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Whatever the reason, I’m always stoked for anything Halloween-related. And I’m guessing our MSN Games artists can relate, since their latest set of game badges is all about the creepy, crawly, and costumed. So if you’re looking to get into the holiday spirit (the sort of spirit that goes bump in the night) a bit early, try surviving a haunted house, foiling the evil count’s dastardly deeds, or getting your masquerade on!
And remember: leftover chocolate has no calories.
Gaming For the Gabby
Woo! It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to say this, but it looks like we have new games for Messenger! I would happily like to introduce Bumper Stars and All-Star Bowling: two fun games with the same basic idea of hitting things with other things.
Bumper Stars is a sort of strategic pachinko game, where you have a certain number of shots to clear all the objects off the screen. Think Peggle, but with fruit. The key to winning is in careful planning: you won’t be able to hit all the fruit directly, so ricochet your shots to reach the blocked areas. The other key to winning, as with all Messenger games, is over in the chat side of the window, where you can trash-talk your competitor into getting cocky and careless.
Never underestimate the power of a well-timed insult!
I’m actually a bit worried about All-Star Bowling, though. See, I usually play Messenger games with my dad, since we don’t get to see each other very often any more. But he’s very good at bowling. He even has a trophy for successfully picking up a 7-10 split. Meanwhile, I can’t go to a real bowling alley without embarrassing myself somehow (and not just with the shoes). I recall one time when I let the ball slip, overcorrected, fell on my butt, and took down three pins on the next lane over.
So here’s the big question. What’s going to matter more, his real-world prowess or my hours upon hours of playing Gutterball 2? I guess we find out the next time I can catch him online for one of our matches! Either way, it’s a chance to spend a few minutes having fun together, and that, right there, is the best part of Messenger games.
Inca ZUMA!
And here’s something I was starting to fear I’d never have a reason to say: PopCap made a sequel to Zuma! I mean, it’s been at least five years since we first encountered the little stone frog and his endless string of bedeviling beads; there’ve been three or four Luxor games and two Tumblebugs since then. By now, I just figured that Zuma was a game of the past. And then, out of nowhere: Zuma’s Revenge. Joy!
Of course, it wouldn’t be Zuma without our froggy friend, and at the start of this game, he’s adrift on a makeshift raft. He soon washes up on the obligatory mysterious island, and discovers that to survive, he’ll need to destroy an awful lot of rolling beads. Good thing he has previous experience.
If you’ve played Zuma or any of its close cousins, you know just how to play Zuma’s Revenge. Spin your frog to aim at a chain of colored beads, and click to fire another bead at the chain. Matching three or more of the same color causes that part of the chain to disappear. Destroy enough beads, and the chain finally stops making new ones. Fail to wipe out the whole chain before the first bead reaches the end of the line… well, let’s just say it’s not healthy for our geo-amphibian pal.
Now here’s where the new stuff comes in. First off, I suspect somebody at PopCap played a bit of Luxor and said, hey, why do they have cooler power-ups than we do? That’s an excellent question, Mr. Imaginary Designer, and one which was easily solved. Zuma’s Revenge includes the original Zuma power-ups, the best of the Luxor ones, plus an unstoppable barrage of three iron balls that obliterates everything in its path. (Yes, that’s my favorite.) The level layouts are new as well. But the best innovation here is the addition of boss battles. Every ten levels, you have to shoot down a cursed tiki idol while simultaneously wiping out a snaking line of beads. Each idol has its own powers, and after the first couple, they become quite difficult to beat!
All in all, this is a well-done sequel, and I expect it to keep me cursing and tearing my hair out – cheerfully – for many nights to come.
Old Mac Donald had an… Ostrich? Llama? Walrus?
Ee aye ee aye oh boy, this is going to get weird. But in a good way!
I’ve always been fond of the Farm Frenzy games. How can you not like a time-management game with cute farm animals? But while the previous versions were fairly straightforward – you buy chickens, pigs, sheep, cattle and other things you might actually find on a farm, collect resources from them, and make tasty or useful products – Farm Frenzy 3 is a bit… different. From the very first level, which starts you on the African savannah with a flock of guinea birds, you’ll get the notion that simple chickens and pigs will probably not be making an appearance in this game.
The story, such as it is, features a corrupt emergency services organization and a bunch of farms in need of serious help. You decide to help, and set off on a world tour of disaster-flattened ranches. Luckily, the basic gameplay that made the first two Farm Frenzy titles so much fun is quite intact (“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”), but the settings and critters are marvelously unique.
Over the course of the game, you’ll be helping with five farms: one in Africa, one in South America, one in the southern United States, one in the Arctic, and one in… um… Europe somewhere? (Do they have yaks in Europe?) Anyway, each region has its own livestock, products, and challenges. Your animals will produce either eggs, feathers, milk, wool, or horns, and all of these can be turned into finished goods and sold for a nice profit. The more levels you complete, the more each farm recovers. Your goal is to the farmers so happy that they vote out Mr. Corrupt Farm-Aid guy and elect you in his place.
So while I have to admit I never thought I’d be farming virtual penguins, water buffalo, and big-horn goats, Farm Frenzy 3 is now officially my favorite game in the series. Here’s hoping they just keep getting better!
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| Tech Talk
Okay. Remember how, in the last Coffee Break, I said that there weren’t any technical issues to chat about, “not even a hiccup”? Yeah, I think I may have jinxed us.
On October 1st, we encountered a rather critical problem with the server that handles our Chess stats. (I wasn’t there at the time, but I suspect that “critical problem” may be synonymous with “hey, do you smell something burning?”) Well, whatever it may have been, I’m happy to report that Chess is now functioning normally again, and your stats will be reported as usual. Unfortunately, though, we couldn’t recover the existing stats data.
So if you had a really bad week somewhere along the line and played some terrible matches, it no longer counts against you. Take advantage of the fresh start, and make every game your best!
I’ll see you next time!
Ask Moxie!
Do you have a question or comment? I’d love to hear from you. Just email me at zmaster@microsoft.com and I’ll do my best to answer in one of these Coffee Breaks! Oh, please make sure to include your MSN Games nickname, so I know who to list here if I quote you!
(And if you have technical questions or problems with a game, we’ll cheerfully answer those as well. Just submit them through the support section of this site!)
More Moxie!
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