All Features List

NinjaBee and J. Kenworthy Entertainment, the creative team that developed Cloning Clyde for Xbox Live Arcade, have announced the title of their next XBLA game: Ancients of Ooga. Read more»

Arkanoid Live! is a sequel of sorts of the 1980's arcade classic Arkanoid, developed and published by Taito, and now available as a download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Taito is one of the oldest video game companies in the world, making pinball machines in the 1960s and video games as early as 1973. Their track record as one of the only 40-year companies in this young industry speaks for itself, and Arkanoid Live! continues that long tradition of great games. Read more»

Wacky adventures abound in the Wallace and Gromit universe.  A staple of British culture and American dorm rooms everywhere, Wallace and Gromit are taking their polite sense of British humor and sense of adventure to the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. Crazy contraptions, get rich quick schemes, and maddening mayhem ensue in this point and click adventure game that captures the spirit and charm of the Wallace and Gromit franchise beautifully. Read more»

The popular game show 1 vs. 100 will soon be coming to the Xbox 360, but it promises to be more than just a simple trivia game that you can play with a few friends. Instead, Microsoft will actually be rolling out a live interactive game show with regular episodes that broadcast weekly via the Xbox 360’s online gaming service, Xbox Live, and allow thousands of players to come together and share in the experience. Read more»

Littlest Pet Shop - Spring is the latest in a series of Nintendo DS pet sim games based on Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop toy franchise and animated television show. Like all games in the series, the goal in Littlest Pet Shop – Spring is to adopt pets and bring them the Pet Plaza – one of four worlds that you'll end up unlocking – to lavish them with love, attention, food, and adorable accessories like caps, sunglasses and dresses. Read more»

There's a new Nintendo gaming device on store shelves today, and it's called the DSi. The latest version of the immensely popular Nintendo DS ("dual-screen") portable gaming system, the DSi features a camera for snapping photos, a completely revamped menu system that mimics the Wii's easy-to-use interface, and a "DSiWare" shop where you can buy and download games and applications directly to the DSi via wireless Internet. Check out Gamezebo's hands-on first impressions of the device behind the cut. Read more»

The Maw is the first outing from developer Twisted Pixel. When the game debuted at the most recent Penny Arcade Expo, it won the coveted Audience Choice Award. Read on to find out more about this Xbox Live Arcade game. Read more»

HipSoft's real estate tycoon game Build-a-lot has been given a new home on the Nintendo DS courtesy of MumboJumbo. It's basically the same game as the PC version aside from slightly different appearance and controls, which is bad news if you were hoping for something new, but good news if you want a portable version of Build-a-lot to help you kill time on a train or bus. Read more»

The "New Xbox Experience" system update on Nov. 19, 2008 introduced several upgrades to the Xbox 360's dashboard, and one of the biggest was the ability for players to create customized Avatars of themselves. A Kingdom of Keflings from NinjaBee Studios (who also brought us the Xbox Live Arcade games Outpost Kaloki, Cloning Clyde, and Band of Bugs), is the first game that lets players use their Xbox 360 Avatar as the main character. Read more»

With so many popular casual PC games migrating over to the Nintendo DS, it was only a matter of time before mega-popular seek-and-find series Mystery Case Files followed suit. You might well ask, "How on earth could anyone cram scenes full of hidden objects onto that tiny little screen?" Read on to find out how Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir adapts itself to the DS's unique layout. Read more»

In the inaugural edition of DS Casual, we dissected a pair of brain games from Nintendo, Big Brain Academy and Brain Age. Taking different approaches to neurological stimulation, both are winners in their own unique hemispheres. Now Majesco is seeking to capture our brainwaves with its own pair of head games -- Brain Boost: Beta Wave and Brain Boost: Gamma Wave. Read more»

Congratulations, casual gamers - you've just won a major victory for mankind, common sense in general, and the entire interactive entertainment industry as a whole. So go claim your trophy: Its name, Nintendo's Wii. Read more»

"Wanna play a game?" As a kid, that question was usually followed by a mad dash to the hall closet where our hoard of games was stashed. Among its treasures were Monopoly, Clue, Life, Scrabble, and several other favorites. One item in particular stands out, though. It was a cheesy plastic attaché filled with a gamut of gaming goodness. Think of a classic table game and chances are good it was in there. Read more»

Despite a promise by Microsoft that Xbox Live Arcade games would provide new casual game experiences for a console audience, the large majority of games for the service have been ports of arcade classics like Pac-man or popular PC casual games like Zuma Deluxe. So it's nice to see a game like Cloning Clyde that brings an original experience that is well-suited to the console. Read more»

I love puzzle games! I can play them for hours on end...and usually do. It's just so easy to lose track of time when I'm "hard at work" on a mind-bender. If that's your story, too, read on as we get our handhelds dirty with a pair of addictive brainteasers, Tetris DS and Pokémon Trozei! Read more»

People used to playing online Hearts and Spades on their computers might be interested to know that competitive card games are making headway on the Xbox Live Arcade. Two recent releases, Uno and Texas Hold 'Em Poker, show the promise of the system for online card games, despite some flaws in presentation and game design. Read more»

In the inaugural edition of DS Casual, we indulged in some cerebral gaming via Big Brain Academy and Brain Age. Now, functioning with a much enhanced cortex (though, my wife won't confirm it), I'm going to turn our attention to a more action-oriented indulgence. And, what's that? Well, read on and I'll spill the marbles. Read more»

When you think casual games, Windows is the obvious choice. It offers a veritable smorgasbord of gaming goodness. But, it's not the only platform for casual fans. A less obvious alternative is Nintendo's DS, now available in a "Lite" version (more games, less grams). Read more»

Geometry Wars is a casual game, but it's not the kind of game you play casually. It's the kind of game you play on the edge of your seat, your gnarled hands making visible dents in the controller as the adrenaline pumping through your body makes you shake. It's the kind of game that makes you cry out and throw the controller down when you lose, only to pick it up again and try to beat your high score in just "one more game." In other words, it's the kind of game they don't make much anymore. Read more»

The Xbox 360 might not seem like the most logical choice to bring a casual game revival to your living room's video game consoles. After all, the 360 is the most powerful console currently available -- home to sprawling, graphically rich. Why would anyone want to use all this power on a casual game? The answer is Xbox Live Arcade. Read more»