2008 April | Casualicious

The Hidden Object Show

Posted by Ruff on April 30th, 2008

(No Ratings Yet)

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Notice how we’ve been reviewing some game show based games the following days? Well, because I’m quite confused about our game review for today since The Hidden Object Show game from Gogii Games is different compared to all of them but still quite the same. I know, reading that last sentence doesn’t make good sense, so I guess you guys should just let me explain further.

The Hidden Object Show game is different from any other TV show based games that we have reviewed in the past in the sense that it’s only just a fictional game show and not some game patterned in real life. Complete with its own host and make-believe spectators reacting in the background, the overall look and feel of this game effectively takes you into an actual rendition of a popular TV game show. And considering that this game utilizes a Hidden Object style of game play (hence the name), it still holds to be very unique since… well… I haven’t heard of any purely find-and-seek-based real life TV shows except Finders Keepers from Nickelodeon way back from the late 80’s.

Considering not only its uniqueness, this game also features a great array of Hidden Object game types randomly chosen between 11 modes of play. And considering its longevity, the game also spans to 30 object-cluttered scenes to total 330 object-finding rounds. Basically, this only means that The Hidden Object Show presents a really long game play as you aim to reach for that sumptuous 8 Million dollars in virtual prize money, therefore promising hours and hours of fun compared to other short-lived Hidden Object games.

The Review

I’m really amazed at how Gogii Games had this unique approach to contribute to the Hidden Object genre. The Hidden Object Show game is not only unique in terms of its theme too, but its best feature lies on the number of gaming modes you can play. I’m just amazed at how much it outshines other games of this type considering the features and you’ll definitely feel that you get your money’s worth too in terms of gaming length.

The game show theme is presented really well for The Hidden Object Show and I liked how well the host’s dubbed voice works. The oohh’s and aahh’s of the crowd can get really engaging too, reacting well to your achievements and to the occasional mistakes you make throughout the game.

In terms of downsides, however, I found some of the scenes to be quite fuzzy, making object recognition sometimes too difficult. I think that’s why it’s easy to get “hint chips” on this game, because it effectively balances out the difficulty in finding objects. Overall though, The Hidden Object Show can be very much fun and doesn’t grow boring overtime because of how much added features you can get other than most Hidden Object games. I suggest you guys just check it out and well, I hope you have much fun too as when I also had fun playing it out.

Download The Hidden Object Show game here.

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Wheel of Fortune 2

Posted by Ruff on April 29th, 2008

(No Ratings Yet)

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After the release of JEOPARDY! 2, Sony Online Entertainment gives us another TV show-based sequel with the Wheel of Fortune 2 game. And since Wheel of Fortune is another one of those TV shows that claim to be America’s #1 game show, it can get disappointing too if its casual game counterpart doesn’t live up to the show’s expectations. But that’s what we’re here to find out anyway, so I guess let’s just get to the review, pronto!

As all of you might have guessed, Wheel of Fortune 2 follows the game play mechanics and objectives as we all have watched countless times on the original TV game show. Each round of play requires you to solve a particular phrase ala-hangman, with points awarded depending on what amount you land on “The Wheel”. Just beat your competition after several rounds by landing in the most points while, of course, trying to avoid the wheel’s bankrupt penalty, and you’ve already got yourself a Wheel of Fortune champion. Simple and clean, right?

Just like JEOPARDY! 2, the Wheel of Fortune 2 game enables you also to design your avatar depending on your own visual preferences. This game also features 4 game modes for you to choose from, including Quick Play, Road Trip, Play Alone and the multiplayer option, Group Play. And if that’s not enough wheel-spinning madness, there’s also the Puzzle of the Day which basically plays just like Quick Play but for some reason, it’s separated from the other game modes. I’m guessing that there’s something special here that eluded me, but I guess I’ll let it off for now.

The Review

After playing Road Trip for quite some time (the game feature where you get to travel on different parts of the USA), I honestly found the Wheel of Fortune 2 game more enjoyable than that of SOE’s JEOPARDY! 2. While the graphics are pretty much the same awesome 3D animation, the game play can get quite addicting and I’m guessing that review holds true only because in my opinion, Wheel of Fortune is really loads better than Jeopardy. And I would like to commend SOE for doing well in capturing the game’s overall enjoyability.

