Max and The Magic Marker

Max and the Magic Marker, from Legacy Interactive, is available now:

LOS ANGELES, CA (April 16, 2010) – Casual games developer and publisher Legacy Interactive announced today the release of Max and the Magic Marker, an award-winning physics platformer that challenges players to draw their way through 15 innovative and challenging levels. It is now available for PC/Mac on Legacy Games at www.legacygames.com.

Max and the Magic Marker, developed by Play Press, gives players complete control as they draw out solutions and face innumerable traps, monsters and tricky puzzles. Limited only by the imagination of the player, every obstacle has an endless number of solutions. Since its inception, it has been widely acclaimed, with its development team winning the Independent Games Festival 2010 D2D Vision Award, EIGA 2009 Innovative Game Design Award, Best Overall 2009 Unity Award, and DGA 2010 Talent of the Year.

“Fun gameplay, innovative ideas and loads of options make you replay levels over and over again.” – GamingXP

“Max & the Magic Marker is a charming puzzle platformer with pleasant visuals and a simple soundtrack. Part of the fun is noticing the details, like how the little monsters can pull out bright yellow construction hats to protect them from your pen.” – Gamespot

“The physics and drawing are spot on and it has a great art style. One of the most enjoyable games with a little boy with a giant orange mohawk as the protagonist that I have ever played!” – 411 Mania

Featuring three lovingly designed game worlds based on children’s drawings, adults and children of all ages will be immediately drawn into the 2D world of Max and the Magic Marker!

Max and the Magic Marker is available for PC/Mac on Legacy Games at www.legacygames.com and in leading retail stores, and will be appearing on popular digital distribution portals.

Popularity: 2% [?]

‘Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box’ Game Music

I mentioned Passionfruit Games’ upcoming game Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box the other day. I’m pretty excited about this game (Disclosure: If I haven’t already mentioned it, I was in the Tiger Eye beta), and when I stumbled across this blog post, I realized I’m not the only one.

Well, I am positively giddy about working on this game. All shackles have been removed and I have free reign to make a soundtrack worthy of Marjorie [Liu]’s story. All told, the game will have between 50 and 60 minutes of music. Every cut scene requiring music will have its own unique music, as will each hidden object scene. The puzzle games will also have their own music. Bye bye, minute loops! I am genuinely excited that this game will be able to avoid the aural repetition so prevalent in even the best of today’s casual games. The size of Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box’s soundtrack would consume too much budget for most casual game companies, but this being our own company, we can do what we want! The main menu music alone is over 7 minutes long. Many casual games are lucky to have 7 minutes of music in the entire game.

You can hear the game’s music (which should help with getting Eye Of The Tiger unstuck from your head) on this blog, too.

Via Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box « The Game Composer’s Blog

Edit 5/5:  Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box reviewed.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Passionfruit Games

New development studio Passionfruit Games plans to release a casual adventure game Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box, based on the paramornal romance novel Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu. Romance games are a wildly popular genre in Asia, but in the US, they’re hard to find and usually pretty second-rate games.  (Did I mention how bad My Boyfriend was?) We have high hopes for this one because new Passionfruit is made up of many HER Interactive veterans — the game team who put together Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses! and NDD: Resorting To Danger.  The game is currently in beta.

From the Passionfruit press release:

Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box also officially marks the launch of PassionFruit Games and represents a unique moment in the history of gaming.  Although a market for romance themed video games has existed abroad for years, these games are essentially unknown in the U.S.  Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box will be one of the first romance casual games to hit the U.S. market when it goes on-sale in April 2010.

In discussing PassionFruit Games’ decision to launch their company with Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box, Melissa Heidrich, Studio Director, expressed her enthusiasm for reaching out to romance readers: “The majority of casual gamers are women aged 25-65, who report they play casual games mainly to escape.  Interestingly, those same attributes apply to romance novel readers – so it’s surprising that there are currently so few romance casual games on the market.  That’s why we’re excited to bring Tiger Eye to life as interactive entertainment.”

