Not wanting to advocate casual drug use or anything, but Soul Bubbles is the kind of hallucinogenic good trip that’s rivaled only by Alice in Wonderland. Swimming in limpid pools of surreal soul catching is a steady and enjoyable delight, though occasionally ties itself in drunken knots with the mildly clumsy controls.

Stepping into the wistful shoes of an apprentice soul guardian, it’s your happy duty to guide the disembodied and lost souls of woodland animals to their next level of existence. These small collectives of lost spirits are too delicate to find their way through the labyrinthine caves to the portal that sends them to eternity, so a protective ’soul bubble’ (ah ha! Not just a clever name) surrounds them on the journey.

As a soul collector, it’s up to you to maintain the integrity of this protective bubble as you guide it through the maze system. It’s this transportation aspect that forms the essential crux of Soul Bubbles’ gameplay. By huffing and puffing, your strong-lunged afterlife fairy carefully blows the bubble through the undulating caves.

Drawing a line through the bubble using the stylus sets your character off puffing - the strength of his exhalation dependent of the length of the line drawn. Zipping around the screen to blow from different, rather acute angles guides the soul collective toward the portal at the far end of the level. Along the way, various obstacles block the bubble’s progress, such as doorways and narrowing of the passageways. To get through, it can be necessary to cut the bubble into several smaller vessels that can be blown through a narrow gap, then joined together again for safety on the other side.

The spiritually hazardous environments can also cause the bubble to pop, so players must be quick on the draw (with the stylus) to put another shield around them; inflating and deflating it as necessity requires. On occasion, a larger bubble will be required to hit mushroom switches that open a door (more drug referencing fun, I wonder?), while at other times it makes sense to deflate the bubble to the minimum – and therefore more manageable – size.

Graphically there aren’t really many requirements for Soul Bubbles, and other than the organic nature of the environments (that aren’t particularly taxing for the DS) there’s simply the matter of the bubble itself. The deformer that shapes and distorts the soul bubble is quite excellent, and reacts thoroughly realistically as it floats, squeezes and slices around the maze.

While a few cursory cut scenes come and go from your spiritual mentor, the game gets into the action quickly while teaching you the basic mechanics of play along the way. This kind of ‘learn as you do’ approach is all together lacking in many modern games, and it’s great to get straight on with the fascinating and addictive gameplay of Soul Bubbles.

Superbly simple yet profoundly intricate, the scope of Soul Bubbles increases gradually as your character climbs the experience tree (quite literally, dope-fiends will be pleased to hear) and works his way toward personal enlightenment through the mind expanding antics of afterlife management. Coupled with the seldom used microphone on the DS, the game makes excellent use of the console’s unique features and provides a fresh and absorbing game without ever really becoming a chore.

If you’re looking for a game that’s easy to pick up, unique and entertaining to play and doesn’t linger on after the DS closes, Soul Bubbles is for you. Just don’t inhale.