That's right.
I so wanted to enjoy this game which was designed by the same guy who did Crystal Castles (Franz Lanzinger). The game even looks a little bit like Crystal Castles but my oh my is it NOT Crystal Castles.
Franz is a great guy, and we've discussed what might happen if Crystal Castles was updated and taken to the present era of games, and the last time we had this conversation Gubble was in development for the PC. Sounded like a good idea, a little more interactive than the original but similar concept.
So what went wrong? Well for starters the game is really slow. It's more of a strategy game than an action game and all of the twitch reflexes you needed to survive CC are simply not necessary here. Even many many levels into the game (I was sure the pace would pick up), you're doing pretty much the same thing, which is grabbing a tool and "undoing" the screws on the playfield. As you progress through various stages, new stages are opened up on the "world" maze. Finish a world maze and you open up new worlds with new mazes.
It's really tedious. I miss the gem-eaters. I miss the bees. Hell, I even miss the elevators - Gubble is a huge step backward in just about every area. Franz may have just wanted to do something different with a similar concept but in my humble opinion this isn't a good direction.
So. When I see him again this August the conversation will start again: "what would Crystal Castles update be like on a modern game system"? And we'll see what happens next.