For Marjorie M. Liu’s fans, it will be a great chance for them to experience a game written by, designed by, and created for women. Mari Tokuda, one of the designers translating Marjorie’s novel into game form, says: ““There just aren’t many romance games in today’s market.  And, for many women, romance novels are not interactive enough.  That’s where we come in – we are giving players a chance to experience the romance through fun gameplay and sensual cut scenes that further the relationship.  This game will really appeal to players who want a storyline and those who want to BE the smart, down-to-earth romance novel heroine.  And of course, we’ll have a sexy leading man heavily featured in the game.  A game like Tiger Eye is one of the most engaging ways for readers to experience characters’ relationships.”

Fans will also be able to experience things that weren’t in the book and to search for hidden objects, play minigames, listen to a film quality soundtrack, and solve puzzles, all the while following the storyline as the main characters’ relationship deepens emotionally and grows in intimacy, though there will not be explicit sex scenes.

PassionFruit Games acknowledges the challenges of turning a popular book into digital entertainment and of adhering closely to the book’s storyline.  In their quest to stay true to the novel,  all members of the team—from artist to programmer—read Tiger Eye, as well as other novels in the Dirk & Steele universe, to get a feel for the “essence” of the game.  The producer and lead designer held regular video conferences with Marjorie to go over the latest design ideas and Marjorie herself wrote the script for the game and is involved with the game every step of the way,  giving input on scene art, character design, and voice actor selection.

Says Marjorie, who is well known for her New York Times bestselling Dirk & Steele and Hunter Kiss series and for co-authoring the hugely popular Dark Wolverine Marvel comic book series, about playing the game’s early build: “I was amazed by the beautiful cinematic cut scenes and the way players could actually experience things my characters had done.  It’s an incredible feeling to not only see favorite characters brought to life but to experience life through their eyes as you progress through the game.”

The Tiger Eye novel, which Publishers Weekly praised as a “first-rate debut” and “a striking paranormal romance,” tells the story of Dela, a woman with psychic abilities who buys a riddle box in Beijing’s Dirt Market and opens it to find an ancient warrior, Hari, bound to serve as a slave to the person who has opened the box.  The action moves between China and the U.S. and PassionFruit Games will mirror this international scope through two games, the first to take place in China and the second in the U.S.  PassionFruit games also plans to involve readers in the release of Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box with the chance for a select few fans to be Beta testers and with fan voting on looks for the character, Long Nu.

More on Passionfruit Games and Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box from Simpson’s Paradox.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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% [?]

Mystery of Cleopatra

Mystery of Cleopatra follows Herod’s Lost Tomb and other educational, casual games from National Geographic. In this one, you play as a trusted advisor to the queen, charged with solving a mysterious break-in at the palace.

Cleo is a gateway game,  a hidden objects game with elements of an adventure game. While there’s still a certain amount of searching, you aren’t just looking for objects for the sake of squinting at the screen, your character actually uses those items.

I’ve written before about losing interest in hidden objects play, but Cleo held my interest a bit longer with ancient scenes. Did I mention that there are Romans? I’m unable to separate my game reviews from my classicist side, and I have to admit that the later civil wars and the question of Caesarion and Octavian’s inheritance have always interested me. The story leads you through different famous places in Alexandria, like the library and the lighthouse, and touches on some of the Roman-Egyptian tensions at the time. As you click around the hidden objects screens, bits of information appear about the items you’re seeing. You’ll also come across scrolls with a paragraph or two of historical background information. (I soon found myself skimming these, but that’s mostly because I wanted to play more.)

Finding items was quite easy, since you can see silhouettes of the items you’re seeking. I found my location hints recharging much faster than I could possibly need, but of course I was playing in casual mode because I am a huge slacker I don’t like my games to scold me for pausing. At times, silhouettes of items that are used together will appear inside a jeweled circlet, and once all the parts are collected, you can make and use a new item.

