City Story allows you can create a virtual city with all types of businesses, residences, and decor you can purchase and place anywhere you choose. You earn money from factory contracts, cleaning buildings and gifts from your neighbors – who are either AI or real-life Facebook friends. Fashion Story has the player running a clothing boutique, where they choose and stock the very latest fashions and designs, then layout the store and changing rooms before preparing for the shopping rush. Players can visit friends’ boutiques, and “like” items and give gifts. Finally, Zoo Story has players raising animals like snow leopards, tigers, koalas, zebras, crocodiles, ostriches and pandas, breeding and raising baby animals, and building crops to feed said animals.

All of the games are free MMOs, but supported by microtransaction content purchases. Previous “Story” games include Bakery Story and Restaurant Story.

You can download each game free from Android:

* City Story
* Fashion Story
* Zoo Story

(Thanks, Venture Beat.)

The game is available in Apple’s App Store for iPhones and iPads, and recently launched for Android phones as well.

But what about those Windows Phone 7 devices? If you’ll remember, there was a bit of a flap earlier this year as Microsoft seemed to claim the game would be available on its new game-centric operating system — though Rovio said that wasn’t the case at the time.
But at Le Web 10, Hed had this to say on the topic: “We’re actively looking at WP7, we have a very good relationship with Microsoft. They just announced our game for the platform a bit ahead of schedule.”

Are you enjoying flinging birds? Let us know.

This resulted in an angry tweet from Rovio when some asked the developer about a Win7 version:

We have NOT committed to doing a Windows Phone 7 version. Microsoft put the Angry Birds icon on their site without our permission.

This doesn’t rule out the possibility of Angry Birds on the mobile platform – in another tweet from Rovio, they stated:

[It has] nothing to do with if we do or don’t [release the game on Windows Phone 7], it’s just that we decide that ourselves.

Microsoft apologized at TechFlash:

It appears information was mistakenly posted to Microsoft’s website, and has been removed.

The situation is likely that Microsoft and Rovio are negotiating a contract to bring Angry Birds to Windows 7 Mobile, but someone at Microsoft, probably in marketing, prematurely included the game in the presentation before an agreement had been reached between the two companies.

Would Angry Birds make you more likely to pick up a Windows 7 Mobile? Let us know.

The game is much like the TV show. Players are in a race against time to stuff their tanks, have to battle harsh weather and get their crew home safely. The safety of the crew is paramount, but the captains have to balance safety and making money. Players have to stuff their tanks just like the captains on the show. This is your chance to find out what it is like to be a crab fisherman, but with much less risk and harsh weather.

Deadliest Catch mobile game is available for iPhone as well as other mobile devices. There are mini-games that give the player the option to play one of the mini-games as a stand alone casual game. If you like the Deadliest Catch show, check out the game.

Astraware Sudoku is a Sudoku game packed with features, including a puzzle of the day. Each day there is a new puzzle to be downloaded and solved. After players solve the puzzle, they can upload their times to the leader board to see how they compete with other players.  OddBlob is a puzzle-arcade game created from modeling clay, and featuring online leader boards for players to post their high scores in both Strategy and Panic modes.

“We’re delighted to be re-establishing our long-term relationship with Palm, and supporting the new platform with a range of great casual games,” said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. “Our experience at supporting well-featured devices in a range of sizes and resolutions has helped us to make our first webOS games a pleasure to play, and we look forward to bringing many more titles to the platform.”

Astraware will be releasing other games for WebOS in the future, as well.

Press Release Follows:

Staffordshire, UK – August 24, 2010 – Astraware® is excited to announce the release of its first games for Palm® webOS™. The first two games, Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob, will initially support Pre™ and Pre Plus devices with support for Pixi™ to be added later.

Astraware has a long and successful history of working closely with Palm. Zap!2000 was the first color game released for Palm OS and for several years Palm smartphones offered at least one Astraware game bundled along with it. Now that Palm has released their PDK development kit, which allows developers greater access to some of the core functions of webOS, Astraware is able to continue that relationship by bringing some of their best-selling games to the platform.

Astraware Sudoku is a multi-award-winning version of the worldwide smash puzzle game. It is packed with features that avid Sudoku players love, including the unique Puzzle of the Day feature, which sees in excess of 20,000 users regularly downloading the daily puzzles and uploading their times on the global leader board. First released for smartphones earlier this year, OddBlob is a cute puzzle-arcade game entirely created from modeling clay, and featuring online leader boards for players to post their high scores in both Strategy and Panic modes.

“We’re delighted to be re-establishing our long-term relationship with Palm, and supporting the new platform with a range of great casual games,” said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. “Our experience at supporting well-featured devices in a range of sizes and resolutions has helped us to make our first webOS games a pleasure to play, and we look forward to bringing many more titles to the platform.”

