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| | June 1, 2007
Moon over MSN
Well, May is over, and so is Moxie to the Moon. I’m afraid my alter ego didn’t quite make it all the way there, but the outcome was so close, it was amazing! MSN Games players put in a total of 34.2 million hours of gameplay over the month, which was just a cosmic whisker away from the 35.7 I needed for a safe lunar landing. No moonwalk for me! | |
| Since I’m apparently stuck in space for a while longer, I thought I might recommend a few of my favorite space-themed games. If you have a few minutes to spare and feel like taking a galactic voyage of your own, try busting bricks in AstroPop, repel an invasion of alien Atomaders, or just break a few eggs with Chicken Invaders 2. Meanwhile, I’ll be pondering where to go on my next virtual escapade… perhaps an island paradise, or a really good chocolate shop!
Badges by the bunches
So I’m sure that by now you’ve seen the article about the 1000 Badges Club. Talk about impressive: some of these folks have collected more than double my own badge total (and I thought I was a badge addict)! Now I’m inspired to add to my own badge collection. I looked through the 1000 Badges Club forum for tips on buffing up my badge count, and realized that the main problem is that I generally focus on playing a handful of web games that I know I like, plus whatever other game might happen to have a special achievement badge that week. But it’s generally pretty easy to get at least mastery level 1 in any given game, so my first step is going to be playing at least one or two rounds of every single web game on our site. There’s around 100 of them right now, and I’ve played maybe half, so there’s plenty of easy badges still to get!
Besides, I might discover a game that’s even more fun than my “usuals” (although I doubt that anything can supplant Text Twist in my affections). Who knows, though? After all, I’d never tried any of the Mystery Case Files games before a couple of months ago, and now I adore them. The only way to find out is to give everything a try. Besides, I’m determined to have fifty more badges by the end of next week. Wish me luck!
Most. Relaxing. Game. EVER.
I was scouting around for a new download game to play, and spotted the release announcement for something called Mystery of Shark Island. My first thought – okay, my second thought, since my first thought was “hey, that sounds like a Scooby Doo episode” – was “EEEE! It’s from PlayFirst!” I make a point of checking out any game they produce, since these are the folks who brought us Diner Dash and Plantasia, two of my absolute favorites.
So anyway, I loaded up Shark Island, and it turned out to be a game about finding seashells. That’s pretty much it, actually: you’re on a beach, waves bring in the usual collection of flotsam, and you need to pick out only the good stuff. Think of it as a combination of a hidden pictures game and a nice day at the seaside. At first, the game is kind enough to show you a visual list of the items you need to find in each wave, but eventually you’ll just get silhouettes or question marks; after that, it’s all about searching for anything that looks intact.
I remember once, when I was a kid, our family took a vacation to Florida. There’s a small town down there called… Inglewood, I think? Anyway, we stayed in this tiny motel right on the beach, and every morning we’d go out to the ocean, walk along the waterline, and look for sharks’ teeth. There were lots of them, too: we were only there for a few days, but I filled a big glass jar with teeth and some fascinating little shells that looked like really flat snails. It was a great vacation, and I loved the sound of the water and the nearly meditative task of spotting goodies in the surf.
If only there was a way to produce the smell of the sea on a PC, this game would be just like that vacation. It’s incredibly relaxing to play, and I’ll be indulging in a round or two whenever I need a mental break or a mood lift. Thanks again, PlayFirst! | |
