Bubble Wheel Classic is a time-sensitive bubble-popping game that features a rotating wheel of bubbles. When a level loads, the game automatically counts down from a starting score. The player's primary objective is to pop all the bubbles on the wheel as quickly as possible to prevent the loss of too many points. They also attempt to earn three gold stars per level.
The game displays mixed bubbles in different patterns on a dark-colored, dotted wheel. The player receives a ring shooter with two swappable bubble projectiles and a color-matching dotted arrow-tipped targeting line. They can only remove bubbles from the wheel in clusters of three or matching ones. When they align the shot with precise targeting and then shoot the projectile at a matching cluster, the bubbles pop explosively and disappear from the wheel.
Bubble Wheel Classic displays the player's star progress on a horizontal bar to the left of the shooter. They can explode and remove bubbles fastest by using the side walls to perform angled shots that hit groups of matching bubbles high up near the top of the screen. This maneuver results in avalanches that remove both a matching cluster each time and any non-matching attached bubbles. They can also remove bubbles quickly by using lower-right corner rainbow, bomb, and rocket boosters.
