The week in gaming news: December 9, 2011 edition

Who would’ve thought the holidays would be so busy? This week at Gamezebo we continued to chug along with our end-of-the-year Best of 2011 awards, highlighting everything from the best game on Facebook to the top hidden object games of the year. We also had several fun giveaways and, of course, published plenty of guides and reviews of the latest games. But we also kept busy with a week full of news. So in case you happened to miss anything, here’s what went down in gaming this past week.

Monday

• The beginning of the week was surprisingly quiet on the news front, so we took the time to analyze the big story of last week — Big Fish Games’ subscription-based iOS app that was pulled by Apple — in our weekly editorial series Monday Morning Quarterback.

Tuesday

• You may think that Angry Birds is everywhere, but you probably didn’t expect to see it in such a formal setting as this. The wife of a Rovio executive made headlines around the web thanks to this smart little Angry Birds-inspired dress.
• The latest in Zynga’s line of “Ville” games will also be the first to debut on mobile, as details leaked out about the developer’s upcoming ForestVille.
• If you thought that actual amusement parks were expensive you should check out the prices in EA’s upcoming mobile version of Theme Park.
• After a number of suits and counter-suits over copyright infringement, both Zynga and Vostu have decided to settle things once and for all. Vostu will pay an undisclosed fee to Zynga as part of the settlement, as well as make some changes to four of its games.

Wednesday

• Fruit Ninja is finally getting a proper sequel, and it sounds like it will be a lot different than the original.
• Popcap announced that the mobile game Bejeweled 2 + Blitz was getting split into two: one standard Bejeweled game, and a standalone freemium version of Blitz.
• It may not be the superhero game you deserve, but the suprise launch of Batman: Arkham City Lockdown on iOS is definitely the game you need. Seriously. Check out our review.
• After months of waiting, wooga’s match-3 hit Diamnod Dash has finally made the jump from Facebook to iOS.
• How much do you like Words With Friends? Probably not as much as Alec Baldwin, who reportedly got booted off of a plane because he just couldn’t stop playing.
• In a surprise move, Kabam announced that The Godfather: Five Families would debut on Google+ 45 days before coming to Facebook.

Thursday

• For those of you who have yet to play Zynga Poker, now you can do so from the comfort of your own couch as the game hits Google TV.
• It may not be the biggest game on Facebook right now, but amongst users of the Raptr gaming social network, The Sims Social is definitely the most played.
• Just in time for the soon-to-be-released movie, Mission Impossible: The Game is getting a new expansion.

Friday

• Get ready for Saturday morning with a pair of animated shorts: one starring a group of barnyard animals from FarmVille, and the other starring Cut the Rope‘s adorable little Om Nom.
• Game streaming service OnLive is now available on mobile phones, starting with Android with iOS soon to come.
• Two hit mobile MMOs are now available in the Chrome web store, with both Pocket Legends and Star Legends launching on Google’s browser.

Andrew Webster