It all started when Allie, stricken as she was with glowing eyes that would put the Cheshire Cat to shame and arms that looked infected well past the point of hope, asked me for help with offing a nearby chap who had a mild case of zombie-itis. Apparently no one thought to tell the poor dear that she didn't look so hot herself. And so began my adventures in yet another social zombie game, which I spent almost every moment of expecting Allie and her green limbs to turn on me.

Bake Shop Drop plays on two basic human needs: delicious food, and organization. So, while you stack and match cupcakes, cookies, donuts and the like, you also sit and wonder why you aren't currently consuming cupcakes, cookies, donuts and the like. Assuming you're playing on a full stomach, you'll quickly get drawn in by Bake Shop Drop's simple mechanics, beautiful presentation, and endless puzzle gameplay.

If reality did a neat little flip and all the virtual villages and cities on Facebook suddenly popped onto our plane of existence, every inch of the planet would be covered in layers of half-built houses, buildings, skyscrapers, and dance halls. Almost every social city-building game revolves around throwing up as many structures as possible, which makes it all the easier to eventually abandon those soulless grey monoliths. But while Village Life for Facebook is yet another game about building up a community, its focus on people makes it a compelling social experience.

I don't think any other Facebook game has thrown me into the action so quickly as Dominator. No tutorials pop up with cartoony military types barking out orders, no floating arrows indicating crucial actions mar the interface; instead, within seconds, Dominator tosses you into the gridded battlefield with soldiers on both sides already in place. It reveals its debts to turn-based games like Final Fantasy and Might & Magic as early as the first move, and it flaunts its focus on challenge as the opposing team starts to mow down your preset jarheads. It may even be possible to lose that first firefight.

Words have power. They can start fights, end wars, build up cities, and tear them down again. Words can even repair a broken-down space station, if the concept behind Gemmings Rush is to be believed. Gemmings Rush is a unique match-3/word game hybrid on Facebook that challenges you to spell words under pressure. If that doesn’t grab you, the game’s mascot—a frantic, cyclopean robot that looks like a squashed Darth Vader—probably will.

Casual gaming isn't just fun, it's also educational. Take Megapolis, the cross-platform city builder from Social Quantum. I assumed the developers made up that word just because it sounded cool. Turns out it's actually a legitimate alternate form of megalopolis, which is exactly what you could learn to build by playing on Facebook, iOS or Android. Just be prepared for a definite feeling of deja vu if you do.

The first thing you have to know about Offensive Combat is that its title is a deliberate play on words. Oh, sure, there are plenty of offensive tactics involved in the strategic sense, but the real joke is that Offensive Combat announces kills with cries of "Bam! Suck it!" and rewards offensive behavior like "teabagging" slain players. If any of that ruffled your feathers, then trust me: Offensive Combat isn't for you.

A witch’s greatest enemy is not a dragon, a manticore, or even an animal control agent looking to tag and haul away her black cat. No, a witch’s worst enemy is gravity, that grumpy old force of nature that already has big issues with humans flying around in machines and isn’t a big fan of magic girls whipping through the air on broomsticks. Time to stop letting gravity push you around. Magical Ride for Facebook is an endless running/flying game (think Jetpack Joyride) that pits you against gravity’s inexorable pull—not to mention fireballs, ghosts, and electrodes.

American McGee is best known as the man behind the Alice games, dark re-imaginings of the Alice in Wonderland lore which offered a macabre twist on the well-known tale. McGee and his studio Spicy Horse Games are again mining the world of fairy tales for their latest game, Crazy Fairies, but this time around they’re taking a much more lighthearted approach to the source material.

The news hasn't been good for Zynga lately (what with its falling stock prices and all), but the once-dominant social games publisher soldiers on, releasing new title after new title. Its latest release, Bubble Safari Ocean, is a colorful match-three bubble popper that's undeniably entertaining. Unfortunately, five minutes spent playing the game will make it apparent that, for players of the original Bubble Safari, things are a bit too familiar. 

