The newest weekly sale on the Humble Bundle website brings shoppers the Humble Puppy Bundle, in partnership with Puppy Games.A percentage of proceeds from the Humble Puppy Bundle will go to support GamesAid.The Humble Puppy Bundle includes Ultratron, Droid Assault, Revenge of the Titans, and Titan Attacks. Buyers who play more than the average price (currently $3.47) will receive Steam keys for all four games. The soundtracks of Ultratron and Revenge of the Titans are also included. DRM-free versions of the games are also available.
Earlier in the week, Apple announced that both Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing and Frogmind's Badland won game of the year for iPhones and iPads respectively. Ridiculous Fishing was released on March 23rd, while Badland released on April 4th.We reviewed Ridiculous Fishing, back in March, and absolutely loved our time with it. We awarded the game a perfect score. Our only criticism was that we felt a bit silly tilting our device's screen while playing.In April, we reviewed Badland, giving it four out of five stars. While we enjoyed the beautiful art style and clever puzzle designs, the multiplayer left much to be desired and success in the game sometimes came more from luck, than skill.Runners up to Ridiculous Fishing were Plants vs. Zombies 2 and Device 6. Runners up to Badland were XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Impossible Road. If you're wondering what games Gamezebo liked best, be sure to check back for our Best of 2013 roundup starting Monday!
Shadow puppets have always been cool, right? Even if I've never been able to master some of the more challenging forms myself, like a flock of birds or a galloping deer, I still like to consider myself a big appreciator of the candlelight art form. Well now Triada Studio Games will be bringing the advent of shadow puppets to life in an atmospheric new puzzler called Shadowmatic.In the game, players are tasked with rotating various spotlight-illuminated objects in front of a wall in order to make their respective shadows line up in a specific pattern. If you go ahead and watch the debut gameplay video of Shadowmatic in action, you'll come to the finely-calculated conclusion that the game looks seriously cool. Not only are the 3D graphics incredibly photorealistic, but the movements feel smooth, and the lighting effects themselves are especially masterful.All in all, Shadowmatic will be packing in over 70 unique and shadowy puzzles spread across 9 different environments, and there's even a non-linear level progression for players to advance through. The game is currently nearing the end of its development cycle, and has a tentative release date of March 2014 on iOS platforms. In the meantime, I guess it's back to contorting my hands in front of an open fire and hoping something neat appears on my wall.
Nyamyam has released a brand new trailer for their whimsical pop-up book adventure game Tengami today, and as that big old title at the top of this page would suggest, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's so gorgeous, in fact, that I'm not even going to sit here and tell you what goes on in the trailer. Nope, I'm making you click that button just below and watch it for yourself! (Don't worry - you're totally going to thank me later).Hmm, now I don't know what to write about in the meantime while you're busy feasting your eyes on all of the beautiful colors and quiet imagery of Tengami coming to life. Well, this is kind of awkward. I should probably get some dinner soon. I'm thinking takeout tonight; don't want to set off the smoke alarm while trying to cook a cheeseburger again like last night.Oh, oops - you're all finished watching now? What did I tell you? Gorgeous to the nth degree. So before you go hit that replay button and get lost in the magical world of Tengami all over again, just let me remind you that the game is currently slated for an iOS release sometime in early 2014, with a PC and Mac version planned for later down the road.
There has been a lot of talk in the west about virtual casino games in the last few years. Some developers are trying their luck at real money gambling games in the UK. Others are hedging their bets in the hopes of a potential change in US gambling laws. But while we keep playing the 'will they/won't they' game over here, China is dealing with gambling games in its own way: in short, they don't allow it.As always, our news out of China comes to us courtesy of our friends at the Beijing-based Laohu.com. Be sure to give them a read if you're looking for daily coverage of the Chinese games market - they definitely know their stuff.
They say that the holidays are a time for everyone's generosity to come out and play. Whether that means buying everyone in your family mountains of presents, or simply letting someone move in front of you in line, it's clear that everyone is in a rather giving mood this time of year. And I don't know about you, but there's no gift I'd rather receive that a shiny new and discounted game!As far as gaming sales are concerned this week, why, the biggest internet storefronts might as well be charitable organizations themselves, because the amount of price cuts we've seen going on right now is generous to the extreme. From massive deals that spread all across the App Store, visiting the Humble Bundle camp, and then finishing big with the annual Steam Holiday sale, there are plenty of great games to buy for your loved ones while still saving enough cash to pick up a bunch more for yourself!"And since sharing is almost just as good as giving these days, please don't forget to share with us any other great deals that we may have missed this week down in the replies!
Up until its release this past September, Disney's Where's My Water? 2 was one of the most highly anticipated sequels in the mobile games space. But then the game was actually released, and users began to discover the heinous energy system that made the game all but unplayable without paying at regular intervals, or enduring giant wait times after only several minutes of play. Worse yet, you couldn't even pay a one-time fee to remove the energy bar entirely; only slightly extend it.So naturally, mobile gamers were not too pleased. In fact, the game even earned a measly 2.5 stars in our own official review thanks to its awful freemium model. But now it looks like Disney has finally owned up to their colossal mistake, and in a new update to Where's My Water? 2 this week, they have officially removed that controversial energy meter once and for all."The official 1.1.0 update description on both the iTunes and Google Play game pages reads: "We took your feedback to heart and REMOVED the energy system in this update! Yep that's right. Now play as often and as much as you like! For those who purchased the expanded energy meter, you will receive 2 Monster Bundles for free!" The update also adds two brand new locations into the game, called the Bayou and Winter Woods.
Well the holidays are almost upon us now, and there's only a few short days left before Apple initiates their annual iTunes Connect Holiday Shutdown, closing their digital doors for a week so that everyone can spend some much needed time relaxing and catching up on their growing backlists of games before tons of new ones hit the scene once again. But you didn't think that some of today's biggest mobile developers would let the year end without a bang, now did you?It's true that 2013 might have very well saved the best for last, as when you've got brand new games coming from both ZeptoLab and Halfbrick on the very same day, well then you just know that someone's been a very good boy or girl this year. So let's all just kick back and enjoy the very last Wednesday night of big new iOS releases in 2013, because trust me when I say: this one is going to be a doozy!