What's New in Gamezebo

Hello Gamezebo-ers,

 

This is Ryan Modjeski again, designer and producer of Legacy Interactive's upcoming hidden object adventure, The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2. Since my last developer diary, things have gotten really hectic around here. Murder, She Wrote just launched (at the time of writing it is #1 on Big Fish Games and Legacy Games) and the energy surrounding that project amplified our stresses as we are quickly approaching our own release date in December.

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It's a shame that the Wild West isn't a more popular setting in video games. If Hollywood and Louis L'Amor are to be believed, this was the era when cowboys had the same sense of honor as Knights of the Round Table, gunfights were used to settle disputes, and gorgeous steam trains were the way to get around. It was a period of romance and adventure, when the nation was still young and the possibilities seemed endless. Thankfully, the Westward series of games have done the setting proud, and the newly-released Westward IV: All Aboard continues the tradition. Read more»

Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst is on sale for $2.99 at Big Fish Games until Nov. 22. (use coupon code RTR299 at checkout.) Westward is still free over at Sandlot Games too, so grab this great strategy game while you have the chance! The Settlers strategy games are 50% off on GOG.com until Nov. 23. Read more»

The approach of Free Realms - a casual massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game from Sony Online Entertainment, is a simple and familiar one: pack as much free content into as friendly-looking a package as possible and sell upgrades, unlocks and items for real money off the back of that initial experience. The obvious hope is that you'll become enamoured enough with the free portions of the game to pony up for advantages and privileges against other players, and Free Realms has plenty of content put aside for those who are prepared to pay.  Read more»

One man's trash is another man's treasure, or so the saying goes. I come from a family of dumpster diggers and garage sale junkies (hey, you never know when you're going to find a real gem!). So, I felt right at home playing Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville from Slapdash Games. Read more»

Big Fish Games announces release dates for Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove; Zynga raises $15.2 milion in new funding; and class action lawsuits could be brewing against social networks over the scam offers scandal. These headlines and more behind the cut. Read more»

As they say, you can never keep a good site (or is that man/woman?) down.

The site gremlins were running amuck, but now we are back up.  Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll make sure the reason we went down never happens again.

Back to writing and posting about great new games to play (and there are many this and next week!

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Beta test casual games before they come out and provide developers with your insight.  Game developers are looking for your feedback to make their games better and they really do listen and change their games based on your advice.  We'll be sending out an email with new games to beta test soon.

If you are interested in being a member of our prestigious beta test program, sign up here.  If you are already a member, no worries;  you don't have to sign up again.

 

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Alawar has just launched the third game in the Natalie Brooks hidden object adventure series. Download Natalie Brooks - Mystery at Hillcrest High, write a review, or chat about it in our forum. Read more»

Cook and waitress Emily is back for another culinary adventure in Delicious: Emily's Holiday Season. After deciding to stay in the peaceful and cozy town of Snuggford, Emily and her long-time friend Francois find themselves having to care for five different restaurants. This latest installment of the popular Delicious series again proves to be one of the most creative and unique time management game available. Read more»

Luxor Adventures has launched, a game that takes the Luxor puzzle game franchise in a new hidden object direction. Download the game, write a review, and chat about it in our forum. Read more»

Escape the Museum 2 has launched! Download the game, write a review, or chat about it in our forum. Read more»

Check out our strategy guide for Little Folk of Faery. Read more»

Little Folk of Faery isn't the first game to simulate caring for a tribe of villagers (see Wild Tribe, Escape from Paradise, and of course the granddaddy of them all: Virtual Villagers), but it's certainly the one of the most stylish. Set in a beautiful fantasy realm populated with leprauchans, pixies, dryads and other fairytale creatures, the game is a visual delight even as the gameplay itself is nothing groundbreaking. Read more»

Reflexive Entertainment has announced its next game, Simplz: Zoo, a time management game that will put players in charge of their own zoo and give them a chance to control nearly every aspect of it, from which animals they exhibit to where to put the drinking fountains. Read more»

When it comes to classic puzzle games, GameHouse's Collapse! series is right up there with the best of them -- which is why we were excited to learn that the franchise is returning with a brand new block-busting, color-matching title called simply COLLAPSE! Read more»

World's Hardest Game is an iPhone app that actually lives up to its title.  The idea is simple, the mechanics are easy, but trying to accomplish anything is mind-numbingly difficult.  That's not to say the game is bad - in fact it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. World's Hardest Game offers up an easy-to-learn game that will make your blood boil in its first five minutes. Read more»

Monkwerks is a game about spelling, about taxing your vocabulary. That its title is (presumably deliberately) misspelled should tell you all you need to know before you even load it in your browser. This is an excellent example of how to take a simple, appealing concept and run it completely into the ground through fundamentally bad and lazy implementation.

