Pop Stars is a tile-matching game with bubble-popping elements. The player pops enough inflated blocks marked with star icons to unlock new levels and earn the highest possible score.
Each level displays a pattern of mixed-color blocks. The player pops two or more adjacent ones with their cursor or uses one of the three boosters, or props, above the field of play.
The hammer pops a single block, the paint roller allows the player to make a block a different color, and the two arrows shuffle all available blocks. The player pays for the boosters with star points. They receive more stars with wins and ad views. They sometimes receive more via a booster pack reward.
The game displays the score in the upper-center areas above the boosters. After the player earns enough points, they continue to play until no more moves remain on the field, even if they've already achieved the level goal. If they fail, they can use a revival option to try again. That said, too many failures bump them back to Level 1. They then attempt to surpass their previous score.
Pop Stars often tricks the player with how it calculates points. After almost selecting all blocks, the player might think that they haven't earned a high enough score to win the level. As long as they clear away the blocks entirely, the score updates to show a win. Of course, if they don't remove every block, the game might reveal that they fell short of the required goal.
