What's Hot:

• Name Your Own Price Bundle
• The Night of the Rabbit
• Star Command
• Fez

When Gamezebo founder Joel Brodie and I went to meet with GREE’s VP of Product Ethan Fassett at Casual Connect, I was under the impression that we’d be there to talk about the obvious: the “GREE Platform.” The mega-dev’s publishing platform has just entered open beta, and without sounding too jaded, events like Casual Connect often serve as soapboxes from which to chat about their latest initiatives, per the party line.

One of my favourite talks at this year’s Casual Connect was given by Spry Fox (Triple Town) Chief Creative Officer, Dan Cook, about designing completely original games. He feels a great place to start is at the root, with the core assumptions of how we play. Mario runs and jumps, and we control that. What if we didn’t control the running part? Canabalt is what. A fitting chat, it seems, considering what this indie duo has up its sleeve.

Employment in the casual gaming sector of the industry is a rocky thing. The layoffs and studio shutterings certainly don't help, but there's also the issue of sundry companies looking to steal or court new employees. It's a problem Zynga knows a thing or two about, and Chief People Officer Colleen McCreary hosted a panel on how best to acquire and retain talent.

The super-exciting news is that Super Stickman Golf 2 is in development and scheduled to come out later this year.

What is happiness? To some, love. To others, money and power. For Taploft’s upcoming Happy Tale, the answer is a combination of ecology, magic, friendship, and “beating your enemies black and blue”. It’s a very fine and exact science, and Happy Tale is hoping to pull it all off in one addictive mobile package. 

Mutant Roadkill is a driving/obstacle course game created by Glu. You will be maneuvering your vehicle around various obstacles and plowing through the mutants that are wandering the streets. Earn coins, purchase power-ups, and unlock new vehicles and see how long your can endure the mutants throwing themselves at your ca. Gamezebo’s quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

“Mix in a game subscription service like OnLive, and you’ve got all of the entertainment you could ever want on a little $99 box.  And who doesn’t love the idea of that?” concluded our Editor-in-Chief Jim Squires concluded his article on why OUYA is the next big thing. Today, like the heavens fulfilling an ancient prophecy, OUYA has promised exactly that. 

I’m going to say three words right now, and depending on your familiarity I should instantly be able to place you into one of two groups.  Are you ready?  Talking Tom Cat.  If this means nothing to you, congratulations: you’re living the carefree life of a childless adult.  For the rest of us though, apps like Talking Tom Cat have pretty much become routine in the life of any parent sporting a smartphone – and PopCap is looking to jump into that kid-friendly app world with the release of PvZ Presents: Talking Zombatar.

Once in every four years, the world’s strongest, fastest, and fittest athletes get together in what can only be called the tournament to end all tournaments.  That’s right, folks – it’s time once again for the Summer Olympics!

At the GamesBeat event a few weeks back, Benchmark Capital’s Mitch Lasky stated that publishers were originally “a response to scarcity of shelf space,” a dilemma that doesn’t exist in the mobile/social space. Gaming Insiders founder David Kaye echoed that sentiment during a panel at Casual Connect yesterday on modern publishing, citing “attention” as the new resource developers are fighting for.  

While Gameloft continues to strive toward pushing out “console quality” games on mobile devices, its track record has been able to pull some heroic partnerships. Both The Amazing Spider-Man grossed over half a billion dollars, while The Avengers is the third-highest grossing film of all time. Joining the Marvel madness is Detective Comics’ newest blockbuster, The Dark Knight Rises. 

Generally speaking, there are few things that are socially acceptable to run over.  No one will ever complain to you about running over a zombie.  In the same apocalyptic vein, no one will ever complain about the vehicular flattening of a marauding mutant.

Fieldrunners 2 is a tower-defense style game created by Subatomic Studios, where players try to defend against a wide array of enemies with different attack and defense styles. Gamezebo’s quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

We cover plenty of new games here at Gamezebo every week, but the number of games we’ve already covered that show up on new platforms?  It’s staggering.  This Wednesday and every Wednesday, Gamezebo is rounding up the games that aren’t quite new, but might be new to you depending on your platform of choice.

Miss the color, charm, and atmosphere of the Viva Piñata series? Gameloft’s new project, Monster Life, is shaping up to be the next thing. Swap out vibrant piñata animals for adorable paper craft palls, and you’ve got yourself a beautiful 3D adventure that’s already looking to be a fantastic addition to the iOS and Android libraries. 

When someone says Gameloft, what’s the first thought to jump into your head? Whether you’re a supporter or hater of Gameloft’s strategy, it’s nearly impossible for something along the lines of “console experiences on mobile devices” to come up. With a combination of mobile titles modeled after nearly every blockbuster film this summer (including Men in Black, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Rises), it’s easy to forget one of Gameloft’s largest franchise deals: Uno. 

It looks like Australia is shaping up to be a large source of news in the mobile and social gaming industry. Less than two months back, KIXEYE announced their new development studio down under. Today, gaming supergiant Electronic Arts is happy to announce the unification of two of Australia’s biggest developers into their new name: Iron Monkey and Firemint are combining to become Australia’s largest game development company: FireMonkey. 

It’s that time of year again – PopCap games has released the numbers to another one of its extensive consumer surveys. This year’s topic centered around mobile gaming habits and was filled out by over 1,000 mobile and tablet consumers. While plenty of the survey simply affirmed what we already know about mobile, some of the survey’s responses more a bit more surprising. 

Big Fish is leaping into cloud gaming with Big Fish Unlimited, announced CEO Paul Thelen. Launching today with 100 games from 42 developers (and more on the way), the service will enable subscribers to seamlessly play games on their PC, television via Roku, and mobile devices.  

Yar-har, fiddle-dee-dee. You are a pirate. That is to say, you can be a pirate. Ya got the potential to be a scurvy sea-dog, kid. Real potential. But just to be sure, you should play Pirate Explorer, a hidden object/city building game for iOS, PC, and Android. Haul in some priceless booty from a hapless ship, and then we’ll talk.