Puzzle Bobble fan turns a salad spinner into the perfect controller

Even if you’ve never played a Puzzle Bobble game, you can probably figure out how it works. All you have to do is match colored bubbles to make them disappear. You rotate a launcher with your bubble on it, then fire out to make a match. That’s all there is to it, and any old controller can do a fine job with the mechanics.

That doesn’t mean there’s not a more fun way to play, though…

Dr. Tom Tilley on X shared a video of his very unique idea for playing Puzzle Bobble, and it uses, of all things, a salad spinner. For those who don’t know, a salad spinner is something you put your greens in to either wash, dry or coat them in salad dressing. Most salad spinners have a little arm on them that lets you rotate the bowl instead, and you just whirl away to prepare your meal.

Rather than using the salad spinner for its intended purpose, Tilley used some cardboard, an optical mouse and an external button to make what appears to be an excellent Puzzle Bobble controller. Not only does it do the job perfectly, but it also looks a lot more fun than using a joystick. You can see the makeshift controller in action below.