Circus Bubbles is a timed bubble-popping game. At 40 circus locations in villages, towns and cities throughout a kingdom, the player uses a cannon to shoot projectiles at bubble balls that hang from the top of each playfield. They must attempt to clear it before they run out of time.
The game marks the foreground field with a transparent yellow pane. The background behind it changes to different locations, such as near a summertime village and outside the main circus tent during the winter holidays.
The player can only access the circus locations via buttons on a winding path through the countryside. During play, they pop groups of matching balls that contain at least two balls and the projectile.
The cannon shooter provides one primary ball in the cannon and one secondary to the left of the cannon. The player can swap these balls at any time. When the player fires the cannon, a group of matching connected balls pops immediately. Any non-matching balls connected to only that group fall in an avalanche and pop in the air before ever hitting the ground.
Circus Bubbles tracks the player's level number, score and remaining time on the clock to the right of the field. The game gives the player help with shooting faster. Beyond swapping cannonballs, the player can angle shots off the sides of the yellow pane. They eventually receive boosters, such as round black bombs with lit fuses. Since the game sometimes locks a bubble ball in the rows with chains, the player uses the bombs to destroy those bubbles.
If the player does well, they receive a time bonus. They have an opportunity to also rank on multiple high score leaderboards accessible on the home screen.
