JayIsGames’ Best of Casual Gameplay 2009

The awesome JayIsGames site is running a Best of Casual Gameplay 2009 contest.

Adventure is a hard call — since Monkey Island: Screaming Narwhal, Time Gentlemen, Please! and Wonderland Adventures: Mysteries of Fire Island are all in the running. I think Monkey Island wins for me… with TGP in second . I enjoyed Wonderland Adventures, but it just can’t compete with Guybrush Threepwood or foulmouthed Dan and Ben.

Some of my other favorites on this list are A Case Of The Crabs, under Browser Adventure, Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting To Danger under Hidden Objects. (I also helped out with NDD: Resorting to Danger so I’m not entirely unbiased) Faerie Solitaire is running for best Time Management… so is Build-a-Lot 4, which means I am officially the only person who hated Build-a-Lot 3. The frustrating Don’t Look Back under Interactive Art, although this game was made for  people with more patience and skill than me, I did like the myth theme.

Vote for your favorites, or just use this as list of games to check out.

Popularity: 2% [?]

ThumbGods in 2009

In 2009, I reviewed indie games like Funky Farm 2, A Case Of The Crabs, Rotoadventures Momo’sQuest, Slayer of Dragon,  Democracy 2,  Electric Box,  Faerie Solitaire, and CyberWord. I plan to keep focusing on creative, indie games next year. I also played major mainstream titles, like Cartoon Network’s new MMO Fusionfall, and James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club:  Games of Passion for the DS. ThumbGods reviewed the match-3 Atlantis, Totem Tribe, National Geographic’s Mystery of Cleopatra, Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, Sims 2 on the DS, and Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting To Danger! Major misses  this year were  My Boyfriend,  Create-a-Mall,  the disappointing Build-a-lot 3, and Jack in Lost in Blue 2. (Not all of LiB2. Just Jack.)

I tried to branch out a bit from reviews, and started writing some hints, including a guide to solving MyTribe mysteries and hints for Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting To Danger! I’ll probably keep doing this whenever I’m really proud of solving a puzzle and want to help out.

Thumb Gods had a great guest post when when Lexton Collins reviewed Runes Of Magic. I guest posted reviews of Cake Mania 3 and Ciao Bella, over on Casual Gamer Chick, Crayon Physics Deluxe review on Angry Gamers, Travians: Asterix Meets The Sims on SeeJaneGame, and contributed to several issues of Indie Game Mag.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Game Review: Create-A-Mall

I recently reviewed the unimpressive Create-A-Mall:

Unfortunately, Create-a-Mall took mindless consumerism and crossed it with repetitive, challengeless gameplay. You play as Kelly, a corporate drone tasked with leasing stores to create a mall.

Time and resource management games all have some similarities. No matter what the game theme is, players will need to manage resources and time to complete goals. But Create-a-Mall felt like a clone of the repetitive playstyle and unrewarding rewards of Build-A-Lot 2, reskinned as a mall instead of a neighborhood.

Via Simpson’s Paradox » Create-a-Mall.

Popularity: 19% [?]

January and February on ThumbGods

I’ve heard about that post-Christmas slump for games, but on ThumbGods, this was a great time for reviews. I reviewed Funky Farm 2, the match-3 Atlantis, A Case Of The Crabs, Totem Tribe, Rotoadventures Momo’sQuest, Slayer of Dragon, the underwhelming Build-a-lot 3,  Democracy 2,  Electric Box, and Cartoon Network’s Fusionfall here on ThumbGods, and Ciao Bella, over on Casual Gamer Chick. Sheihk Chandio reviewed GTA: Liberty City, Pokemon Diamond,  Gran Turismo 4,  Dragonball Z:Infinite World and FF7. Lexton Collins reviewed the upcoming Runes Of Magic.

We recently discovered AngryGamers, a new site for gaming rants and reviews (with some NSFW language). We also posted about a cool boardgames craft project, and I wrote my first walkthrough, a guide to solving MyTribe mysteries.

Don’t forget, we’re also on Twitter! You can follow ThumbGods on Twitter for instant updates whenever we post!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Amazon Enters The Casual Game Market

Amazon.com is entering the casual games market! They’re offering downloadable casual games to try or buy, using the Big Fish system of a timed trial and then a paid download.

I’m worried that massive portals like Amazon and even my beloved Big Fish are becoming the Wal-Mart of casual games, making it even harder for indie developers to compete. Amazon and BFG have advertising budgets (I could just stop the sentence here, couldn’t I?) that are far beyond the reach of the average independent developer, and they’re able to offer a wider assortment of games at lower prices. This seems like all good things for game players, but I’m afraid it will come at the expense of the smaller, more creative amateur developers, who can’t possibly make a profitable game with that kind of competition. That leads, ultimately, to a smaller assortment of games for us to try.

PS — Amazon is also offering the full version of Build-a-Lot free as part of their promotion, just like Big Fish did. But don’t fall for it! Build-a-Lot is just not a fun game.

Popularity: 11% [?]

New Free Games From Big Fish

Get a new free game from Big Fish Games! Go to the page for Mystery Case Files Madam Fate Game and then:
Click “Buy Now”
Select the $19.99 price option
Use FREEFATE as the coupon code
Apply code and watch as your order magically becomes free!
Download your new full version game.

I’m downloading mine right now!

You can also get a free download of Build-a-lot with code FREEBUILD, but I really didn’t like that game so I can’t be bothered to get it, even free.

We also had some more free games from Big Fish a few weeks ago.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Game Review: Build-A-Lot 2

Most – should I say all? – casual, time-management games have a system of unlocking new features. In Buildalot, the pacing was off so that the game was unchallenging and the newly unlocked scenarios were repetitive. Build 2 Rambler houses. Well done! Now you can learn the Colonial blueprint! Now build 3 Colonial houses! Well done! Now you can learn the Tudor blueprint! Now build 4 Tudor houses! You get the picture.

I really enjoy building and decorating Sim houses, so I was quite disappointed to find out that improved houses look just like regular houses, only with a star icon. The houses in disrepair, rather than sporting a broken window or some peeling paint, has a wrench on top. Build-A-Lot 2 missed these chances to give the game some style.

To build a new house, the player must have the  required money, resources, workers and building plans, but all of these things are purchased with cash, so it became kind of a spend-and-wait game. I don’t think waiting to have money in order to buy things is really a game, especially if the things you’re able to buy are little stars over cookie cutter houses.

A lot of games have starter cashflow problems, so I waited a bit to see if things improved once I got a working system. I did get a steady income stream without a lot of stress, but then I found that what I could purchase or unlock was not that different from what I already had. I wanted special level-ups, like the option to hire a super-fast construction team or buy paint colors for my houses, but instead, I moved on to learning the McMansion blueprints. Now build 5 McMansions!

And there was just something so sketchy about the town mayor encouraging you to flip those houses for a tidy profit!

Overall, I found this game to be repetitive and annoying, without even the benefit of nice graphics or endearing NPCs. I played on for the sake of games journalism long past the point where I would have shut it down and picked up a book.

Popularity: 14% [?]