Gamezebo Archives - May 2010

Proving that social games will always be more fun than social services, Booyah announced earlier this month that its mobile check-in experience MyTown had reached 2 million users – that’s more than non-game location-based services Foursquare and Gowalla combined. Still riding high on that announcement, Booyah has raised $20 million in a recent round of funding led by Accel Partners.

Free games are all around us, but they may not be as easy to find as you’d think. We help you sort through the App Store to find the latest price drops and limited time offers so that you won’t have to spend a penny. Today’s free games include a brand new crossword app, dynamiting bugs to save your garden, and more!

In Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, he proposes that humans actually tend to make up their minds about something within the first two seconds of perceiving it. Everything else is just elaborate justification for those first two seconds: whether or not you got the job in an interview, what colour of car you like, or what sort of pet you're going to get. I don't know if it absolutely holds true for video games, but I did decide that I loved Mobigame's Edge in roughly two seconds. The luminous brilliance of this perfectly realized puzzle game is apparent right from the start.

Playrix's Fishdom is a game that's seen numerous spin-offs, from special themed titles for Halloween, Christmas and Thanksgiving to last year's hidden object game Fishdom H20: Hidden Odyssey. Now Playrix is going back to its roots with Fishdom 2, a direct sequel to the original match-3 / aquarium simulation that started it all.

Virtual pets have been big business since they became popular in the 1990s, and it's more than a little surprising that we haven't seen more apps for the iPhone geared towards this market. Tactile Entertainment's latest creation, Pocket Creatures, is aimed to appeal to anyone who likes the idea of carrying a digital pet around in their pocket, but a number of small problems keeps this app from being very enjoyable.

Free games are all around us, but they may not be as easy to find as you’d think. We help you sort through the App Store to find the latest price drops and limited time offers so that you won’t have to spend a penny. Today’s free games include a spherical version of Snake, some archaeological twin stick shooting, a Tetris-style jigsaw puzzle and more!

These new games on Facebook are on our radar to be previewed, reviewed and covered. In the meantime, be among the first to check them out and play them in beta now: Miracle Garden and Rescue Party.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, and you'd be well-advised to stay away from this game, too.

What can one say about Journey of Hope, the new hidden object game from MechLab and Alawar? It's ridiculously easy. It's ridiculously short. It's about as much of a journey as walking down to your corner store for a loaf of bread and, to carry the witticism just a little bit further, I sure hope you didn't pay any money for it.

Free games are all around us, but they may not be as easy to find as you’d think. We help you sort through the App Store to find the latest price drops and limited time offers so that you won’t have to spend a penny. Today’s free games include a Game & Watch revival, vegetarian monsters, a VW racer and more!

Funfari is one of those “new visuals, old gameplay” types of game. It’s essentially a jungle skin wrapped over your typical post-FarmVille farm sim. The only safari-like touch is that you can keep exotic animals on your jungle plantation and earn money for taking care of them. While Funfari’s graphics are very attractive, the game doesn’t offer enough to hold a player’s interest for long right now. There’s not a lot to do and what is available quickly becomes very repetitive, even by the standards of the farm sim genre.

Interactive fiction isn’t something we cover a lot of here on Gamezebo, and there’s a good reason for that. It’s often boring, dry, and excruciating to play through. ...and then there’s Breaking Bad. Focussing on a character from the popular TV show of the same name, Breaking Bad: The Interrogation plays out like the Serpico equivalent to Choose Your Own Adventure. It’s gruff, it’s gritty, and it’s incredibly fun.

Each week hundreds of new games hit the App Store, vying for your dollars. Join us every Friday as we sort through the pile and let you know which games should be on your radar. This week’s releases let you relive the glory days of grunge, thrash it up in the skatepark, more!

Free games are all around us, but they may not be as easy to find as you’d think. We help you sort through the App Store to find the latest price drops and limited time offers so that you won’t have to spend a penny. Today’s free games include jumping rope, denying medical claims, intergalactic hedge trimming and more!

Blending ancient cultures and hidden objects isn’t always easy. That’s why we tend to leave it up to the pros at National Geographic. Lilly Wu and the Terra Cotta Mystery is the next release from Nat Geo Games, and tells the tale of a forensic expedition trying to solve a 2000 year old mystery.

Codeminion and Twin Bottles have released a new video for their upcoming hidden object adventure game,Brunhilda and the Dark Crystal, and we got the exclusive scoop!

In the past week, there have been many theories about why Zynga may be leaving Facebook.

Facebook is upset about Zynga’s past abuse of its system and Zynga is upset that Facebook changes to its system have resulted in significant drop in game traffic. Facebook is forcing Zynga to accept Facebook credits and Zynga does not want to pay Facebook 30% of its revenues. It’s all a negotiating ploy.

Here’s another theory: Zynga’s plan to leave Facebook has nothing to do with the above and is part of its grand scheme to create its own social network. Zynga does not want to leave Facebook; they want to be Facebook. And they may have numbers, products and strategy to pull it off.

Sally no longer cuts hair, now she is training you to be a good athlete (and some yoga moves). Sally's Studio, Collector's Version, is out. Our review comes soon.
Download a free trial to play Sally's Studio on Big Fish Games, write a review, and discuss the game in our forum.

Tattoo Ink – Hollywood wants to appeal to those out there that identify with the tattooing world. Sadly what’s served up here is more tattoo culture penned by advertising exec, and it feels about as legitimate as a Mountain Dew commercial. Creating a real tattoo takes years of practice and intense artistry skills. In this game, you rub your finger around the screen some. It's admittedly a watered down experience.

Hidden object games on the iPhone have had a chequered past at best. Squeezing a PC mainstay about tiny, hard to see objects onto a tiny, hard to see screen is a recipe for trouble. When they get it right things are still far from perfect, and when they get it wrong the results can be disastrous. Doodle Find bucks these trends, creating an object hunt tailor made for the iPhone.

Comets are born every day in our universe. And some of them? Some of them wag their tongues like dogs. Thusly begins the adventure of Kometen, an experimental game about a young, dog-tongued comet looking to explore the farthest reaches of the universe. Sporting an amazing hand-drawn art style the likes of which we’ve never seen before, Kometen blends gravitational physics with exploration to create a unique game, albeit with some clear influences.