The puzzles ranged from the usual reassembly of a torn-up note to really creative, clever puzzles. I particularly liked the logic puzzle to open the armaria (That’s classicist for storage box. You’re welcome.) and the code-breaking puzzle. The only disappointing puzzle was one that required players to arrange numbered scrolls. The directions were seriously confusing, it took me a long time using the red and green hints to figure out what the game was asking me to do. (If you’re stuck, it might be because “across” doesn’t mean what you think it does. )

Later in the game, your character remembers places you’ve previously visited, and you use your inventory and evidence to answer questions about them, a bit like the basic mechanic in Phoenix Wright and occasionally used in Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion as well.

Spoiler Alert! Caesarian gets killed so Octavian can be Caesar’s undisputed heir! Wait, wrong spoiler. The real spoiler is at the end of the game when your NPC sidekick, Kathya, who’s been mostly plot exposition and historical detail so far, turns on you and tries to frame you as the murderer!  The brutal backstabs of palace life!

Overall, Cleo is an engaging Big Fish-type game with great scenery and good puzzles. And Romans.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Get “The Shivah” Free!

Writing about about games makes checking my email so exciting! This landed in my inbox today. I don’t usually associate casual games with Yom Kippur, but when you’re done fasting and thinking over your mistakes this past year, why not check out this mystery game?

“The Shivah” is a gritty noir mystery game starring an embittered rabbi. He’s accused of a murder he did not commit and now he has to find the real killer before the police catch up with him. And now, for the first time, you can nab this rabbinical mystery absolutely free!

The game features full voice acting, an original soundtrack, three different endings, a DVD-style optional commentary and blooper track!

Simply enter the coupon code “FreeShivah” when purchasing and poof – the game is yours. This offer ends on Tuesday 29th September 2009 , so head on over to http://www.wadjeteyegames.com and get your free game while you can.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Women’s Murder Club Coming To The DS

After  Women’s Murder Club: A Darker Shade Of Grey, and Women’s Murder Club: Death In Scarlet comes a new WMC, Women’s Murder Club: Crimes of Passion, this time for the Nintendo DS and DSi.  I think the portable DS system, with the stylus-driven games, is perfect for casual gaming, and I’m seeing more and more story-based casual games coming out. I’ve been carrying the  Sims (or Sims Castaway!) in my purse, and I also saw a Nancy Drew game for the DS the other day.

From the Women’s Murder Club: Crimes of Passion press release:

“When I dreamed up the ladies of the Women’s Murder Club, I knew they were women of action; women on the go,” said James Patterson. “I never dreamed they could come to life like they have in the Nintendo DS version. This new game gives fans a chance to become a member of the Women’s Murder Club anytime, anywhere.”

And by “anytime, anywhere” I think he means “while waiting at the airport”.

I was lucky enough to get a look at some screenshots from the upcoming game. I had to include this one, because there just aren’t enough science-themed puzzles in games targeted to women!

Obligatory hidden objects minigame. It works well in a mystery-solving game, but I just don’t see what’s fun about squinting at the screen.

Nintendo DSi users will get a special feature that uses the camera, (can’t wait to see how they integrate that) but the game will also be available for the regular DS.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Game Review: Faerie Solitaire

I’m a bit late posting this because every time I went to get another screenshot or check a fact, I got sucked into playing a few hands of Faerie Solitaire.

Faerie Solitaire from SubSoap is a new casual game, mixing a cute fantasy story with basic solitaire. I’ve said before that the best games have simple rules, with many variations and strategies. In Faerie Solitaire, you are given a foundation card, and you can either play one card higher or one card lower than the foundation card. A played card becomes the new foundation card, and you do it again. You could easily teach a child to look for a number one higher or one lower than the selected card.

As you play more hands, different hands have a different card layout, including special layouts with unavailable  cards in thorn patches or ice. Special cards and events pop us randomly as well, offering bonuses and minigames. The random element made the solid solitaire game that much more addictive for me.

Because the hidden object games have a finite pool of backgrounds and items, it soon became more of a memory game than a hidden objects game. Which is great because I think hidden objects are overdone, they start to feel like filler because they’re the default of the casual games genre.

