Bowling has rarely, if ever, been cool. Casual fans have enjoyed the otherworldly Elf Bowling, and Wii Sports Bowling has introduced an electronic version of the game to Nintendo Wii fans. Pogo has decided to give it their own spin with Way To Go! Bowling, and while it is a very cool-looking game, a number of factors make this game a "turkey" - and not in a good way.
The (Insert Skill) for Dummies series of books was created to help us succeed in skill areas where we were previously deficient or incompetent. So when I heard about Brain Training for Dummies, my first thought was, "How could they make a game that was How Not To Be a Dummy... for Dummies? Well, I've been pleasantly surprised.
Pictureka! Museum Mayhem is a quirky hidden object game based on Hasbro's board game of the same name, and played entirely in one background. The objects include some very un-museum-like fare, like space aliens, an assortment of knives, a whole bunch fo fish, and lots of hairy people. Still, it's got personality, and there are several new twists that make it different than the usual "HOG."When the museum is raided by crooks and vandals, it's up to the curator to clean up the place and catch the criminals. Her talking pet Artie, a big-headed dog with a biscuit addiction, reluctantly agrees to help. He's no Scooby Doo, but he gets the job done.
Hey, Seven Card Stud, wanna go to Omaha for some Texas Hold'em? Bad pun. Players have the opportunity to learn how to play those three games in Poker for Dummies without cracking a book. Instead, learn the basics, rules, and vocabulary with an interactive tutorial and quizzes covering the basics of poker and simulations that dig deeper into how to play to win.
One of the first fruits of Electronic Arts' lauded partnership with toy manufacturer Hasbro, Operation Mania attempts to upgrade the classic board game for today's keyboard jock. Its strategic approach: to weave nearly two dozen "micro-games" (bite-sized diversions that can be played in roughly 10-15 second increments) into the standard time management equation.Happily, the setup works surprisingly well, staying true to the spirit of the original tabletop diversion. Nonetheless, extreme repetition - the bane of many a similarly-styled competitor - again rears its head, ultimately reducing the experience to a fun, but fleeting novelty best enjoyed in brief installments.
What do you do when you're the doctor and someone comes into your hospital with butterflies in their stomach, water on the knee, and a frog in the throat? Operate of course! Operation Mania is a new twist on Hasbro's classic Operation board game that will be launching soon courtesy of EA's casual games site Pogo.com.You'll play as Dr. Humerus, an up and coming surgeon, as he builds his reputation and is called to save the day at five different hospitals admitting, diagnosing and treating patiens with the zaniest ailments in healthcare history.
If it looks like solitaire and plays like solitaire, it must be... a '40s-style serial adventure? Unexpected perhaps, but that's precisely the case in new epic, globetrotting head-scratcher Tri-Peaks 2: Quest for the Ruby Ring. Taken as a whole, the number-crunching game - which fuses a simple card-counting play mechanic with attractive animations and classic tomb-raiding elements - happily far exceeds the sum of its individual parts.
Although an Internet-only diversion (and Pogo.com exclusive at that), fans of popular TV game shows can't help but be drawn to Word Riot Deluxe. Despite being a strictly multiplayer endeavor - and one that's built around a fairly limited rule set, no less - there's much to like about the skillfully-presented title, which takes the form of a virtual primetime broadcast.