Bubble Witch Saga is a series of bubble shooter games by King. The games center center an around Cute Witch named Stella who is on a mission to save her land from evil along with her two cats.
The games feature colorful bubbles that are displayed at the top of the screen on each of the game's many stages, each of which has a unique layout.
To make bubbles pop, you must match three or more of the same hue to shoot them from a cauldron at the bottom of the screen. The goal is to clear the entire screen of bubbles before the bubbles you can shoot run out. As the bubbles pop, they will fall into bubbling cauldrons that have different scores attached to them.
By popping bubbles and completing levels, players can gain bonuses and points. They will come across a variety of challenges as they advance through the game, including spiders, black bubbles, and ceiling bubbles, which up the difficulty.
There's currently three games in the series; however, the first game was terminated in October 2020.
Tropes:
- All Witches Have Cats: Stella has two cat familiars named Nero and Violet who have opposite personalities.
- Cats Are Mean: Played straight with Wilbur, the third game's Big Bad. Downplayed with Nero, Stella's naughty cat, and averted with Violet, her sophisticated cat.
- Crystal Prison:
- Stella clears up stages by popping magical, colorful bubbles with her Magic Wand. These bubbles contain things like eyes, tentacles, worms, etc. inside
- Some stages have living animals trapped inside big transparent bubbles (frogs, rats, birds, etc.), which must be popped to release them and fill the requirements to pass.
- In Bubble Witch 3, the evil cat Wilbur captures not only small owls, but faeries inside the bubbles themselves. This includes the Fairy Queen, whom he locks away inside a special bubble that he carries around right before the game starts. If Stella pops the fairy bubbles, the now-free faeries will pop random empty bubbles to help her clear the stage.
- Cute Witch: Stella is a very cute redheaded witch who travels around with two magical cats bursting magical bubbles, saving fairies and animals, etc.
- Damsel in Distress: In Bubble Witch 3, Stella has to save the kidnapped Fairy Queen from an evil cat named Wilbur.
- Defunct Online Video Games: The first game was terminated in October 2020, making it no longer possible to play it anymore.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first game has its own plot, and Stella isn't present anywhere.
- Eye of Newt: The bubbles that Stella pops are filled with eyes, tentacles, worms and other things stereotypically associated with witchcraft ingredients. Appropriately enough, the bubbles fall into magic cauldrons after being successfully matched to bubbles of the same color.
- Flying Broomstick: Stella is often depicted flying on her magic broomstick.
- Lighter and Softer: Bubble Witch Saga 2, has cutesy graphics (including chibis on the map screen), and the only hazard is fog that obscures some of the bubbles already on-screen. Mission objectives range from the usual clearing the top of the screen to freeing an adorable ghost or rescuing animals. Compare this to the original Bubble Witch Saga, where the overarcing plotline involves evil spirits overrunning the land. This actually ties into some of the hazards, like the infected bubbles. Other hazards involve bubbles becoming encased in crystal, bombs start counting down when exposed and end the level if not removed within the time limit, poison bubbles that kill off your spiders (that's a bad thing; having spiders helps your score immensely), and death bubbles that end your game instantly if you hit them.
- Magic Cauldron: The bubbles fall into bubbling cauldrons that have different attached to them each time you make a match.
- Magic Wand: Stella uses her magic wand to shoot the bubbles on the screen.
- Piggy Bank: You can earn gold bars that go into a golden piggy bank after winning stars for each level. However, you have to gather 15 bars and pay real money in order to have access your funds.
- Super-Deformed: The map screens of 2 and 3 features a cute chibi version of Stella.
- Wild Card Mechanic: A rainbow orb boost can substitute for any colored bubble on the screen.