I sometimes find it annoying when there’s a lot of game to be unlocked. In some cases, it seems like a tacit aknowledgement from the developers that some parts of the game are good and some parts are lame, and to make the game longer, you’ve got to grind through the lame to get to the good bits. When I reviewed GardenParty World, I talked about how  not needing a game for the system of working at a dull minigame to earn spending points. GardenParty World is hardly the only offender here, I was also frustrated by unlocking the chance to play indentical levels in Fashion Solitaire. But Faerie Solitaire had a system of power-ups and unlockable features that kept me excited about the next add-on without leaving me feeling like the developers had greyed out most of the game.

In their Faerie Solitaire press release, Subsoap promised strong production values. They delivered, there are no awkward cutscenes or grammatically painful instructions, the usual hallmarks of an indie studio. But what really ties it together is the movie-score music.

This is not an all-encompassing story game but I don’t think it’s meant to be. You won’t be daydreaming at work, thinking about getting home to play Faerie Solitaire.  This is a quality solitaire game that had my boyfriend looking over my shoulder. Drawing  in other people to kibbutz  is a mark of a great solitaire game!

Popularity: 16% [?]

Upcoming Faerie Solitaire

From the press release:

Subsoap(TM) (www.subsoap.com), an up and coming developer of
casual games, today announced the launch of Faerie Solitaire.

The game is a fantasy-theme casual card game that’s full of adventure,
mystery, and wonder. Featuring 360 exciting levels, including Hidden
Object mini games, 8 worlds to play through, and hundreds of hours
of gameplay entertainment. Faerie Solitaire is the next triple-A
casual title, and is available exclusively at Subsoap.com.

Rescuing Lost Faeries

In Faerie Solitaire players will travel across the land of Avalon
in search of magical faeries who have been trapped by some
mysterious force. A move away from what is currently popular in
the casual space, Faerie Solitaire’s strong production values
and compelling gameplay will surely please solitaire fans.

Is it just me, or does that sentence make it sound like other casual games have no production value and boring gameplay? I’m not saying there aren’t a bunch of dull match-3s floating around the internet, but I’ve played some amazing casual games, like Funky Farm 2, Crayon Physics, and Nancy Drew: Lights, Camera, Curses!, just to name a few recent ones that had me addicted.  I hope Faerie Solitaire will be one of them!

Subsoap also plans to launch a new casual gaming portal sometime this year.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Free Casual Game: Jane’s Hotel

Giveaway of the day is offering a free full-version download of the casual time-management sim Jane’s Hotel.  It’s only available until midnight tonight (march 14th) so hurry over to Game Giveaway of the Day – Jane’s Hotel to get yours!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Thoughts On Casual Games Dev

Game development isn’t exactly my strong suit. Personally I prefer to let other people work long hours, pouring their heart and soul into a game, and then I play it and complain about what’s wrong with it. Hey, that’s where my talents lie!

But I do have huge admiration for indie developers, and I hope to focus on lesser-known titles here on ThumbGods.

Cliff Harris of Positech Games talks about making independent development profitable. Cliff is behind the Positech Games titles Democracy 2, Kudos (and Kudos 2!) and others. The entire interview is worth reading, if you’re all interested in what makes a game succeed, but one statement really stuck with me.

Who will survive in the casual game business in 2010?

Big Fish Games, Popcap.
I think I’ve got the full list there.

Big Fish Games is an awesome casual games portal. The “new game every day!” works perfectly for repeat business.  They’re a total giant, even my mother-in-law has a Big Fish Games account. But I worry that massive portals like BFG (much as I love them!) and now Amazon are making it harder for the guy-with-website development model to succeed.

Not to be all doom and gloom, because as Cliff’s interview shows, an indie game developer and creative marketer can still do very well.

Via Interview with Cliff Harris (cliffski) from Positech Games | Sell More Games.

Popularity: 17% [?]

