Bubble Tanks 2, sequel to the excellent Bubble Tanks, is an incredibly creative shooter. As the name implies, you play as a Bubble Tank in a bubble world flying around shooting other bubbles so as to absorb their bubbles to make your own bubble bigger and better. The game has a lot of bubbles, to say the least, as well as many improvements over the original Bubble Tanks, and is easily one of the best Flash-based games this year.

In Bubble Tanks 2, the tutorial has literally not changed at all from the original. This is quite a blessing, actually. Bubble Tanks and Bubble Tanks 2′s tutorials consist of writing on the background of the first couple bubbles. That’s it. Also the core gameplay is virtually unchanged. You still move from bubble to bubble using W-A-S-D and aim and shoot using the mouse. BT2 also adds an entertaining “Arena Mode” in addition to normal mode. In  Arena Mode, you can choose to do battle against any of the bubbly foes you have previously encountered, as well as start your bubble off at any stage you unlocked in normal mode. This brings me to my next point. Players of the original Bubble Tanks probably noticed that there are literally no customization options. Now in BT2, as your tank “levels” up, you can choose which specialization you want. You can go as an agile Fighter Tank, a slow powerful Heavy Tank, or a nice balanced Balance Tank. It adds a nice level of customization to the game, in addition to adding a lot to the replay value. There’s also a new Secondary Weapon feature, which affects your overall strategy in the game. If you’re playing as a balance tank, for instance, shields are useful for fighting bigger enemies so you can block their attacks. Though there are also plenty of useless secondary weapons as well, such as mines. No enemy ever ran over any of the mines I ever laid down, ever.

Overall, Bubble Tanks 2 is a huge improvement over the original Bubble Tanks, which is saying alot because Bubble Tanks is one of my all time favorite flash games. The only real problems I have with the game are the lack of balance between the classes, with many profoundly useless classes such as Sniper, as well as absolutely no carried over traits when you upgrade your tank. The customization really ends with which tank you pick. Also, it ocassionally has lag spikes when there are a bunch of enemies on screen. Overall, however, I’d say this game is an excellent way to spend a little time while in the interwebs.

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