Astraware intends to bring a number of their own-IP games to the webOS platform as well as working with their premium licensor partners to add to the range of quality casual games available in the Palm App Catalog.

“Palm has a rich history with Astraware, and we’re excited to see that relationship continue with the webOS platform,” said Ben Galbraith, director of Developer Marketing, Palm, Inc. “Astraware’s popular titles are a welcome addition to the breadth and quality of webOS games in the Palm App Catalog.”

Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob are available now on the webOS App Catalog, priced $4.99 each. For more information visit http://www.astraware.com/webos.

The game took off when celebrities like skateboarder Tony Hawk, musician Pete Wentz, and Frankenteen Tweeted about the game, while late night host Jimmy Fallon joked about it on his NBC show.

As it became a cultural phenomenon, Angry Birds gathered steam in the spring and then finally hit the top of the charts in May in the U.S. As Apple launched the iPad, Rovio launched a $4.99 version, which has sold more than 200,000 copies. Now it is being downloaded more than 50,000 times a day.

Rovio hasn’t stopped developing the game for other platforms; next week, Angry Birds is debuting on Palm, with an Android phone version in development, as well as a PSP Mini version. Nokia phones are also a platform Rovio considers viable.

Hardly a one-hit wonder, Rovio has produced 52 games that have been installed more than 250 million times, and have become a force to reckon with in the mobile phone market – how soon before a Nintendo DS version is released, since its touch screen is ideal for the game?

Let us know if you’ve been enjoying Angry Birds.

Players have 11 games total to test their skills out on. The players will start out with $1000 of virtual money and try to grow that $1000. If luck is not on their side and they end up losing all their money, there is a bank in the game that is more than willing to loan the player more money to gamble with. The other use for the bank is a place for players to stash their mad cash they get from winning big.

“We’re thrilled to be releasing Astraware Casino for Android devices today,” said David Oakley, Astraware’s Chief Technology Officer. “We’ve designed the game to make the most of each Android phone’s capabilities, from the HTC Tattoo up to the Motorola Droid or Google Nexus One.”

Astraware Casino can be purchased from the Android Market.

Press Release Follows:

Staffordshire, UK – January 28th 2010 – Astraware(R) – the UK-based games studio is pleased to announce the immediate release of Astraware Casino for AndroidTM phones. The award-winning 11-game pack includes the most popular games played in casinos around the world including Texas Hold ‘Em Poker (Limit and No Limit versions), Roulette, Slots, Blackjack and Craps.

In addition to 11 games, Astraware Casino gives players $1000 in a virtual wallet to begin playing with, has a fun trophy system – the ‘Souvenir Suitcase’, and a virtual bank where players can get an overdraft if they‚re down on their luck or stash their cash when they win big!

Astraware Casino supports a wide range of Android devices with the following resolutions: QVGA (240×320), HVGA (320×480), WVGA (480×800), and FWVGA (480×854). Android OS now joins other platforms in Astraware’s game engine and core technology library with multiple resolution support (BlackBerry(R), Windows(R) phone). This bespoke technical system allows Astraware to port and optimize their games for new devices and platforms very quickly and ensures that the company’s games can be kept up to date with ease.

“We’re thrilled to be releasing Astraware Casino for Android devices today,” said David Oakley, Astraware’s Chief Technology Officer. “We’ve designed the game to make the most of each Android phone’s capabilities, from the HTC Tattoo up to the Motorola Droid or Google Nexus One.”

Astraware Casino is available for Android phones on device from Android Market and on the web from Astraware.com and Handmark.com. The game is also available for iPhoneTM and iPod(R) touch, BlackBerry(R) smartphones, Windows(R) phone, S60(R), and Palm OS(R).

Players encounter challenges as they take care of the animals and attempt to make enough money to survive and build a bigger and better farm. Farm Frenzy has already been ported over to the iPhone and has done quite well, so they have decided to port the game over to more mobile phones. Developers really can’t lose when they put their games out on multiple platforms. Multiple platforms allows gamers of all types, mobile gamers, pc gamers, to enjoy the game.

“We plan to continue making games for several platforms at once, including mobile phones, to give gamers freedom of choice,” said Kirill Plotnikov, Alawar’s vice-president of publishing. “The success of the Apple iPhone version of Farm Frenzy encouraged us to move in this direction. Multiplatform games are both the wave of the future and the future of Alawar.”

There are also plans to release the game on the Nintendo DS.