One thing I noticed though is that this game also lacks any music just like JEOPARDY! 2. While the sound effects are really nice, I honestly think that any casual game is incomplete if it doesn’t have any background music. Besides, the game can get real boring too when you’re just waiting for your opponent to finish on his/her turn, and from my experience, music always tends to be the savior when these kinds of things happen.

I’m also impressed by the AI since they can also make mistakes just like you and I liked the trophy system that rewards you when you achieve certain milestones in the game. All in all, the Wheel of Fortune 2 game is really much better than JEOPARDY! 2, but still, it has its major flaws with the absence of music. I only wish that a possible sequel should be more creative, but for now, I guess this sequel is still worth your free 1 hour try.

Download the Wheel of Fortune 2 game here.

Treasures of the Ancient Cavern

Posted by Ruff on April 28th, 2008

(No Ratings Yet)

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The newest casual installment from Divo Games, Treasures of the Ancient Cavern tells a story of curiosity and adventure as you take the role of a relic hunter in search of knowledge about the Inca civilization. Following a one of a kind Match 3 game play, this game involves you taking on 90 steadily increasing puzzle levels too and hopes to satisfy those of you who are eager for some addictive casual gaming fun.

But since you guys are not here for the sales talk, let’s just get on with our review.

The whole objective of the Treasures of the Ancient Cavern game is for you to restore a total of 18 Inca artifacts and put them on their rightful places beside an “Ancient Cavern”. Each artifact is broken down in several pieces and each piece can be recovered by finishing a level in the game. And since this is just another one of those Match 3 games, each level can be finished by matching icons over stone tiles, but how you do just that can surprise you also, depending on your Match 3 gaming experience.

Actually, the game play mechanics of Treasures of the Ancient Cavern is quite different from the usual “swap-and-match” puzzle approach. In this game, icon movements will also move the whole row or column of that tile depending on mouse directions, and therefore, proves to be more challenging than the typical Match 3 action. I say that it will definitely take you time to get used to the whole game play, but playing still goes easy with all 10 runes and upgradable power-ups to help you out in blasting all of those pesky tiles.

The Review

I must admit that the Treasures of the Ancient Cavern game can be pretty addicting once you get used to the whole drag-a-line game play. I’m quite amazed too at how visually stunning this game is since it’s such a small download at below 20MB. The music is nice and the game play is very smooth too, leaving no problems on any mouse movements.

Hard to admit in the part of Divo Games, but I already played the same game play before with Seeds of Sorcery. However, I must say that the overall approach is different too, and I like how much additional challenge they put into Treasures of the Ancient Cavern, like those rocks, ice blocks and big icon barriers that aims to stop you making easy matches at your own leisure. So, I guess it’s all fine since it really looked like an evolved version of Seeds of Sorcery anyway, and definitely more explosive too at that!

All in all, this game is really fun, addictive and filled with explosive goodness typical of great Match 3 games. I honestly didn’t feel Treasures of the Ancient Cavern as repetitive as most Match 3 games and it’s definitely worth your try too. So if you’re not busy today…

Download the Treasures of the Ancient Cavern game here.

Zen Fashion

Posted by Ruff on April 27th, 2008

(5 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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It’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve got an email from Boomzap Entertainment about a new game they’re going to release called Zen Fashion, and being the busy guy (procrastinator) that I am, I haven’t even finished the game yet until now. To my surprise, even Big Fish Games has caught up with me, and I really would like to apologize to Boomzap for being late in the review. Well yeah, I do this free until an affiliate program comes up, but it’s still wrong in my business sense.

Anyway, enough of my life story, because as far as I know, you guys are not here to hear me explain. And besides, it’s already high time for our Zen Fashion game review, right?

In Zen Fashion, you play as Hana, an ordinary Japanese salesgirl off to leave her boring job for a fashion designer business following her grandmother’s footsteps. However, according to her all-knowing grandma, before showing her talents to the world, Hana should be polishing first her fashion sense by tracing her Asian roots and learning from them too. And guided by the philosophy that says, “Modern fashion is a product of centuries of beauty and culture”, Hana goes off to travel throughout 12 different major cities in Asia to learn about their clothing culture and traditions.

But before that, I know you guys are wondering how Hana can do all these things jobless right? Basically, that’s where the mechanics of the game comes in. Zen Fashion is actually a Match 3 game wherein your task is to link 3 or more flower blossoms for Hana to collect coins needed for her journey and much-desired shopping spree. In fact, like most Match 3 games, you can only move on a level until you clear all bronze, silver and gold tiles on the play board. And we all already know that now, do we?