Social games based on popular existing properties can be tricky. You can imagine the furor if you were to mess up a Twilight game, for example, forcing you to never show your face in Hot Topic again. Be that as it may, Wicked Sweet Games is hoping to entice readers of Marie Lu’s novel Legend to flock to Cities of Legend; a Facebook game featuring a very different way for 22^nd Century teenagers to battle.

Video games are fun, theme parks are fun – but a video game about theme parks?  That’s setting the fun bar crazily high.  Yet while lots of developers have tried this combination over the years, only a handful of series – like Roller Coaster Tycoon – ever managed to be any good.  Park management sims tend to offer about as much excitement as waiting in line on a hot summer’s day.  Can Zynga’s latest foray into the genre buck this trend?

Eden Story is a tale about building up a great civilization from the humblest beginnings of humanity. It's a pity its first few moments feels every bit as primitive. Barely two minutes into my playthrough, I'd already slipped into the tedious slog of waiting five minutes for research to complete without any way of speeding up the process, and subsequent quests made me wait several minutes for resources. 

If I didn't know better, I'd say Deer Hunter Online was satire. Barely three minutes past the starting screen, I'd picked off four deer and elk with all the indifference of chain-popping M&Ms, and this wanton slaughter extended well past the tutorial. In some dark way, this accelerated realism makes for a darkly humorous experience. True hunters spend hours or even days tracking down a single deer, but I'd killed enough deer within 10 minutes to land me in jail in several states. 

Playing Shaking Vegas, the new-to-mobile match-three game from Vostu and GREE, makes me very aware of one cruel fact: I'll never see Las Vegas the way gamblers of old saw it. The legendary casinos born from windswept dunes have been dulled by the shifting sands of time. The crooners of yesteryear aren't with us anymore. They've been replaced again and again - an homage here, a tribute there. The newcomers sing the same standards of course, and there is some comfort to be found in that. But even though they hit all the notes, they don't set fire to the ears like they once did. 

Yard Sale: Hidden Treasures is a new take on Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville, designed for casual play on Facebook as well as Zynga's own website. The game takes the hidden object concept to extreme levels, dropping you in neighborhoods filled with people who want to sell their junk and giving you a nice empty yard to fill with the "treasures" you gather!

Poker games aren’t that hard to do, but they are tricky to do in ways that make players feel like they’re getting something like the Love Boat theme. You know, exciting and new. That doesn’t stop companies from trying, though, and Idle Gaming might be onto something with Fresh Deck Poker, its attempt to up the ante on what’s come before with improved production values and tournaments that offer real cash prizes.

Hidden object games (HOGs) often take us under the sea, up among the clouds, or deep into mossy ruins. In fact, it’s rare to come across a HOG that doesn’t feature beautiful, calming hidden object scenes. It makes sense: It’s difficult for a HOG to innovate, so the games’ creators strive to draw the prettiest pictures. Criminal Case for Facebook, however, crosses out the rainbows and unicorns with a big bloody “X” and opts for gristly, even disturbing images of crime scenes. While the change is welcome (depending on how morbid you are), the game itself is intolerably slow.

If there's such a thing as a throwback game in a segment of the gaming industry that's only a few years old, Kingdom Quest is it. Developed by Playdemic and published by Zynga, it's a fantasy-themed social game that will have you growing, crafting and building like it's 2011. Yet for everything it does that you've seen before, there’s a new twist to help balance out the experience and make it feel fresh.

In the realm of social media, there's no question the Disney Company has planted its flag. Having joined forces with developer Playdom, they've hooked us already with colorful, evocative titles like Ghosts of Mistwood and Gardens of Time. This month, the entertainment giant makes another bid for our leisure time (and dollar) with the garden-themed social game Full Bloom. Though not the most inventive, and guilty of the usual social game shenanigans, this space-planning/match-3 hybrid is still a fun way to spend a work day break.