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% [?]

Press Release: Globulos Reopens, Free To Play

Supercute gaming site Globulos.com, which offers a bunch of casual multiplayer games, reopens with a free-to-play basic model and a cash shop for extras.

The 20 games and the 50 playing fields are playable 100% for free. Games are 1 against 1 player, 2 against 2 or melee of 4 players. The gameplay is a mix between arcade fun and simultaneous turn based strategy. The kawaii style was noticed by the Japanese Nintendo official magazine, Nintendo Dream with a full page article.

Some options like character customization or power-ups (teletransportation, invisibility and a lot more) can be purchased using Globbies, the website currency.

The 20 games are: Arena, Football, Croquet, Tic-Tac, Save the King, Darts, Funky Foot, Bomber, Rally, Volley, Sumo, Flipper, Pétanque, BomberKing, 4-Square, Snooker, PacGlob, Basket, DartsKing, Monster.

A Nintendo DS game is being developed and is targeting the upcoming DSiWare channel.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Game Review: Totem Tribe

Totem Tribe was sort of a cross between MyTribe and Age Of Empires. You start out as a young chief with a small tribe, and you complete building, combat and searching missions to improve their fate.

Totem Tribe uses building and unit training without the usual resource management side of things. There’s no real harvesting involved and no resource requirements to build new items, which takes some of the challenge away, and lets you focus on building an aesthetically pleasing settlement. Or maybe that’s just me. Your buildings each create specialized units, which you can then use to explore, build, fight, and so forth.

It’s no Momo, but this game is cute. Your villagers fight mushroom people and funny animals, and they live peacefully with giant ladybugs and lazy turtles.

Each island has gems, seashells and other clickable collectibles. It took me a little while to realize that what I’d thought were some funny-looking flowers are actually the gems you are meant to collect. Oops. Because there are surprise activitable items, I found myself clicking on everything, old-fashioned hand-activate style, to see what might happen.

Totem Tribe blends a civ game, a strategy game and the good kind of hidden objects game, all things I like, into an addicting casual game. My only real problem is that the story falls flat.  While I actually liked the gameplay of repeatedly finding a new object of Epic Supreme Destiny on each unlocked island, I found  the chief’s requests for and the general quest text about each Super-Duper Supreme Epic item to be stilted and annoying.

Overall, a solid casual game, even if the story arc leaves a bit to be desired.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Press Release: Mahjong Solitaire

Some new casual games to play on your iPhone:

Budapest, Hungary, January 29, 2009 – Artex Studios, Inc., the owner of CasualGameStore.com is scheduled to release the iPhone and WiiWare version of Mahjong Zodiac and Str33t Racing.

Mahjong Zodiac
———————-
Mahjong Zodiac is a unique combination of the classic mahjong and the three matching games. The classic mahjong gameplay with the intriguing twist, guaranteed to challenge anyone looking for a brain workout. Embark on a journey through ancient China and Buddha’s life in this story-filled mahjong game. As you progress from level to level, a beautifully illustrated story is revealed, immersing you in a great gaming experience.

- 96 well balanced level
- unique hand drawn graphics
- particular mahjong tile set
- beautiful particle system
- authentic background music and sound effects

Mahjong Zodiac sounds a bit like Liong:The Lost Amulets for a blend of mahjong solitaire and a story, don’t you think?

Str33t Racing is due out later in 2009.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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% [?]

Free Casual Games From Big Fish!

Click on this link to a Big Fish Games coupon, and you’ll get 2 free games. The full versions, not the usual one-hour trial version.

You’ll be able choose two (2) free games from the selection of games listed below.
1) Atlantis Atlantis: Visually stunning and absolutely addictive, Atlantis takes you on a trip to the 19th century. As the head of a team of explorers on a classified mission, you unlock the secrets of the long-lost city in 81 challenging levels of pure fun. If you succeed, fame, fortune, and world-changing technology from Atlantis will be yours!