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The Return of Monte Cristo brings back Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo's Edmond Dante for another hidden object adventure in which he searches for his fiancée's killer. The detectives closed the case without ever finding a suspect, so Dante travels from Spain to Paris in this game with beautiful art work and effects in this clichéd, but eye-pleasing game. Read more»

PlayFirst sent us a trailer for the upcoming time management game Hotel Dash: Suite Success, which is launching very soon! The video gives you a glimpse of how elevators will be used in the game to allow Flo to go between floors to reach demanding guests in different rooms of the hotel. Watch the Hotel Dash: Suite Success trailer here, and chat about the game in our forum.

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We can finally share with you the release dates for Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove, the hotly anticipated sixth game in the Mystery Case Files hidden object/adventure series from Big Fish Games Studios. For the first time in the series' history, Big Fish Games will be releasing two different versions of the game: the Collector's Edition will launch on Nov. 25 for $19.99, followed by the standard version in early December which will sell for the usual $6.99. Read more»

Browser-based bicycle rides are few and far between nowadays.  Maybe that's the reason Fig. 8 makes us smile so much.  Its playful title serves as something of a double entendre, referring to the manoeuvring of the bicycle as easily as it does to the landscape on which you'll be cycling.  Rather than riding through picturesque scenery and charming country roads, Fig. 8 will have you cycling through technical schematics on an endless sheet of paper. Read more»

When Cash Cow came out for PCs last year, it was one of those titles that was promptly shunted into the, "cute, but not great," category. The coin-oriented puzzle game, while enjoyable, was a little too simple and shallow for some players. In short, it was a no-frills steak dinner.  Now, though, Cash Cow is back, having been ported to the iPhone, and it seems to have been fleshed out a bit with better gameplay and more content; adding some sides to the dish definitely make this a meal worth sampling. Read more»

Check out our strategy guide for Cat Wash. Read more»

What's better than Westward for free?  Nothing, if you ask me.  Click here to download Westward for free from Sandlot Games

While you are out it, check out Westward IV, the latest in Sandlot's saga.  Our review for WestWard IV is coming soon.

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Ever walk in on the middle of a movie and find yourself hopelessly lost, but still enjoying yourself? That's what playing Lost Realms: The Curse of Babylon is like if you didn't play the previous game, Lost Realms: Legacy of the Sun Princess. You'll have a hard time following the plot, but you'll be having such a good time on your adventure that you won't really mind. Read more»

Cat Wash is a quirky time management game that has you washing cats in a disco-themed pet salon. Pet grooming games are nothing new, but cat washing games are rare, combined with a theme that jumped straight out of the 1970s...well, the whole combination is something new. Read more»

Spore Islands takes the species-creation idea of the hit PC game Spore and sets it loose in a science experiment type environment. What would happen if I tweaked their diets?  What if I reduced their defences?  What if I introduced two more species into their world?  Spore Islands is a god game in the truest sense of the word. Create creatures, tweak their existence, and let them run amok to see what happens. Read more»

Coming out of stasis only to find the world has been destroyed in an all-out nuclear conflict sounds like just about the worst day anybody could have.  But coming out of stasis to discover this in winter, completely naked, with nothing but a much-too-tiny bicycle to save you?  That's worse.  Icycle has you guiding a very chilly, very nude man on a teensy little bicycle across some terrifying terrain in an icy cold future. Read more»

Check out our walkthrough for Kellie Stanford: Turn of Fate. Read more»

Hanako Games has released Cute Knight Kingdom.  Of course, a review and strategy guide shall come soon.

Download a free trial of Cute Knight Kingdom now, write a review, and discuss in our forum.

