Bubble Marble is a bubble-popping game that features colored balls that look like a cross between glossy marbles and water beads. Against the backdrop of an alien world, bubbles hang in patterns from a horizontal bar at the top of a playfield. The player must pop three or more bubbles to earn points across 80 levels.
The player uses a main projectile in a cannon shooter designed to look like an ancient clay water jug. They can shoot a second displayed projectile at any time by using the double arrows at the lower-left corner of the screen to switch the projectiles. After a successful shot, a cluster of matching bubbles disappear without popping. If this action leaves some non-matching bubbles unattached to the rest of the hanging ones, the game violently explodes the bubbles in orange, yellow and red colors.
Bubble Marble makes play extremely hard in several ways. It displays a targeting line made of three tiny green bubbles. In most popular bubble shooters that offer this tool, the line matches the color of the projectile and typically extends halfway up the field. In this game, the bubbles always remain green and in a short line. As a result, the game might prompt some players to shoot at green bubbles with non-color-matched projectiles.
Additionally, this game throws off a player's shooting strategy by changing patterns mid-play. It rolls hanging bubbles in different directions that create new configurations. Some projectiles also glide against non-matching bubbles without sticking and then stop in front of, behind or above other bubbles. Some bubbles even stop on the top rail above a hanging pattern.
