Looking at this week's Chinese news roundup (that was graciously provided by our friends at Laohu.com), there's one theme that seems to recur again and again: Western brands are popular in China.Don't believe me? Check the roundup for yourself. There are mobile happenings that involve an American movie brand, a US fast food chain, and even a few chart-topping Western mobile games.If you like what you see here, be sure to check out Laohu.com for yourself. While they're kind enough to share the top news from China each week with Gamezebo, they're also grinding out news 24/7 for the Chinese market - and with the help of a service like Babelfish or Google Translate, you can dive in to all of it."
Zeptolab are masters in the art of teasing. We've known that Cut the Rope 2 has been coming for a long while now, and every so often they pepper their fans with hints and clues and cute animations about what we might expect in the sequel. But we haven't had anything concrete to go on until now.This morning, one week before the game's December 19 release, Zeptolab finally gave us a sweet sweet taste of upcoming candy.As you can see in the video below, Om Nom is now joined by some friends - the Nommies - who all have a vital role to play in his candy acquisition enterprise. The gameplay looks fairly in line with what you'd expect from the series, though the new twists added by his friends may be enough to give the formula a healthy dose of vitamin fresh. Find out first hand when the game launches next week.
Mobile rewards platform Kiip has announced a new partnership today with developer ZeptoLab, which will effectively be bringing their unique digital rewards to all games in the ZeptoLab catalogue, like the hugely popular Cut the Rope and Pudding Monsters. Kiip first began in 2010, working with mid-tier and indie developers to put special rewards into games that players could receive and enjoy just by playing. I recently had a chance to chat with Kiip Co-Founder Brian Wong, and to find out some more about how the Kiip rewards platform actually works, and what it was like to partner up with ZeptoLab in this exciting new manner.The entire basis of Kiip rewards is founded on one simple principle: to own and reward every single "achievement moment" that a user can experience. Kiip strives to capture that special moment of player happiness at the time of reaching a certain milestone in a game, such as leveling-up or completing a stage, and then acknowledges that uplifting emotion by offering rewards. But the best part about it is that players don't have to do anything extra to earn these rewards: they are simply gathered through regular gameplay, and as Wong tells me, "When you get a reward, you feel like you earned it.""But what's really interesting about the foundations of Kiip's innovative rewards program is that it can be seen as more of an actual technology, as there are never any specific title-to-brand integrations to be found here. Instead, Kiip uses their highly refined style of "precision moments targeting" to provide mobile users with unique rewards that will be relevant to them. And this process extends well beyond the gaming realm as well, with Kiip rewards already being implemented in everything from music and workout apps, to productivity and "to-do list" apps.
If you're a Candy Crush junkie, you already know that King is super-committed to bringing you fresh content regularly. New stages are released every few weeks, giving those of you who've mastered the game a constant supply of challenges. Even so, you've never quite seen an update like this before.In all honesty, this thing is so much of a game changer that it warrants the term "expansion."Available to players who've completed level 50 or higher, Dreamworld is a whole new Saga map that takes players on a journey with Odus the Owl - a new character that introduces a equally new game mechanic. You'll need to keep Odus balanced on his half-moon perch by crushing the right candies. Get it wrong, and it sounds as though Odus will take a tumble.It's an interesting solution to a conundrum that King has been wrestling with: how to create new content that isn't just for end-game players. With 30 levels at launch, it shouldn't be long before we find out if King is as quick to create content for Dreamworld as they are for the main game.In the meantime, please excuse me; I have a new owl friend to attend to.
DeNA has announced a new partnership today with Crytek, the revered game developer who brought us such gritty console experiences as Far Cry and Crysis, for a brand new third-person mobile shooter called The Collectables. The upcoming action title is filled to the brim with massive gunfights and fearless heroes, and although it's Crytek's first foray into the world of free-to-play mobile games, they've certainly decided to bring their cutting-edge 3D visuals along for the ride.In the game, players will assemble their very own team of action heroes and soldiers, as they upgrade their weapons and land tons of revolving rewards by taking out legions of diverse enemies in heated combat segments. And judging by that first released trailer of The Collectables doing its thing, it would certainly seem that action is the name of the game for this one!The Collectables will be headed to iOS and Android platforms as a free-to-play game sometime in 2014, and interested players are encouraged to sign up and pre-register for notifications on the game's official website, which will net them an exclusive character with limited-edition gear. And when you're done doing that, why not mosey on over to the comments and let us know what you think about Crytek's explosive new entrance into the world of mobile games!
