Bubble Ball Bounces Its Way to the Top of the App Store

 

Watch out Angry Birds, there’s a new app in town. It may not be as aggressive as our feathered friends, but this new addictive creation is courtesy of Robert Nay, an eighth grader from Utah. It bounces, it slides, it glides down walls to reach your target flag... With its moving walls and weird angles, Bubble Ball relies heavily on the laws of physics, which, of course, we are all familiar with, right?

Bubble Ball is currently the #1 free app on Apple’s App Store list, knocking Angry Birds out of the pedastal and putting this bouncy ball at the top of everyone’s smart phone play list.

The fourteen-year-old creator, Nay, is something of a boy wonder. He taught himself how to use the mobile developing program to create the game, which he thought up after his friends challenged him to make a game of his own after seeing how much he enjoyed using his iPod touch. Since its release on just before the new year, its popularity has reached soaring heights, scoring more than 2 million downloads in just the past two weeks. But that’s just a start – apparently, playing games like Bubble Ball are good for your brain!

The app is currently free for the downloading, so get your physics mind in gear and be prepared to put your fingers (and brain) to the test!

The "Angry Birds" Obsession

Several times recently, when I've been interviewing celebrities at the YH Studio, I noticed them obsessively playing this game on their phones. That game turned out to be "Angry Birds". I had to try it out for myself, and I, along with about 50 million other people worldwide, understand the obsession.

"Angry Birds" isn’t just our new favorite past time -- it’s a phenomenon. Over the holidays, the app broke records with a million downloads a day! Your goal, as one of five birds with unique powers, is to be slingshot into evil pig territory in order to retrieve stolen eggs. You strategically knock down structures and destroy pigs to score points. As the levels grow harder, it also gets harder to restrain your index finger from doing the flinging motion, and the fact that there are 200 million minutes of "Angry Birds" played daily can attest to that.

The game was initially released back in December of 2009, and ever since then has been steadily soaring to the top of the mobile app gaming world. It's gotten so big that stuffed plush angry birds and pigs are flying off toy store shelves.

Even though most of us like it when the birds are angry, a new phenomenon just isn't complete without a viral video, in particular this one which was filmed by the Israeli version of SNL featuring a Peace Treaty between the birds and pigs -- but where is the fun in that?

It is a lot easier to understand the world’s obsession if you have given a go at the "Angry Birds", now available on multiple smart phone devices for your gaming pleasure.