Love Midnight Castle, but wish you could take it on the go? Good news, Big Fishers - Big Fish Games has just confirmed with Gamezebo that their popular free-to-play hidden object game is heading to the iPad this Thursday.It's an interesting twist, when you think about it. Previous free-to-play titles from Big Fish, like Found and Dark Manor, have started life on iOS, only to make their way to the main site later, after they've had some time to prove themselves. With Midnight Castle, they've turned that formula on its head. And it seems to be working, too: a Big Fish Games representative told us that the game's PC players are averaging 70 minutes in game per day. And if it counts for anything, we liked it quite a bit too.To celebrate the launch, they'll be giving away an iPad Mini on Midnight Castle's Facebook page. The sweepstakes opens tonight at midnight, and closes in one week, on March 26. For more details, be sure to visit facebook.com/midnightcastle after the clock strikes 12 tonight.
If your head is still spinning from the realization that there's an Angry Birds RPG on the horizon, you'll want to sit down for this one. The game soft-launched in Canada and Australia last night, and after 30 minutes or so, we bumped into a pig that looked pretty darned familiar.Red hat. Moustache. Pipe. Mushrooms. I'll let you be the judge:It's-a-him! Mario!
Ready yourself for the most interesting rumor of the morning. We all know that Amazon is getting into the games hardware business. I'm not keeping score, but it seems safe to say that this is the worst kept secret of the year. What's been a rather well-kept secret, however, is what this gaming hardware would be.Now it looks like we have our first hint.TechCrunch is saying they've learned from multiple sources that the device is going to look an awful lot like the Chromecast, Google's $35 streaming device that plugs into your TV's HDMI port.There's also the very real possibility that the device will be more of an "all-in-one" unit than a dedicated games console. With a variety of instant services already in-house - Prime customers can stream unlimited movies, TV shows, books, and soon music - offering a set-top box to bring it all to your living room is just good sense. Think AppleTV meets Chromecast meets Spotify meets Netflix, but with games.
Prep your Gollop Chambers! Julian Gollop, the creator of X-COM: UFO Defense (or UFO: Enemy Unknown for those outside the United States), has just launched a Kickstarter for his new game, Chaos Reborn.The game is a successor to Chaos: The Battle of Wizards, which was published in 1985 by Games Workshop. In his pitch video, Gollop says the game "stands out with unrealized potential." This new version seems to be a hex-based, turn-based strategy game from the man who created one of the most influential turn-based strategy games of all time. That's certainly exciting.The Kickstarter campaign is asking for $180,000 and, at the time of this writing, sits at just over a sixth of that goal only a few hours after launching. There don't seem to be any announced stretch goals as of yet, but obviously that could change.
It's a sad day to be part of a promising startup. Wormhole Games, who released their first (and it looks like, only) game last year with Tank Nation, and earned a spot as one of Gamezebo's best new games studios of 2013, is "winding down" according to a Facebook post from studio CEO and co- founder Jamil Moledina."We founded Wormhole Games as our contribution to innovation in free to play mobile games," reads Moledina's status update. "I'm immensely proud that our team achieved this goal with the launch of Tank Nation. Unfortunately, given financial challenges, we've been winding down the company. We've placed most of our staff at great new jobs, and the few that remain are in process."Tank Nation will continue to run for as long as they can keep it up, though if you're already a fan, I'd consider weaning yourself onto a new game soon. Forget about the future of Tank Nation though - what of Moledina? Before Wormhole Games, he was the man behind Crime City and Modern War studio Funzio, after all. As far as big names in free-to-play go, Jamil Moledina is one that should be on your radar.
There's a pretty fantastic-looking Godzilla reboot on the horizon. If you haven't watched the trailer yet, you should go and do that now. Go on. I'll wait.Did you watch it? Amazing, right? Godzilla + Walter White = the only movie you need to see this summer. A monstrously huge movie like this deserves an equally monstrous video game tie-in. But instead of a crazy, over-the-top action game, the King of All Monsters is about to get saddled with a genre not terribly befitting of his city-crushing nature: the match-3 game.Godzilla Smash-3 looks to blend some pretty stellar visuals with the "draw-a-line" match-3 tactics of games like Dungeon Raid. The game's official announcement promises "RPG-style progression" as well, which usually pairs nicely with match-3 gameplay.And did we mention it's being developed by Pipeworks Software, the folks responsible for Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and its two sequels?Ok, maybe this could be good after all.
Google has always had the tools to make mobile gaming on Android devices into a force to take on iOS toe-to-toe, it's just been a question of having the will and awareness to put them together in a way that makes sense for developers. With the now-underway Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco as a backdrop, that time may have arrived.On the same day it's sponsoring a Developer Day at GDC, Google is introducing a range of improvements to the Google Play Games service intended to make it even more attractive to designers and players alike. Chief among them are game gifts, roping in Google+ to allow in-game items to be sent to anyone in a person's Circles, and the option for direct multiplayer invites through the Play Games app.The Google Play Store is getting 18 new categories to aid in discoverability, something Google Play Games lead product manager Greg Hartrell told Polygon was sorely needed."We've never had a role-playing game category," Hartrell said to Polygon. "There isn't a music game category. And if you're into those types of games, you're relegated to using search right now, or relying on it being recommended to you."
When it comes to classic simulation franchises, few conjure up quite as many great memories as Roller Coaster Tycoon. So when you hear the words Roller Coaster Tycoon 4 Mobile, there's a very good chance that you have a "front car of the coaster with your arms up" level of excitement.That excitement might be justified. It might not. We just don't know.Details about the game are scant right now, though a trailer for the game showcases gameplay that… well, to be frank, looks a lot like Zynga's CoasterVille. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - heck, I really liked CoasterVille - but it also means that this probably isn't the Roller Coaster Tycoon series you know and love. Considering how hostile most gamers became when they learned Dungeon Keeper wasn't Dungeon Keeper, a word of warning seems emphatically in order.