Gamezebo Archives - January 2012

Yarr! Set sail, me hearties! Etc.

Is your heart no longer stirred by the dialect of salty dogs? Then you may be suffering from Pirate Overexposure, an extremely common Internet affliction. There's no definite cure, but the complex and compelling world that's laid out in DotMMO's social strategy game Pirates: Tides of Fortune might help sway you back to the ranks of the buccaneers.

Run Roo Run is a game for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch by developer 5TH Cell. Roo is off on his quest to other side of Australia to rescue his little blue friend, and you’ll need help to get him there. Gamezebo’s quick start guide you’ll get all the walkthroughs, solutions, tips, tricks and cheats you’ll need to find your way to Syndey in no time.

It's no surprise that Temple Run became a massive hit on the App Store. After all, it's one of the best games to come out for the iPhone in recent memory. Since it was released, though, word of mouth and glowing reviews have helped the game rise to the top spot on the App Store charts.

As it continues to push into the mobile space, 6waves Lolapps has announced that it has acquired Escalation Studios, the Dallas-based developer behind mobile games like Yeti Town and Splode. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Even though it's been around for more than a year, Fishlabs isn't finished with Galaxy on Fire 2. If you haven't checked out the game, you really should, and if you've already played through the entire game, as well as its expansion Valkyrie, you'll be pleased to hear that the company has announced its second expansion for the game —Supernova — is due out later this year.

As one of the founders of Apple, you might think that Steve Wozniak would be in love with the iPhone. If so, you might be shocked to learn that Woz also uses the Android-powered Motorola DROID RAZR, and that in his opinion, Android trumps iOS as an operating platform in a few different ways.

Over at Forbes, Dave Thier has written a negative article on Zynga entitled, “Why Zynga is Doomed.”

First of all, great article title. I’m jealous. Secondly, all is not doom and gloom in the world of Zynga. They just raised $1 billion and Mark Pincus and Zynga was on Rock Center with Brian Willams on NBC last night (for the 100 or so people who watch that TV show).

But, Mr. Thier does raise one really good point about Zynga’s future prospects.

While it’s easy to criticize 5th Cell for not being more innovative with Run Roo Run, it’s even easier to say that it’s a fantastic game that deserves its spot on your favorite device of choice at all times.

Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a quiz app on a phone. Once that app takes up half your day, your day is shot. If it takes up less than half your day, you feel unfulfilled. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?

A new survey of game developers shows that many are already using HTML5 to develop games, while others see the technology as a part of their future.

If you're going to be in Washington, D.C. between March 16 and Sept. 30 you might want to visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games," an exhibit that explores 40 years of video game history and its evolution as an artistic medium.

The games of Broken Bulb Studios may all be on Facebook, but they've taken us to quite a few places. The office. The zombie apocalypse. And, most recently, a mysterious island packed with unique creatures to collect and battle. It's quite the eclectic library of games, and in today's edition of Gamezebo Cribs we're heading down to Arizona to see just where those games get made.

The latest batch of screenshots for The Testament of Sherlock Holmes have been revealed in the lead-up to the early 2012 release of the point-and-click adventure. Check them out behind the cut.

Indian marriage site Shaadi.com is hoping to raise awareness for the issue of dowries with a Facebook spin on Angry Birds.

One of the best things about Words With Friends (aside from making Alec Baldwin look like a raging blowhard) is that it hooks you up with gamers from across the planet. You can meet people you never would otherwise, learn words and phrases from faraway lands, and maybe make a new friend or two. Oh, and maybe —just maybe— you'll wind up saving a life, which is what happened over the weekend.

There is something oddly soothing and comforting about a game that sets up its own rules and variables, and then allows players to think through the effects logically (based on those rules and variables) to solves its puzzles. What is not so soothing is when a game sets up the rules and variables, and then fails to give you enough feedback or enough consistency for the game to be rewarding to play. Thus is the folly of Miniclip’s Feed That Dragon.

Let me just get this out of the way since the comparison is inevitable: The first person puzzle game Q.U.B.E. will immediately remind you of Portal. They’re both set in stark environments with ambient sounds and a severe sense of isolation, all while you’re making your way through a facility with a series of tests to challenge your sense of problem solving. While Q.U.B.E. might not be the classic that Portal turned out to be, it still holds its own.

Welcome to the White Haven Mysteries Collector's Edition walkthrough on Gamezebo. White Haven Mysteries is a hidden object adventure game played on the PC created by Gogii Games. This walkthrough includes tips and tricks, helpful hints, and a strategy guide for how to complete White Haven Mysteries Collector's Edition.

Tiny Wings was a certifiable hit. A nice and simple swoop and glide mechanic with controls boiled down to a single touch made it easy for anyone to pick up and enjoy. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of that perfect dive-bomb, skimming the Earth and then sailing above the clouds in a beautiful arc. But simple and addicting iOS games means inevitable heir apparent, trying to capture lightning in a bottle for the 2nd (or 3rd or 10th) time. Can Woody Woodpecker do it?

We took a look at Hourblast Games' action/strategy social game Dueling Blades earlier today, but our conversation with developer Joseph Cooper was quite a bit longer. We talked about everything from the game's world to the state of social games in general, and even got an in-depth breakdown of just how the combat will work in the game. Thankfully you can still check out everything Cooper had to say about the game right here.