2) Fairies Game: Fairies takes you to a world where legends are true and magic is real. As the most powerful wizard ever, you are the only hope for a once peaceful land where fairies have been captured by an unknown evil. Complete 100 mesmerizing levels, break the magical spell that traps the fairies inside pictures, and restore justice to this world in need. Succeed and you’ll be a hero, granted the ultimate power; use it wisely!

3) Top Ten Solitaire Game: The world’s 10 most popular solitaire card games combined into one incredible game! With amazing graphics, animated cards, soothing music, great features and polished game play, it is no exaggeration to say that Top Ten Solitaire is the best solitaire game ever! Play Klondike, Pyramid, Scorpion, Accordion, Penguin, Canfield, Golf, Monte Carlo, Free Cell, and Yukon all in one collection.

4) Word Search Deluxe Game: It’s the master of all word search games! Thousands of word groups, numerous game types, a puzzle editor, and much more make this a must have for anyone who currently enjoys word search games or has ever enjoyed playing them. There is a kid’s option complete with animated characters and an easy to read large grid of characters.

5) Slot Words Game: Get ready for some good ‘ol word scrambling madness! Place your bet, spin the reels and prepare to do some quick thinking to unscramble the letters that the slots reveal. The more you bet, the longer the word and the bigger the payout. Progress through the levels, each giving out greater payouts but allowing less time to solve the puzzles. How many levels can you survive before you start losing your hard earned cash?

I’m downloading mine right now. What about you?

Via Free Samples: Big Fish – 2 Games Downloads

Popularity: 7% [?]

MumboJumbo Games Coming To The DS

DALLAS (January 9, 2008) – MumboJumbo, a leading developer and publisher of casual games, has entered into a publishing agreement with phenomedia publishing gmbh to bring their latest Moorhuhn titles to Nintendo DS™ system in the North American market.

The three-title deal includes Star Karts, Atlantis Quest and The Pharaoh’s Treasure, all of which will launch in 2009 for the popular handheld gaming console at retail prices of $19.99 each.

“We’re very excited to bring these three Crazy Chicken games to the North American audience,” said Mark Cottam, CEO of MumboJumbo. “The strong character, variety of game play and overall production values of these titles make them a perfect fit for MumboJumbo.”

Developed by phenomedia, Star Karts follows the zany Crazy Chicken through an intergalactic racing competition, while Atlantis Quest is a side-scrolling action (or platformer) game that takes Crazy Chicken through 30 levels of challenges both above and below the sea. In The Pharaoh’s Challenge, players can try their hand at puzzle-solving in the Egyptian-themed adventure.

“We would like to tie Moorhuhn’s latest three adventures on Nintendo DS to international success of Moorhuhn DS. Each of these games represents a different genre – racing game, Jump&Run and puzzle – and thus not only emphasizes the platform’s diversity, but also that of the strong character Moorhuhn itself,” said Helge Borgarts, phenomedia publishing gmbh’s CEO.

Crazy Chicken originally launched in Germany as Moorhuhn X and quickly developed a league of fans who found the zany and precocious chickens entertaining and comical. Bringing the mischief and mayhem to Nintendo DS will serve to broaden the game’s already impressive audience.

Via MumboJumbo to Bring New Crazy Chicken Titles to North America Gaming Industry | Press Release by MCV

Popularity: 4% [?]

November – December New Games Round-Up

In beta news, I beta-tested the awesome Nancy Drew: Lights, Camera, Curses and the awful Tropical Dream. Listen to a short podcast comparing the two.

In casual games, I reviewed the hidden objects game Ancient Secrets and the addictive island sim MyTribe.  I also got a review copy of the Princess Bride Game, an actual hard copy, a first in my game-reviewing career! Overall, the beloved Princess Bride characters made a sweet casual game a classic. On Thumbgods only, I reviewed Alabama Smith.

In January, I’ve got a couple new reviews in the works (including the hidden-objects Mystery Case Files: Castle Ravenhearst). What games would you like to see here? What games are you planning to play this month?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Casual Game Review: Ancient Secrets

Overall, Ancient Secrets is a solid, enjoyable casual game, but nothing groundbreaking.

