This week in China, we learn that some problems are universal - like kids spending an absurd amount of money through in-app purchases. We also see how some developers are working with companies to customize games, get a glimpse of an upcoming mobile racer, and finally hear the word "Foxconn" in a context that has nothing to do with Apple. Probably.As always, this week's Chinese news is brought to Gamezebo courtesy of our friends in Beijing at Laohu.com. If you're looking for a more regular glimpse of gaming life in China (and happen to speak the lingo), be sure to check them out!
Money's tight. We get it. With Christmas on the horizon - not to mention a fat Thanksgiving turkey, a winter heating bill, and a new snow shovel - "disposable income" isn't a phrase that's in your vocabulary right now. Which is a shame, because you really wanted to pick up a copy of Call of Duty: Ghosts this week.We can't help you there - but if you want a taste of CoD fun without a big price tag, Gamezebo Deals is offering Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on to PC and Mac gamers on Steam for just $4.99! That's a savings of 75%.Enough jibber-jabber. Get to downloading already.
Sesame Street has been a staple of children's television for 44 years. That's a ridiculously long time for a television show to exist, and it's made all the more impressive considering how much the medium (and how we view it) has changed since 1969. I'm not just talking about HDTV here; websites, video games, eBooks, and mobile apps have become so synonymous with our shows that it's border-line symbiotic. Heck, it is symbiotic.A rather large number of children these days, some as young as two or three, are already familiar with smartphones and tablets. The folks at Sesame Street know this, and have been steadily extending their reach into the digital realm with a number of apps and games - some of which were recently shown to the media at the Sesame Workshop's Digital Playground in New York.They have an extensive selection of over 160 eBooks, apps designed to help families dealing with difficult times, and of course apps to help with learning. Nestled among the many, many examples being shown were three rather intriguing recent, upcoming, and even experimental titles: Sesame Street Family Play, Big Bird's Words, and Sesame Street Go.
SO MANY BIG GAMES THIS WEEK. It's enough to make your head spin. We'll have reviews of them on the site in the coming days -- and you're going to love them -- but why wait if you don't have to? If you want a first glimpse at today's newst iOS releases, we're livestreaming some of them right now on our Twitch channel, twitch.tv/gamezebo.This week we're checking out Rayman Fiesta Run, Tiny Death Star, LEGO Lord of the Rings and Garfield Kart. Be sure to jump in the chat and join in the fun! The more the merrier.Watch live video from Gamezebo on TwitchTV UPDATE: The live feed is now over, but you can watch the archived version above at your convenience. Enjoy!
If there's one thing that gets people talking around the mobile community these days, it's the highly stylized and wildly addictive 8-bit experiences from developer NimbleBit, like Tiny Tower and Nimble Quest. Now couple that winning formula with a full-on Star Wars theme, and you've got yourself one serious contender for an all-out good time. Star Wars: Tiny Death Star has just gone live on the App Store and Google Play Marketplace today, but earlier this week I had the chance to speak with Jon-Paul Dumont, the Studio Director at Disney Mobile Palo Alto, and discuss everything from what it was like working with NimbleBit on this exciting new project, to what kinds of Star Wars fun and humor players can expect to find inside their own Tiny Death Stars.The folks at Disney Mobile have actually been fans of NimbleBit and their impressive catalogue of mobile hits for quite some time, and according to Dumont, the idea for a possible collaboration with the Tiny Tower formula and LucasArts' Star Wars license just seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Disney Mobile had come up with the name "Tiny Death Star" right off the bat, and loved how you could say that name to anyone and have them instantly understand exactly what it means. Yes, I think even Obi-Wan himself would go so far as to say that NimbleBit and Disney Mobile could not "escape their destiny" together.The first thing that might come as a surprise to some Tiny Tower fans is that the team at Disney Mobile took over the actual developing duties here for Star Wars: Tiny Death Star, with NimbleBit stepping back in a more consultative role. However, you shouldn't let that fool you, because Dumont tells me that one of Disney Mobile's biggest goals with this game was to stay true to the iconic 8-bit world of Tiny Tower and preserve its unique niche of gameplay, a modern mobile legacy which Dumont describes as being almost sacred to him and his team. Well just playing through the game for a few minutes, you can already tell that Disney Mobile has done NimbleBit proud with this release, as Star Wars: Tiny Death Star is certainly a Tiny Tower game here in every sense of the word.
Have you ever heard of the old saying that good things always happen in threes? Well I don't know who the genius was that came up with that one, but I don't think that mindset could be farther from the truth: especially where the world of mobile gaming is concerned! After all, each Wednesday night good things happen by the dozen on the App Store alone, as gamers are soon met with more awesome games than they can even imagine (and so many more than a measly old three!).Don't believe me? Well here are just a few of the many great games that you'll be able to download later on tonight, including a long-awaited follow-up to one of the best visual novel experiences that is currently available on the App Store, a shimmering arcade game from the inventor of Tetris, and another impossible challenge that is sure to keep your fingers tapping and sliding like crazy. So nice try, old ancient sayings, because good things come to mobile games in way more than just threes!"
Can you imagine a world in which all individual video games were made for one single platform and one single platform alone? That's a pretty scary thought, isn't it? It's right on the same level as an all-out zombie apocalypse. But the good news is that we don't live in such a horrific kind of world, and a lot of our favorite games gets re-released on exciting new platforms each and every week: which is where Gamezebo's Replay Wednesdays comes in!This week's list was dominated by a few particularly awesome PC games that finally made their long-awaited debut in the mobile games space, including Ittle Dew, a cartoony puzzle-adventure that could give Link and Zelda a run for their money, and the alien-apocalyptic Anomaly 2 with the scary good graphics. See anything good that came to your gaming device of choice this week? Be sure to let us know down in the replies!"
It's been four years since Adam Saltsman's Canabalt introduced us to the words "endless runner." Since that time we've run temples, rushed minions, and done everything in between. It would be hard to nail down the exact number of endless runners that have popped up since, but I'm pretty sure a fictional number like "bajillion" or "kazillion" would sum it up nicely.To put it bluntly, there have been a lot.And, as you might expect, those kajillion endless runners have seen their share of gems and flops. By now it seems safe to assume that everybody has a favorite. And so, today, Gamezebo asks: what's the best endless runner?Let us know your favorite in the comments below. If you can include a screenshot and the reason why, even better!