2015 has been a tale of Angry Birds obsession for our two sons, who – belatedly we know – recently discovered that Angry Birds is a series of games, not just apps in which they can watch funny cartoons.

They’re pretty old-school in their tastes though: the classic bird-slinging games from the original Angry Birds through to the two Angry Birds Star Wars games. We’re wondering whether they’ll take to the newest in the series, which swaps flinging for bubble-popping.

Meet Angry Birds Stella Pop! – which is the second game based on developer Rovio’s Stella character. It involves firing coloured bubbles from the bottom of the screen at other coloured bubbles arranged higher up, making matches of three or more to make them disappear.

Parents of a certain age may recognise the format: it’s a lot like the famous Puzzle Bobble / Bust a Move console and handheld games from years gone by. Parents of a certain younger age may instead recognise the gameplay from Facebook and mobile hit Bubble Witch Saga.

It’s colourful and fun, and the familiar Angry Birds (and pigs) are present and correct. Be aware that it’s a freemium game though: while free to download and play, it does use in-app purchases to sell coins for between £0.79 and £25.99 at a time, with those coins then spent within the app on extra lives – players start with five but lose one if they fail to complete a level in the specified number of goes – and power-ups.

Most Angry Birds games are freemium nowadays, and while that’s not necessarily something to worry about, the key in this kind of game is whether it suddenly gets so hard a few levels in that players feel pressured to buy coins – something that wouldn’t be good for children.

We’re going to continue playing it to figure that out, but for now, Angry Birds Stella Pop! is a free download for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, and a free download for Android from the Google Play store.