Posted on June 19, 2007 - Filed Under A Look Back, Editorials |
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1. Tetris
A little title designed by a, now famous, Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov. The game consists of some falling blocks which you spin around and lock into place to complete “lines” on a puzzle board. The description sounds very simplistic, but as we all know, Tetris is anything but easy.
How many versions of Tetris have you bought through the years? It’s all the same game but we continue to buy it for our Mobile phones, hand-held systems and even consoles. Go figure.
2. Free Cell (Solitaire)
Although not the first of its kind, Free Cell was made popular when a colorful version arrived for Microsoft Windows. It originally was a test application for Windows and then made its way to an Entertainment Pack on pre-Windows 95. It wasn’t until ‘95 that everybody had access to it. What better way to waste a day at work?
3. Sudoku
Object is to fill a 9×9 grid so each column, row and box contains (uniquely) the digits 1 through 9. Sounds easy? If you’re good with numbers and patterns and some thinking you’ll survive the basic grids. But harder grids start with less numbers pre-placed so you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you.
Many people think the concept of Sudoku is new but they are far from the truth. People think the design arrived in 1979 but didn’t really gain popularity until the 80’s in Japan. The concept goes back to a Paris based newspaper game in 1892 and the implementation we now know as “Sudoku” is a simplified version that is growing huge in the United States lately.
4. Bejeweled
A popular puzzle game developed by PopCap Games in 2001 and ported to many game systems, game portals and hand-helds. This game put PopCap on the map in the genre of flash games and they partnered with Microsoft’s Zone and created Bejeweled for the masses.
Bejeweled 3 is expected in the Summer of 2007 (we’ll see).
5. Geometry Wars
A mini game created by Bizarre Creations as part of Project Gotham Racing 2 on the Microsoft Xbox. You could access the game through the garage (in game) and spend hours on this hot little casual title. Project Gotham Racing 3 also had a version of Geometry Wars you could play, however, it wasn’t until Geometry Wars: Evolved, an Xbox 360 downloadable game, did the mass of gamers experience the fun.
Geometry Wars: Evolved, for a long period of time, was the most played game on the Xbox 360. This was at a time where the launch hype died off and new game releases had yet hit the market. Considering the amount of money spent to market the launch titles for the Xbox 360 it is still odd to know that a casual game was played more often then a USD $59.99 title like Call of Duty 2 or Kameo.
6. Minesweeper
A casual game that may take 5-minutes to complete or 5-seconds depending on your luck. Minesweeper isn’t unique to Microsoft Windows, it has been ported to almost every system that has been created dating back to the 1970’s and was a paper based gambling game dating to the 1950’s.
The concept? Click little squares and try to uncover the location of all the randomly hidden mines without selecting the mine itself. On most modern platforms this involves a mouse-click to drive the games progress. Each click uncovers a count of mines in the adjacent grid. Careful planning and thinking will make you a success.
More difficult levels can take hours to perform perfectly. Minesweeper is either 100% perfect or 100% failure.
7. Dr. Mario
This Nintendo title is laid out similar to Tetris but the pieces are “pills” (known as Megavitamins) and you must drop them on a puzzle board of viruses. The viruses come in three colors and must all be destroyed by clearing the lines with the megavitamins.
Dr. Mario came on a few Nintendo products including the NES, SNES, Gameboy and is scheduled for the Wii Virtual console.
8. Peggle
Another PopCap game, recently released, will overpower you with its addictive qualities. Nobody can exactly point out why the game is so addictive, after all it takes on a similar design to that of Plinko from the Price is Right. Remove Bob Barker, add in power-ups, avatars and a great point system and you have Peggle.
I have recommended Peggle to all our friends and everybody has become addicted in a matter of minutes. The downfall? You’ve got to pay to play more than the demo. There is no way you can simply play the demo and put it down.
9. Hexic
Alexey Pajitnov, designer of Tetris, spun this game design for Carbonated Games and was made available via MSN games and as a downloadable “deluxe” edition. But they didn’t stop there, Hexic HD ships with all Xbox 360 Premium console on the hard disk.
You must rotate red, blue, light green, dark green, orange, pink and purple hexagons around the screen to create groups of identical pieces to vanquish them. Once you clear a few pieces more fall from the top of the screen to fill in their place. There are a few unique shapes you can design, like “Starflowers” to receive bonuses and higher scores.
Thanks to Hexic HD, Xbox 360 gamers had a casual game to play right out of the box on their home console.
10. Big Brain Academy
We, in North America, saw this game in 2006 on the Nindendo DS. Unlike, Brain Age, this title didn’t require us to yell “RED” or “BLUE!!” into the DS to attempt to win a game. We could play this game without the silence typically required by Brain Age.
I actually purchased this title in error, thinking I was buying Brain Age and was surprised by the addictive nature of the game. You don’t sharpen your mind like the other title but you do have a great time busting through many puzzles and improving your reaction time.
Big Brain Academy is a slight learning title, but not as hardcore as Brain Age. I can end a session feeling smarter, for sure, but I also didn’t have to re-learn 8th grade mathematics to be a hero. The game contains addictive puzzles and though provoking patterns good for all ages.
The franchise did so well it has made its way to the Nintendo Wii as a stand-alone (non-hand-held) game. It’s on my list of purchases!
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