Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips & Forums For Downloads, iPhone, Facebook and Online. Atari’ - Faeries vs. Darklings. Several times a year I tell myself that every possible manner of match-3 has been created.
I am always wrong. Last year’s summer release of Puzzle Quest 2 and its multiple variations of the match-3 mechanic was a reminder of how easily this simple premise could be used to create player-versus-player gameplay. Similarly, Atari’s new Facebook title Faeries vs. Darklings takes what could have been a simple arcade title and adds enough variation to keep the match-3 mechanic interesting, while including a touch of competition. Faeries begins with a basic tutorial asking the player first choosing whether to protect the forest as Faerie or try to claim it as the Darklings. Initially, the game feels very familiar. As time progresses, the second, third, and fourth wave requirements become visible, allowing more matches to count towards releasing creatures for battle. Matches of four or more produce Tokens, allowing the player to earn micro-currency in game. EA’ - Monopoly Millionaires. Today’s release of Monopoly Millionaires seems a natural symbiosis between EA’s Hasbro licenses and its acquisition of Playfish.
With the success of Family Game Night on the console, it was just a matter of time before said titles arrive on Facebook. Much of Monopoly Millionaires is familiar to players of the classic board game from Baltic Avenue to the “metal” game tokens (everyone starts as the race car). The art style and music are pitch perfect but this is not your grandfather’s, or even your, Monopoly game. The key aspect – monopolizing the board – is left out of the gameplay in favor of each player having their own board. All players begin with the ability to place houses on every property; all it takes is Monopoly Money. Rent can be collected from completed houses every few minutes but only if electricity is run to the homes.
Collecting property is achieved by visiting a friend’s board. Circling the board can be expensive, though. Interaction between friends is a requirement. OMGPOP - Draw My Thing. Less than two years ago, teen-dominated social portal iminlikewithyou changed its name to Omgpop, partnered with like-minded MyYearbook, and began producing hit title after hit title.
Late last year, Omgpop moved onto Facebook with Cupcake Corner, a restaurant tycoon simulation akin to Zynga’s Restaurant World. Though Cupcake Corner appears to have reached the pinnacle of its popularity and has begun a slow decline, Omgpop shows no signs of following suit. January’s announcement of $10 million in additional investment to integrate with Facebook and iPhone has resulted in bringing what is arguably Omgpop’s most popular title, the tragicomically named Draw My Thing, to Facebook. Draw My Thing is a fairly straight-forward online version of Hasbro’s Pictionary. Groups of two–to-seven players attempt to guess what is being drawn. Game Insight (DE) - Big Business. 6 Waves recently published another new social game to Facebook, and it’s rapidly making its name known.
Developed by Game Insight, the app is Big Business, and while the name might lack a little pizzazz, it’s actually one of the better made and more highly polished city-builders around, comparable to some made by major players like Playdom. Though a city-builder, Big Business won’t have users groaning “not again.” Rather than following a formula, the game pulls in some of what made the original SimCity fun, and in the process creates deeper resource management than the norm. Buddy Rush - Async 3P Action-RPG. A developer by the name of Team Sollmo is attempting to bring it’s version of the action-role-playing game genre to the social-mobile space in the form of Buddy Rush — it’s simplified, asynchronous and ultra-cute.
Available cross-platform for both Facebook and iOS, we got to take an early look at the Facebook half, but watch for it in the app store very soon. An action RPG, Buddy Rush pits players into a cartoonish world filled with goofy looking characters that apparently came straight from the bobble-head store. With its bizarre art style and simple point and click play, it’s a game that ought to be appealing to many social users. Along with the prospect of playing asynchronously with friends’ avatars, this simplistic app is actually a good deal of fun for the short amount of times players can play; which is especially useful with its iPhone and iPad counterparts.
Once in the mission space, players battle with random enemies in order to complete whatever goal it sets forth. Incrediland - Breed New Animals. Going by the tag line — “IncrediLand: Breed with your friends” — players might not pick up on the depth of the real-world genetics rules that underscore the core design of this exceptional game.
In Incrediland**, you attempt to breed, hatch, and raise your own “Incredimals” to compete in contests of sport (and to use as further breeding stock). Players begin with the giraffe-like gambi. A thorough tutorial leads the player through incubating eggs, training hatchlings in the nursery, the care of adults, and how to pick and choose traits for breeding. The process for further species – the flea-like zorg and mammoth-like boon – is the same. Mastering one masters all. Each Incredimal’s genotype and phenotype (as well as basic strength, speed and intelligence) are visible from any screen that shows the Incredimal or a paper-doll of said creature. Information for a breeder (and later a competitor in sport) is everything. Monetization is achieved using a novel approach, new for this space.