Zen Fashion has its share of amazing power-ups too, but before you get to use any of them, you have to increase Hana’s fashion sense first, and the only way to do that is to buy clothes for her to wear. I’m serious, because with power-up names like Eye for Fashion, Fashion Bomb and Electric Fashion, it’s really obvious how she can get to use any of these tools. Of course, you have to muster some “Zen Powers” too before you get to use any of these power-ups, but that’s easily done by collecting yin-yang-like Zen Power Tokens. Don’t worry, you’ll know what I mean when you try the game out yourself.

The Review

I really loved the Zen Fashion game’s graphics and relaxing sounds and as a matter of fact, the guys at Boomzap Entertainment themselves are proud about the overall presentation of the game. In fact, there’s this Zen Break feature also wherein you get to take a break from all the hectic action to watch a beautifully rendered wallpaper scene featuring Zen-themed locations in Asia. But what I really liked is how Hana looked good in all those clothes. Well, not really because I’m some perverted guy, but it’s just because I’m into all those fashion stuff myself… HONEST!

Moving on, I also liked the additional features of Zen Fashion like the trophy system and how you can mix and match all the Asian costumes presented in the game. If you’re into fashion (like me, lol), the game will let your creativity soar as you dress Hana with all the combinations of 108 fashion pieces you can collect throughout the whole adventure. It’s quite a wonder too how the different Asian costumes can blend together, showing us how much we are all just intertwined in this crazy world (that’s deep analysis for you).

Anyway, one downside I saw during the time I played the game would be the colors used for the flower blossoms. I don’t know if it’s just me but the colors just seem too bright, making the Zen Break feature quite handy now and then during play. Also, being a Match 3 drag and link game, Zen Fashion can get repetitive too over time. But considering that the game’s difficulty increases with each level too, I bet you’ll just loose yourself from the challenge it presents.

Download the Zen Fashion game here.

Flower Stand Tycoon

Posted by Ruff on April 26th, 2008

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Just when you thought that you had already seen all that is there to see involving flower-based casual games, the Flower Stand Tycoon game from Tik Games surfaced from its grassy roots to show us that there’s more to flowers than just growing and selling them for profit.

The story of Flower Stand Tycoon starts as your Uncle Potts becomes desperately in need of someone to put entrepreneurial sense on his wilting flower stand business. You see, Uncle Potts terms himself only as a scientist, not a business person and he blames this predicament for the losing trend of his flower stand venture. Basically, that’s where you come in as you help your uncle, try to get ahead of the competition and become the city’s first ever Flower Stand Tycoon.

Flower Stand Tycoon is actually a nice Time Management game that features a plethora of dynamic Simulation game elements. There’s just so much involved in this game aside from the buy-sell-upgrade formula featured in most casual games. Some of the features I liked best will have you analyze your business’ market share and growth, set up advertising to gain popularity to your brand, and of course, checking up on the activities of your competition to have you planning on beating them to the punch. Heck, you can even get to temporarily sabotage their businesses to gain the upper hand! Now, that’s really one dynamic simulation game in my book, right?

The Review

The Flower Stand Tycoon game have such a nice blend of 2D and 3D graphics working great together to present a very satisfying view on the whole game. The game play is very nice and I liked the fact that you get to plan everything on this game but still, you are hands-off on all the nitty gritty stuff. Besides, frantic clicking games can get really tiring when you do the same stuff over and over again, and this game really went out of the crowd and presented more analysis and brain work on the part of the player.

One thing you need to get used to though are the game menus. At first, I honestly think that there’s just so much you need to do in this game that I’m already getting nowhere in being a tycoon of some sort. But after learning all the ropes and about 5 minutes later, it gets easy to automate all the processes and have your own plan to dominate the flower business. And I think that’s when you’ll get to experience real fun in this game.

The competition is very appealing too and most parts of the game are composed of breaking through your opponent’s market share. I honestly think that this game has no end, but I still haven’t got monopoly of the flower stand business so I guess it’s also too early to say that. Maybe it ends when you get all the souvenirs awarded to you whenever you achieve milestones set in the game. Well, it should not end to soon though, because I don’t really want to stop when I already get this addicted.

Download the Flower Stand Tycoon game here.