Gamezebo Archives - March 2012

Draw Something is more than a simple Pictionary clone. While it stems off the same concept that has been used over and over, there are no time limits and no punishments for incorrect guesses. These aspects, along with the one-on-one setting, remove any sense of competition from the game. The resulting experience is less a game, and more an insight into individual personalities.

Chaos Rings II is the type of game that doesn’t make a great first impression. Players are plopped into an ill-defined world with a couple of characters they know nothing about and expected to figure it out as they go. Furthermore, at first blush the combat system looks identical to the original Chaos Rings, leading players to wonder if they just spent $18 on re-skinned characters and an incomprehensible story. Those who stick with it, though, will be richly rewarded, as Chaos Rings II introduces a terrific cast of characters, a beautiful world and a combat system which has evolved quite nicely from its predecessors. The price tag may be steep, but it’s well worth it.

I’ll be spending the next 700 or so words explaining to you why you shouldn’t buy Defenders of Ardania. It would be best that you not bother reading them and just trust me, but that statement alone is not what I was hired to do. So, here it goes.

The gods are dead, and unworldly creatures are laying siege to the homes and towns of good people. What can you do? If you pledge to Stoic's Kickstarter for The Banner Saga, you might gain the chance to fight back, accompanied by gorgeous, hand-drawn cinematics.

Social gaming company 6waves Lolapps announced earlier today that it has laid off much of its internal development staff. Instead of developing games in-house, the company will focus on publishing games by third parties.

Your Doodles Are Bugged! is a puzzle game for the PC that proves the pen is mightier than the sword...sometimes. What starts off as an entertaining and underused concept for a puzzle game quickly gets a bit bogged down by some bugs, pun intended. But those who have the patience to plow through a long, boring story mode will gain full access to an amazing level creator, easily the best feature this game has to offer.

Shipwrecks. Both unwanted and unneeded, a mast-shredding gale and deadly whirlpool can throw a wrench into even the saltiest sea dog’s voyage. Fortunately for you, however, such a catastrophe results in hours of fun puzzles, which is the case in the match-3 game, Azkend 2.

Player acquisition costs in MMOs are often through the roof, as publishers can spend millions in online ads with little turnaround in player count. Gaikai, the makers of a game streaming service that allows you to play full games in your browser, is looking to change that.

For many, iOS games are an escape during those brief few moments that their feet aren't touching the ground. An awaited offering in the App Store finally touched down recently, but promised to keep gamers floating. Harry the Fairy, a game about an oft-nervous looking pixie, is looking to be the next big star in the world of iOS gaming. But there might not be enough air under its wings to propel it that high.

From Puzzle Quest to King Cashing, genre mash-ups have resulted in some wonderfully memorable releases in recent years. Inspired by one such mash-up – or more specifically, his disappointment in one – Untold Entertainment’s Ryan Henson Creighton set out to create the perfect blend of wordplay and graphic adventure. The end result? Spellrium.

More acquisition news today as we have learned that Halfbrick Studios of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride fame have acquired Onan Games. The move gives Halfbrick control over Onan’s Mandreel technology, which allows developers to create a game using C++ and then have it supported amongst iOS, Android, Flash and HTML5 without need to recode.

Wasn’t it just the other day that I speculated that Zynga is probably in talks to buy OMGPOP, makers of the #1 game now on Apple and Facebook, Draw Something?

Well, I was right. According to Techcrunch, Zynga is in early talks to acquire OMGPOP in the $150 - 250 million range. OMGPOP has raised $17 million to date and is also being courted by Japanese gaming heavyweights, Gree and Mobage/ngmoco. As reported, both companies are making a big bid to compete with Zynga in the social and market US market.

How often have you played the game where you’ve imagined how different the world would be if someone from our time went back into history and began shaping the culture? Perhaps knowledge of how disease is transferred would have prevented the Plague, knowledge of the continents would have led to the discovery of America much sooner, and of course there’s always the “what if you had stopped Hitler?” quotient. But what if you went back even further, to the time when humans were just discovering fire and figuring out how to use tools? You may just have the answer soon when The Tribez launches on iPad.

Did you have a good weekend? The iPad 3 certainly did. Earlier today, during the same conference call that announced the start of Apple's new dividend and share repurchase program, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that the company enjoyed a "Record weekend."

Maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but unlike the mass of games that are either “inspired by” or a straight-up clone of Angry Birds, I haven’t seen that same phenomenon apply nearly as frequently to the also wildly popular Fruit Ninja. Developers Drakkar Dev are bringing us Monster of Puppets (LOVE that name) which looks to introduce some nice twists on the Fruit Ninja formula. After all, like their tag line says, fruit does not fight back. Monsters do.

The beastie baddies from Age of Monsters: Rock Paper Scissors are back for more in Escape from Age of Monsters, a pseudo-sequel "endless runner" in which you, as the not-so-intrepid Gizzard, must don a pair of magical gloves and flee from hordes of monsters with a clutch of innocent orphans in tow.

The mobile gaming platform wars continue to heat up, as we just learned this morning that publisher PlayPhone has acquired mobile social marketing company SocialHour in a $51.5 million deal. VentureBeat is reporting that the stock-only purchase means that no money has changed hands, but PlayPhone now has the marketing partner they believe they need to make a splash in the online gaming space.

It turns out you don’t need millions of dollars and years of development time to create a really original, cool game. Catch-22 was created in 48 hours during Game Jam 2012, and it may be one of the most brilliant puzzle titles we’ve seen in a while.

Question – why are video game heroes always the same kinds of people? They're always commandos, cops, FBI agents, detectives, mercenaries or reporters, which for the most part, limits what we can do as them. I for one am always looking for the chance to step into the shoes of a different kind of hero, and Silent Nights: The Pianist promised to let me do just that. Unfortunately, after making that promise, it more or less failed to deliver.

How would you spend billions in cash? Maybe you'd go on a heck of a bender, or buy a clockwork pony engineered with gears of gold. There's no bender or golden pony in store for Apple, though. Earlier today, the company announced that it will be launching a $10 billion dividend and share repurchase program. Hooray for responsible choices.