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Cat Wash, the time management games about washing dirty kitties to a disco beat, has just launched over at Namco Games. Download Cat Wash, write a review, or chat about it in our forum. Read more»

Sandlot Games has just launched Westward IV: All Aboard, the fourth game in its Wild West-themed real-time strategy series. Download the game, write a review, or chat about it in our forum.
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Clocktower Games has just released the third chapter its Casebook interactive mystery series, Casebook Episode 3 – Snake in the Grass. Like its predecessors (Casebook Episode 1 and Casebook Episode II - The Watchers), Episode 3 features unique photorealistic 3D graphics that use footage of real actors and scenery. Purchase Casebook Episode 3, write a review, or talk about it in our forum. You can also pick up Episode 2 for $7.50 and Episode 1 for just $5 at the developer's site. Episode 0 is still free. Read more»

NinjaBee's award-winning Xbox Live Arcade strategy game, A Kingdom for Keflings, will soon be available to PC gamers as a digital download, the company announced today. Read more»

It seems like a match made in heaven: a hidden-object game ("HOG") that has you scouring for clues and solving puzzles to unravel a murder mystery, all based on the coveted Murder, She Wrote television series that ran from 1984 to 1996.

 

Now available for the PC and Mac, Legacy Interactive's Murder, She Wrote does stay truthful to the long-running show - thanks to excellent writing, plot twists and good voice-acting (led by a convincing Angela Lansbury sound-a-like) - but the fun object-finding puzzles and mini-games also hold their own, even without the MSW association.

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Square Enix is a Japanese publisher best known for creating the epic role-playing series Final Fantasy, which is why we  were surprised when they released the cute puzzle game Yosumin! as a digital download earlier this year. We were surprised again to see Square Enix's name on the title screen of Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders, a hidden object game set in 19th century Japan. Read more»

Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day, unless you go to a game site powered by Oberon/iPlay.  All games are $13 for one day only (just November 13, 2009.

Here are a sample of the web sites with the Friday the 13th $13 Sale (Yahoo! Games, MSN Games, and Pogo).  

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The folks at Big Blue Bubble, the developers who brought us Home Sweet Home and Masters of Mystery: Crime of Fashion, are working on a follow-up to Crime of Fashion called Masters of Mystery: Blood of Betrayal. Keep reading for a sneak peek at this upcoming hidden object adventure. Read more»

Millennium: A New Hope is the latest title from Aldorlea Games, an independent developer that specializes in creating casual or "retro-style" role-playing games. Fans of the genre will find many familiar trappings here, especially if you've played any of the studio's previous titles like 3 Stars of Destiny. Read more»

Ask any veteran of Roller Coaster Tycoon or Thrillville and they'll tell you the same -- managing a theme park is hard work. At least it used to be. Roller Coaster Kingdom takes a trip down easy street and strips the traditionally deep theme park management genre of all of its detail and nuance, delivering a social game from Zynga that feels surprisingly underwhelming. Read more»

Murder, She Wrote, the hidden object game a lot of us have been not-so-patiently waiting for, has launched! Download the game, write a review, or chat about it in our forum. Read more»

When I was in high school, my first job was scooping ice cream in a little shop called Blum's. It was my dream job. What could be more fun than scooping ice cream all day? And you could always get a free ice cream whenever you wanted. Ice cream is definitely one of my key comfort foods. So, when I saw there was an ice cream-based iPhone  game called Scoops - Ice Cream Fun For Everyone, I knew I just had to indulge myself. Read more»

EA buys Playfish for $300 million; PlayFirst announces Hotel Dash: Suite Success; and the developers of Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor challenges the idea that selling games for cheap is the only way to be competitive on the Apple App Store. These headlines and more behind the cut. Read more»

On Wednesday Playdom, the social networking company responsible for Facebook hits like Mobsters and Sorority Life, announced that it had raised $43 million in its first round of outside financing. The very next day the company demonstrated how the money was already being put to use by announcing that it had purchased two game companies: Facebook developer Green Patch, and Trippert Labs, an iPhone and social game developer. Read more»

Check out our walkthrough for The Return of Monte Cristo. Read more»

Check out our walkthrough for Hidden Magic. Read more»

Check out our strategy guide for 1912 Titanic Mystery. Read more»

Zynga, the leading social games company and creators of popular games that you've probably have played (such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Café World) is officially having the worst week ever. Read more»

If you just can't get enough of Fishdom's match-3 / aquarium building gameplay, Playrix Entertainment has released yet another instalment of the puzzle game just in time for the winter season. It's called Fishdom: Frosty Splash, and like the name immplies you'll get to create festive-looking fish tanks with more than 100 winter-themed decorations. Download the game, write a review, or chat about it in our forum. Read more»