"I have just one more bubble left, one more shot until I get On Fire again and my best bet is that narrow bank shot to the right." This is the type of thinking players will quickly come to when playing Bubble Safari on Facebook or Zynga.com, Zynga's next big release.

Bubble Safari is the mega social game maker's first arcade-style game to date, and one that comes criminally close to inspiring the same reactions that, say, Peggle by PopCap does in its players. There's no denying that Zynga took cues from such game makers in crafting Bubble Safari, but there's also no denying that it works. And frankly, more casual games need to consider the little things that evoke whoops and hollers from players.

One way to look at Bubble Safari's immense challenge is to commend Zynga for creating a game that actually requires skill. (The lack of any skill requirement is a complaint lobbed often at Zynga's earlier games.) Another way to look at Bubble Safari's unyielding difficulty is to call it into question as an attempt to get even more players to pay up than before.