Bubble Shooter

Bubble Shooter is the cosy, endlessly-forgiving cousin of the match-three genre, and it is easy to lose half an hour to it without noticing. A cluster of coloured bubbles hangs at the top, you aim your shooter with a guide line, and firing a bubble into two or more of its own colour pops the whole connected group — clear the board to win, but let the bubbles creep down to the bottom line and it is over. The move that separates a decent player from a great one is thinking structurally rather than by colour: pop the bubbles that are holding a big cluster up, and everything hanging below drops away for bonus points, so a single well-placed shot can collapse a quarter of the screen. Bank shots off the side walls to tuck bubbles into corners the straight line cannot reach, plan around the next bubble waiting at the shooter rather than only the one in the barrel, and clear the low bubbles first to stay clear of the danger line. Free in the browser, playable by touch, best score saved.