If you wanted to ask Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinska, who make up the Polish web design Hipopotam Studio, why they created Bubloe, the answer is not far from their homepage: “Because =)”.
Because why not create your own typeface? Why not load it with your own beat box sounds? And why not let users design their own monsters in endless amounts of ways, from mutant animal heads to showgirl legs, and make them fight? Bubloe never hides the fact that its existence is fun, and its fun is contagious.
Though as far as traditional game play goes, Bubloe may seem at first a dud. Think 1980s Street Fighter arcade games but with less functionality: you can punch and you can block, and other than that, it’s all timing.
But to denigrate Bubloe for its simplicity misses the entire point, and most of the enjoyment. Bubloe taps into a creative social phenomenon that is ridiculously entertaining because it is not meant to be played alone. The website even has its propriety chat program that consists of word bubbles from users’ online monsters poking their heads up from the bottom of the screen.
Which isn’t to say that users don’t take the game play seriously either. Aside from a gallery showcasing the variety of Bubloe designs, there is a list of “Megabubols” whose wins measure in the thousands.
To be sure, Bubloe’s community faded in recent years. It’s been over half a decade, after all, since it won the Favorite Website Awards’ “Site of the Day,” the first win among many for Hipopotam Studio.
But it’s still possible to play against friends (now is the best time to use Bubole as a personal group game), and to remind others that even in today’s game world, sometimes the simple games are the best ones, if only because they remind you it’s better not to kill time online alone.