I recently heard about Ancient Secrets over on GameHouse.
You play as Kate, a young archeologist, who is following her
father’s footsteps in the search for the lost key of the Tekka.
Kate needs to gather solves puzzles to gather clues to find pieces of
the key. I kind of wish my dad would get some ancient artifacts and
leave an worldwide treasure hunt, but, Dad, you probably
shouldn’t rely on my Latin skills.

Lots of Ancient Secrets was, annoyingly, the kind of hidden object game that I don’t like. The good kind is the cluttered room sort of hidden objects, where the edge of a dagger might be visible where the area rug meets the hardwood floor, or a piece of a treasure map between two books.

At another time, Ancient Secrets would have been great but it had the misfortune to come out right when so many really awesome casual games did. Ancient Secrets is enjoyable, but nothing particularly groundbreaking or memorable.

Via Simpson’s Paradox » Ancient Secrets

Popularity: 4% [?]

Casual Game Review: Zenses

My friend Rick, of Panda Passport and Little Red Blog fame, reviewed Zenses for Nintendo DS. I love casual games and Rick is a great writer, and the combination makes Zenses Rainforest Review: Do You Want a Break From Frustrating Games? much more than the usual “This game r0x0r!!!1!1!” (or sux0rs, I guess).

Zenses Rainforest is a puzzle game. Well, more specifically it’s a group of six puzzle games. Picture Tetris in a Japanese rock garden with a waterfall, and some pot-smoking Enya fans sitting nearby. That’s kinda like Zenses.

I started playing this game after trying out Quantum of Solace for about an hour. I’m a pretty casual gamer, and maybe I just don’t have the patience required for the Jame Bond game. But in any case, 60 minutes of repeatedly trying to follow Judy Dench’s commands was enough to make me want to put my head through the wall. I quit before even finishing the training round. And that’s when I decided to give Zenses a try.

Unlike many other games that have a difficulty level setting, Zenses is a little more “Zensitive” about choosing its words. Rather than making you feel like a wuss for choosing the easy level, Zenses asks you to choose the difficulty level by sliding a selector up the intensity bar. The default is zero intensity, which is kinda like Zenses telling you “Hey man, don’t over-do it.”

Kind of makes me want to try it… when I finish playing Harvest Moon!

Via Zenses Rainforest Review: Do You Want a Break From Frustrating Games? Zenses is Your Version of DS R&R

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Tropical Nightmare

From Simpson’s Paradox on Tropical Nightmare

I recently got the chance to beta Tropical Dream: Underwater Odyssey by Digital Chocolate. I usually love betatesting new games, I get a sneak preview and the chance to run my mouth to the developers. Before I say anything else, I should make it clear that I played the beta, and things may change for the final version.

I thought the premise of Underwater Odyssey was perfect: Young Megan leaves her boring job for expat adventures in exotic locations! But things are not quite as advertised, and she must rely on her wits and creativity to survive! Could it be any better?

At the end of the introductory sequence, Megan decides to become an underwater photographer, which is when the game starts to go downhill.

It’s about as fun as watching the old Windows fishtank screensaver, and taking a screen capture of pretty fish. No, really. That’s the game. If you get it right, the fish smile at you. Then you come up for air. If you got the right fishy photos, you can hang up your best pictures in your house, and then do it all over again. I almost cried when I saw space on my wall for seventy-odd photos. If you didn’t get the right photos before you ran out of air, you go back down and try again. (You can’t drown yourself. I tried.)

I started to think it was a joke, like you play this repetitive “game” for a few moments and then you surface and realize that aliens have landed! And Megan has to save the world!

But that didn’t happen. The break in the fish-photo action was a Bejeweled-type minigame with Roman and Chinese coins. Sounds like a recipe for an awesome Meggish minigame, but it was completely overdone which went from cute to annoying in about three musically-accompanied, over-animated clicks.

