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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.
  • Hate Flappy Bird? Play these brutally difficult games instead
    News
    • Android
    • iOS
    Hate Flappy Bird? Play these brutally difficult games instead

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    Tell me if this sound familiar: Everybody you know is talking about Flappy Bird, so you gave it a download. Two minutes later, you erased it from your phone (along with the contact information of everybody you know who recommended the damned thing).You like a good challenge, but you'd prefer something with a little more polish. A little more substance. Something that you'd be proud recommending, but at the same time, something that will kill you in seconds without hesitation. Something that keeps you coming back for more. Worried you won't find anything that's both difficult and divine? Don't worry - we've got you covered.
  • If Galaga was a platformer, it would be Glorkian Warrior
    News
    • iOS
    If Galaga was a platformer, it would be Glorkian Warrior

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    As any editor working in the mobile space will tell you, we get a lot of emails every week pitching us new games. It's well into the hundreds, and - for obvious reasons - we can't cover everything. As a result, it takes something really special to catch our eye.The following sentence from Miles Tilmann of Pixeljam is the very definition of that something special: "It's a hybrid of Galaga-style shoot em' up, simple platforming action and Saturday morning cartoon."If that description doesn't get your blood pumping, you must not have any blood left to pump... which is fine, because if you're not looking forward to Glorkian Warrior, you're dead to me already. (KIDDING! You know we love you. Don't stop reading Gamezebo.)
  • Flappy Bird creator reveals how much he’s making, and it’s a lot
    News
    • Android
    • iOS
    Flappy Bird creator reveals how much he’s making, and it’s a lot

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    We still don't really know how Flappy Bird went from obscurity to celebrity seemingly overnight - the number of theories I've read this week would put the JFK conspiracy to shame.  Beyond that, though, there's been another question we've quietly been pondering. Has the game's instant notoriety translated into any real cash for creator Dong Nguyen?It has, it turns out. And it's a lot.In an interview with The Verge, Nguyen has revealed that the game has been raking in $50,000 a day. How? Advertising. Just… advertising. Flappy Bird has no in-app purchases, no premium version - it doesn't even cross-promote the developers other titles. Every single dollar that Flappy Bird has made has come from classic, old school, relatively crude in-app advertising.And it's working really well.
  • OUYA scores a potentially great exclusive: Toto Temple Deluxe
    News
    • Android
    OUYA scores a potentially great exclusive: Toto Temple Deluxe

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    If you've ever jumped to new heights in Knightmare Tower or laid the smack down in Burrito Bison Revenge, you're already familiar - and probably enamored - with the works of Montreal-based indie game makers Juicy Beast. Gamezebo had the good fortune to interview studio co-founder Yowan Langlais last summer, and when we did, talk quickly turned to Toto Temple - a neat little multiplayer game they'd created as part of the Toronto Game Jam (or TOJam for short).Considering how fantastic the OUYA has been for multiplayer fun (hate on it all you want, but… Towerfall), their TOJam project seemed like a perfect fit for the device. Yowan didn't disagree. And now, six months later, we have our confirmation: Toto Temple Deluxe is coming exclusively to OUYA. The object of the game is fairly simple: get the goat, and keep it away from the other players as long as you can. With plenty of jumping and dashing, though, you can see how this would have the potential to be a frantic, crazy, Smash Bros-style good time.Expect to see Toto Temple Deluxe hit OUYA sometime this spring.
  • Flappy Bird Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Flappy Bird Review

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    I'm terrible at Flappy Bird, but that's ok - I think that's sort of the point. Nobody is actually "good" at Flappy Bird. Some people are just less terrible than others. I'm still near the bottom of the pile, but like everyone, I'm just trying to get better.This isn't the first time that Flappy Bird has sounded like a metaphor for life, and it probably won't be the last. But I suppose that's what happens when something is simultaneously so simple yet so frustrating.For those not in the know quite yet, Flappy Bird is the latest game to take the mobile market by storm. It's a free download - and not, I should stress, "free-to-play" - that tasks players to guide a bird between an endless series of gaps in an attempt to get the highest score possible. Every set of pipes you pass earns you another point. It's as simple as that.And yet this might be the most controller-throwingly frustrating game to ever appear on the App Store.
  • TORONTO GAMER ALERT: Fancy Videogame Party looks fancy
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    • Android
    • iOS
    • PC
    TORONTO GAMER ALERT: Fancy Videogame Party looks fancy

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    Do you like video games? What about… parties? What about the unbearably bitter cold of a Canadian winter? If you said yes to all three of these, you're going to want to clear your schedule on February 21st. The Fancy Videogame Party is coming.Thanks to its thriving indie scene, Toronto has tons of great events for gamers - and yet Fancy Videogame Party is like the perfect storm of gaming events in Toronto. It's not one, not two, but three celebrations in one.First, it's a celebration of The Hand Eye Society's fifth birthday. The Hand Eye Society, for those not in the know, is a Toronto-based indie gaming collective that holds a variety of events all year long to help spread the word about great Toronto games. 
  • Why are you so mad about Dungeon Keeper?
    News
    • Android
    • iOS
    Why are you so mad about Dungeon Keeper?

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    Late last week, EA launched the long-anticipated free-to-play mobile game Dungeon Keeper to both the App Store and Google Play. And the reaction has been nothing short of vitriolic.But here's the problem: I don't really understand why.For a quick primer, it's probably worth taking you through some of the articles that have been lighting up my Twitter feed this week. It all started on Thursday - less than 24 hours after the game's launch - in Play4Real's wonderfully satirical article Our Dungeon Keeper Review for iOS Will Be Done in 8 Hours or Give Us a Dollar to Finish It Now. I don't want to spoil it for you, but THEY DIDN'T REALLY CARE FOR THE GAME'S FREE-TO-PLAY NATURE.The Escapist's Jim Sterling called it "one of the worst examples of a cancer that is eroding the market and has already destroyed the credibility of the once promising mobile game sector." Kotaku later borrowed part of Sterling's quote for a headline to a piece about the backlash Dungeon Keeper has seen - an article whose author admits, by the way, hasn't actually played the game he's writing about: "I can't even bring myself to download EA's newest mobile disaster for fear of tainting my memories of hours and hours digging and crafting on the old Bullfrog classic." 
  • 5 more games from the makers of Flappy Bird (that you can play RIGHT NOW)
    News
    • Android
    • iOS
    5 more games from the makers of Flappy Bird (that you can play RIGHT NOW)

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    There's no doubt about it - Flappy Bird is our great national obsession of the week.  It's the catch of the day; the soup du jour. But like all chart-topping games, its moment in the sun can only last for so long. So what can we expect from developer .GEARS (pronounced dotGEARS) next?Flappy Bird isn't a new game - it's just new to success. And like Flappy Bird, .GEARS has a number of other games already available for play that nobody is paying attention to quite yet. Get in on the ground floor - here are five other games from Flappy Bird creator .GEARS that you can be playing RIGHT NOW.