Racers, start your engines, and load up your eggs: Angry Birds Go! has finally been released on mobile devices today! It seems like we've been speculating about the nature of this game for a while now, ever since Rovio began teasing the ambitious Angry-Birds-meets-Mario-Kart project earlier this year. Well now at last we have the chance to hop into the driver's seat for ourselves.Not only is Angry Birds Go! the very first 3D Angry Birds game to grace the gaming world, but it also expands upon a number of great features that have been established in previous installments: from letting players race as either the birds or the pigs, and even bringing back the Telepod technology first introduced in Angry Birds Star Wars II."Angry Birds Go! can be downloaded for free right now on the iOS App Store and the Google Play Marketplace, and you can expect to see our official review of the game in the upcoming days. And after you've finished a few races yourself, be sure to steer your karts on over to the comments section and let us know what you think of Rovio's first exciting foray into the racing genre!
If you're a fan of King's style of play, you've had plenty to get excited about in the last few weeks. Whether it's Papa Pear Saga going mobile worldwide or the launch of Pepper Panic Saga on Facebook, you've no doubt lost more than a few hours to their patented brand of gaming. And now, if you live in Canada, Romania, Sweden or Spain, you're about to lose a few more: Farm Heroes Saga is launching today on mobile devices in your territory.Originally launched on Facebook back in April, Farm Heroes Saga is a match-3 game that swaps the tooth-rotting sweetness of candy for the healthy-inducing sweetness of fruit (and other crops). In our review, we were quick to point out both it' addictive nature and occasionally frustrating difficulty - two hallmarks of King game design. "It's the cutest game you'll ever rage at," reviewer Nadia Oxford said.If you don't live in one of these select markets, you may not have too long to wait. While no definitive date has been given, we've been told that mobile gamers worldwide can be expecting to play this one in early 2014.
Fox Digital Entertainment has announced today that Family Guy will be getting its very first officially licensed mobile game in 2014! As a huge fan of the popular cartoon show, this news couldn't be more exciting, as we've already seen how well some of Fox's other successful primetime cartoons have fared in the mobile games space, such as EA's The Simpsons: Tapped Out. Fox has selected TinyCo to handle the developing duties on this one, the same studio that brought us games like Tiny Monsters and Spellstorm in the past, and who have now doubled their team size to take on this ambitious new task.While specific details about the game are still being kept under wraps for now, TinyCo says that Family Guy will be a simulation game of sorts, in which players will get a chance to recreate the town of Quahog where the Griffins and all of their friends reside on the show. However, both companies felt that similar games on the mobile platform today have been severely lacking in terms of a deep story and character interactions, and so with their new Family Guy game, a big emphasis will be placed on the many characters from the expansive Family Guy universe that fans of the series all know and love."Through the different gameplay mechanics and "strange occurrences" in the story, Family Guy will remain true to the world, the characters, and of course, the humor that has become such a staple in the long-running cartoon series. In fact, the game itself was written by several writers at Fuzzy Door, the same production company that makes Family Guy, and even several actors from the show are currently recording voiceover work for different characters in the game. TinyCo and Fox both feel that the upcoming game will hit the visual style of Family Guy dead-on, with the ultimate goal of having it play just like an episode of the TV show.The free-to-play Family Guy game is currently slated for an early 2014 release, and will be seeing a simultaneous launch on both iOS and Android platforms. We'll be sure to keep you updated in the meantime as soon as more details begin to emerge with regards to the gameplay, the story, and the familiar faces you might see around town (I've got my fingers crossed that Peter's nemesis, the giant chicken, will make an appearance). So now can I get a resounding "Giggity!" on this news?!