Press Release Follows:

HeroCraft LLC and Alawar Entertainment, Inc. today announced the development of a mobile version of Alawar’s arcade business sim, Farm Frenzy. In the popular casual game, the player turns a shabby farm into a thriving agricultural business, overcoming challenges as he cares for animals, produces goods and earns money to advance.

“The developers of the original Farm Frenzy made an excellent game, and consumers rewarded their efforts on a global scale,” said Andrey Horozov, public relations manager of HeroCraft. “Our job was to reproduce the atmosphere of the original in as much detail as possible. I hope mobile gamers worldwide will enjoy our take on this popular series.”

Farm Frenzy for mobile phones will be released in nine languages (Russian, English, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Turkish) and will be playable on most modern mobile phones.

“We plan to continue making games for several platforms at once, including mobile phones, to give gamers freedom of choice,” said Kirill Plotnikov, Alawar’s vice-president of publishing. “The success of the Apple iPhone version of Farm Frenzy encouraged us to move in this direction. Multiplatform games are both the wave of the future and the future of Alawar.”

Alawar is also developing Farm Frenzy for the Nintendo DS. The company will release details about the product at a later date.

It is no surprise that the Dash game series, which includes, Diner Dash, Wedding Dash and Doggie Dash, is largely responsible for the 5 million downloads, but it is not entirely responsible as there were new mobile IPs that have done really well too. To achieve this milestone, PlayFirst has had to adapt their games to a mobile handset or device and partner with mobile distributors. One of the mobile distributor partners, Glu, has been their biggest distributor.

“Glu has seen tremendous success from the Diner Dash franchise on mobile handsets, as casual games are a natural fit for the mobile platform”, said Jill Braff, senior vice president of global publishing, Glu Mobile. “With over 5 million downloads, it is clear that fans are excited to be playing their favorite PlayFirst games on-the-go.”

Congratulations to PlayFirst for achieving a huge milestone. Keep up the good work and I am sure we will see an announcement for reaching the 10 million download milestone.

Press Release Follows:

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – July 21, 2009 – PlayFirst, Inc., the award-winning entertainment company has achieved the milestone mark of 5 million game downloads globally on mobile handsets. The significant number of game downloads, which excludes iPhone download numbers, is propelled by the success of mobile versions of PlayFirst’s popular Dash™ games series and its new innovative game titles for the mobile market.

The news comes as the gaming industry hits its peak summer cycle which sees many gamers on the move and a trend towards more mobile game purchases. Since its inception, PlayFirst has embraced the concept of ubiquitous gaming and its game titles are now available across popular gaming platforms. As the mobile market increases its user base particularly through the increasing global penetration of smart phones, PlayFirst continues to work with developers and mobile partners to ensure its game titles are tailored specifically for players on the move.

PlayFirst works with a number of industry partners to distribute its games on mobile platforms including Glu Mobile with whom it has partnered since 2005.

“Glu has seen tremendous success from the Diner Dash franchise on mobile handsets, as casual games are a natural fit for the mobile platform”, said Jill Braff, senior vice president of global publishing, Glu Mobile. “With over 5 million downloads, it is clear that fans are excited to be playing their favorite PlayFirst games on-the-go.”

“Our tradition of producing engaging and winning titles for a sophisticated mobile audience is proven in our numbers today”, said Rich Roberts, VP of sales at PlayFirst. “With the global mobile entertainment industry now worth $32 billion dollars* and growing, PlayFirst is poised to continue to deliver more exciting new content for fans on the go.”

The success of PlayFirst’s mobile game downloads is dominated by the Dash series which PlayFirst introduced to the mobile handset market in 2006 with the launch of flagship title, Diner Dash® featuring Flo, PlayFirst’s iconic game character and virtual restaurateur. Building on the series success, Diner Dash was followed by Wedding Dash®, Doggie Dash® and Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue. Other available mobile titles include Zenerchi, the meditative puzzle game based on color matching, and Chocolatier, the award-winning economic simulation game that puts players in the role of a master chocolatier.

*Mobile Entertainment Forum

The application does not cost any money. In other words it is Free and is available for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and of course the iPhone/iPod Touch. The Windows Mobile versions and Blackberry versions can be downloaded from Handmark.com or Astraware.com. Of course, the iPhone/iPod Touch version can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.

Handmark Fireworks is an application that depicts fireworks exploding over patriotic backgrounds. On the iPhone or iPod Touch users can load their own photos and choose their own music to set the explosions to. The program comes with Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and the Stars and Stripes as choices of backgrounds and offers a choice of stirring tunes including the Star Spangled Banner and Stars and Stripes Forever!

If you like firework displays, download Handmark Fireworks for your mobile phone and get to see fireworks whenever you want, 4th of July or not.