original touch. Although it is a fun and entertaining game, its control is not as well polished and makes us lose the speed and immediacy of the original deliveries, in addition to having few game modes.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Bubble Bobble 3D Vacation Odyssey is just a game with a cool mechanic, a strong history of quality, and little else, if it didn’t have the Bubble Bobble name attached it would be just an OK puzzle game with issues
Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey is fun enough for its price point. It can get a bit stale if you play for too long, but the straightforward gameplay and variety of unique mechanics are enough for me to say that it’s worth checking out if you’re into puzzle games.
If you’re looking for some casual puzzle fun on the PS5, you will get your fair share with this little game. With that being said, for as much as I commend the developers for trying to come up with brand new ideas for such a tried and true formula, I certainly do not think that this 3D gameplay is anywhere near as fun and addictive as the classic Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move we all grew up playing and loving.
All in all, I had a bubble-blasting good time with Puzzle Bobble 3D Vacation Odyssey. It was fun to rethink my Bust-a-Move strategies in 3D, and while the third perspective does create some camera issues, I still really enjoyed this fresh new take on the classic series.