I’d been wondering what I’d do if I played a game I really didn’t like. Not write about it? Take, for once in my life, the old advice about what to do if you can’t say anything nice? Say something politely bland about it not being quite my style? And then I remembered that I’m the editor and publisher here, so I assigned myself to write an honest editorial. Simpson’s Paradox: Your source for hard-hitting journalism in the world of casual games.

Via Simpson’s Paradox » Blog Archive » Tropical Nightmare

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On Shopping For Games

From …on pampers, programming & pitching manure comes an interesting point on where we find games and the growing popularity of casual games.

I found myself at Target recently.

Holy balls! Look at the PC game shelf! Approx 1/3 traditional PC hardcore fare (not shown), 1/3 kids & adventure (e.g. Dora, Nancy Drew, etc – also not shown) and 1/3 $20 casual download titles.

Once the domain of Mumbo Jumbo and a couple others, now every downloadable title to have proven itself beyond a given threshold (not sure what that might be – 100k units? half that maybe?) graduates to physical retail.

I wonder whether this is a nice secondary market or whether it’s “the big leagues”. I’m guessing the former, but who knows!?

Via …on pampers, programming & pitching manure: Evolution of retail

Popularity: 3% [?]

PC Casual Games: Hidden Object Games

Do you spend a lot of time playing PC games? What kind of games do you usually play? How long do you usually spend playing PC games? Do you play for a few minutes just to kill your boredom or you are an addict and play the games continuously for several hours?

I usually like to play for just a few minutes. The games perfect for these are casual games. Casual games are characterized by having simple rules and are relatively easy to finish. You won’t have to spend a lot of hours to get to another level and wish you had saved because you’re stuck in a difficult spot.

A sub-genre of Casual games are Hidden Object Games. The objective of these games is already obvious from its name. You would have to find several objects blended into a big picture. What makes it a bit more challenging is the fact that the objects are camouflaged into the pictures. Most objects are not placed “logically” in a picture so you could find a floating gem, apple, or knives imposed on a wall. You would really have to look closely to find these items.

In some games, there is a bigger plot which will be solved once you have played till the end of the game. But, you can also play these games again because there are literally thousands of hidden objects in more than 15 scenes or pictures. Sometimes, there are even mini-games that can be played in between these scenes.

One of the best hidden object games is Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate. This is the best game because it has wonderful graphics, a nice plot, many different levels, a lot of mini-puzzles to solve and innovative puzzles. This really is the ultimate hidden object game!

Popularity: 4% [?]

WTF: A Game In PSP

I don’t like to play video games that take too long to finish. I am more into casual games that I can just play and stop any time I want. The best game that fits this profile perfectly is WTF. WTF is Work Time Fun. It is a Japanese game translated and adapted to an American version. Why is it so fun to play with? Read on.

In Work Time Fun, you not only get to play one, two, or three games. You get to play more than 10 mini-games within Work Time Fun. The premise of the overall game is that you are looking for part-time jobs that will give you money to buy trinkets and tools from vending machines. You have to buy and get more than 500 trinkets to feel that you have “finished” the game. But you don’t really have to get all those trinkets but just play the different mini-games over and over again.

One of the games included there is Lumber Jack wherein you would have to look closely if the one on the screen is wood or a fuzzy little creature. If it’s wood, you would have to chop it, if it’s a fuzzy little creature and you chopped it, it’s game over! But the fun thing about it is that the game will give you around 10 consecutive woods and suddenly bring out a fuzzy little creature. If you chop it, the blood will be splattered all over and your heart will skip a beat because it was all so sudden. There is also the Bishop Game wherein you control an ice pick (I think!) and you would have to make sure that it drops in between fingers and not stab the hand in front of you. It is a very exciting and stimulating game!

I suggest that you start playing WTF now and enjoy all the wonderful mini-games. WTF is the ultimate companion if you’re bored or commuting. You will never stop having fun while playing Work Time Fun.

Popularity: 5% [?]