Realore has announced the release of Jane’s Zoo, a time management game for the PC. Realore has done other time management games such as Jane’s Hotel. Now Jane is taking on the zoo and has to care for the extinct wild animals in said zoo.

Jane has traveled the world and has seen the toll all of the big factories have on the world. The smog and pollution are killing the animals. Jane decides she has seen enough and wants to start doing something about it. Players will help Jane rescue the wild animals from three different places, Africa, Europe and Asia. Each location has a different climate and a different set of animals to take care for. Players get to take care of the animals and watch them thrive in a healthy environment.

If you like time management games, check out Jane’s Zoo.

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Guinness World Records: The Video Game is a collection of 36 mini-games that challenge players to beat the Guinness World Record holder. Players can attempt to beat their state world record holder or the regional record holder, which makes attaining the records a bit more manageable.  Players can also try and beat their own records because the top three scores on any event are saved.

Guinness World Records: The Video Game puts players in a 3D world and has them run around the globe to each event. Each event center has three competitions to choose from. The first competition is always the free competition and the next two competitions cost money to play. Players attain money by competing in the free record challenges. Players will win money just for playing, so you do not have to beat the record to attain money. The more records you attempt to break the more money you can make.

The games are all different and the controls can be different. One of the challenges is to beat the video game world record. Players have to play a game similar to Astroids. Players are in a ship and shoot other ships by taping on the enemy ship. Double tapping the screen will cause your ship to move around the screen and away from enemies. The touch controls make the game a bit more challenging if you are a person that likes to “button mash”. If you “button mash” on the touch screen, you end up flying all over the place and usually into the enemy. The enemies are moving towards you and if you are randomly clicking the screen chances are you will miss the enemy and double click on open space causing your ship to move.

Another challenge requires you to throw a refrigerator as far as you can. This game requires a few different touching techniques to control. Players have to rub there fingers back and forth to get the character to run. Players need to stop running before the throw line and tap the screen to bring up the angle meter. Once the angle meter is on the screen, players tap the angle meter when it reaches the desired angle. This doesn’t seem too difficult, but all this is happening in a mater of seconds.

All of the mini-games are very different. Players will not get bored of playing the same type of event over and over with different graphics. Some of the challenges took a little time to load on the iPod Touch and one of the games was too difficult to play on the iPod Touch because it was not keeping up. There weren’t many games that had this issue, though.

Over all the game is fun to play and adds the addictive nature of trying to beat records. Some of the records seemed impossible to attain, but they are not. It just takes a little effort and practice and players will be able to attain the state or even regional record. If you are driven by competition or like mini-games, check out Guinness World Records: The Video Game for the iPhone or iPod Touch.

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Alawar Entertainment announces the release of Hotel Mogul for the PC. The goal of the game is to help Lynette get her hotel back from her husband. Things did not go well with her husband and now he has control of her Hotel. Things get interesting in this time management simultion/economic simulation game.

Gamers play through thirty different levels as they build up their hotel management skills. Players learn the ins and outs of hotel business management, renovating buildings and handling realestate transactions. Players learn all of these skills through four different locations in very different climates that carry their own challenges. If you are looking for a fast paced time management game that offers a little more, check out Hotel Mogul.

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DinerTown Detective Agency is a different type of hidden object game. The goal of each level is to uncover who has been committing the crime. Players search an area for a list of clues. The casese are not serious cases, though and many of the cases are silly, such as the case were someone was replacing diet meals with full fat meals and the person was gaining weight. Another case requires players to determine who broke all of the hard candy machines at the movie theatre. The reasons behind the cases are as entertaining as the cases.

The entire detective agency was made when Bernie sent away for a detective kit in the mail. Of course, when you get a new toy in the mail you want to use it. Bernie teamed up with Flo to track down the people committing all the crimes.

The hidden object game itself is a bit different than other games in the genre. Players are finding items on a list, but there are three phases to a level to determine who committed the crime. Players track down the clues from a list of items. Sometimes the list of items are pictures of an item that have been hidden around the scene in pieces. In this type of level, one item that needs to be found may be a computer mouse and the mouse is broken into three parts and players have to find all three parts of the computer mouse. On the levels where players are finding pieces of items those pieces are used through out the level. For instance, once the computer mouse is found and completed, it needs to be place back on the computer that is missing the mouse. Another piece to an item or a clue to the mystery will be given when a missing item is replaced.

After all of the items have been located, through normal search or the pieces search, players move on to the next stage. Players have to narrow down the culprits by using the clues. Narrowing down the suspects requires players to play a mini-game of sorts. Sometimes players have to solve jigsaw puzzles and other times players have to match fingerprints of the suspects to the suspects.

After the suspects have been narrowed down, it is off to a question and answer session. The friends of the suspects are asked a set of questions and each one gives an answer when clicked on. From the answers given, player have to determine which suspect is guilty or innocent. There are always three suspects and one of them is always guilty. The theory on who is guilty is determined from the clues found earlier in the level. There are three questions that have three yes or no answers. The guilty party will have the same yes or no answers as the theory questions.

The graphics in DinerTown Detective Agency are nice looking. The levels are all different place around DinerTown. It was neat to see some places around DinerTown that haven’t been in other games and it made it seem more like a real community.

Over all, DinerTown Detective Agency is a great hidden object game that offers a different spin from other hidden object games. The added mini-games to the hidden object game break up the constant search for hidden objects. The cases are all light hearted and keep the game more on the funny side than serious. The entire game is a nice take on the hidden object genre. If you are a hidden object fan, you can’t go wrong with DinerTown Detective Agency.

Namco Networks has announced the release of BurgerTime Deluxe for the PC. BurgerTime Deluxe is the sequel in the BurgerTime franchise and will be available for the Mac later this summer.

The game challenges players to assemble burgers through 60 different levels as Peter Pepper and Sally Salt help their uncle beat Vinnie Vinegar. The game keeps throwing challenges at Peter and Sally as they try and defeat their nemeses Mr. Hotdog, Mr. Egg and Mr. Pickle. Players can defeat their nemeses by squashing them with falling ingredients, stunning them with a pepper cloud or burning them with hot sauce. A few different options to deter their foes.

“This brand new reboot of the popular ’80s classic is packed with addictive game play and a full immersive story that casual gamers of all ages will enjoy,” said David Schwartz, general manager for PC games at Namco Networks. “Fans of the franchise will find the classic platform action they love, but they will also find some enhancements designed specifically for the casual game audience including mini-games, updated graphics and story mode.”

BurgerTime Deluxe sounds like an interesting game. Namco seems to have remade the popular game into a game a little more enticing for a casual gamer. It is nice to see different types of games expanding into the casual market. If you would like to give BurgerTime Deluxe a try, head over to Namco’s game portal.

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