Spinburst

Spinburst is a bubble shooter built by QuickGameRoom, with one change that turns the whole game: there is no ceiling. The bubbles form a ring around a glowing core in the middle of the screen, the ring turns the whole time, and you shoot in from the bottom edge. Every shot bends toward the core on the way in, so the dotted aim line curves, and part of the skill is sending a bubble around the outside of the ring so it arrives on the far side.

The matching rules are the ones you know. Three or more of a colour touching pop. What changes is what counts as attached: a bubble stays on the ring only while a chain of bubbles links it back to the core. Pop the right three and anything beyond them is cut loose, flies off the ring and scores more than a plain pop. The biggest moments in the game are cuts: a single shot that bursts three and sends eleven more tumbling.

The ring fights back. Every few shots it grows on the outside, so leaving an arm of bubbles alone is not free. A faint red danger ring marks the limit; if any bubble reaches it, the level is lost. Clear the ring completely and the level is won, with a bonus for finishing under par.

Levels go on for as long as you can keep up. Early levels turn slowly with four colours and a small ring. Climbing adds a fifth and then a sixth colour, a bigger starting ring, faster spin that changes direction from level to level, quicker growth, and from level eight grey stones, which have no colour and can only be removed by cutting them loose. Some later levels pulse, speeding up and slowing down. Your highest level and best run are kept on your device, and a run that ends badly can be continued once by watching a short ad when one is available.

There are four ways to play. Play levels is the solo climb. Race the computer gives you and a computer player identical rings; its ring is shown live in a small view above yours, and whoever clears first wins, or whoever is not overrun. Pass and play puts two to four people on one ring, taking turns, with every pop credited to the person who fired it and the highest score taking the round. Online rooms take up to four players from different devices: everyone gets a copy of the same ring, the first to clear it wins, and if nobody does the highest score takes it. Rooms run directly between your browsers over a peer-to-peer connection, with no account and no game server.

Each colour carries its own small shape inside the bubble, so the game is playable without telling the colours apart.

Drag anywhere on the screen to aim and let go to fire; the dotted line shows exactly where this shot will land, bend included. Tap the next bubble to swap it in. On a keyboard, Left and Right turn the aim, Space fires and Shift swaps.

Aim for the bubble that holds an arm onto the core rather than the arm itself, and fire early when the ring turns toward your target, since the shot takes most of a second to arrive.

Our take: the best shots are the ones that go around the outside, bend back in and cut a whole arm of the ring loose. Level one takes about a minute; by level ten you are reading the spin before you aim, and by twenty the stones start to decide things. It is built for a phone held upright, with the shooter down in thumb reach, and it plays well with a mouse too. Race the computer is the quickest way to feel the difference between a fast shot and a good one; pass and play with three people on one phone is where the cut-loose bonuses get loud.