Arcade Game Central

Menara Games has released Balloon Express, an action-oriented casual game. Amelia’s family is about to lose their house. In a desperate attempt to save the proverbial farm, Amelia steals her father’s hot air balloon in order to travel the globe as a delivery girl. Join Amelia and her hot air balloon to deliver mails and packages to the most wondrous and exotic places in the world.

You’ll be soaring over landscapes of villages, woods, ancient ruin and exotic city all over the world. React quickly and deliver the proper packages to the houses who need them as Amelia soars over beautiful landscapes. Visit far away places and learn about the people and culture of the area. Each house has a certain package type they need delivered and the faster Amelia can get it there the bigger her tip.

In Adventure Mode you play Amelia in her quest across the world as the best delivery girl in the business. The amusing plot, story, and even historic facts are all represented in Amelia’s race across the globe.

In Challenge Mode it is a whole different game. Move Amelia’s balloon around the map matching sets of three deliverable items. Since the balloon can only carry one item it requires quick thinking and careful planning to achieve the desired results before time runs out. Success will unlock multiple destinations to play the challenge mode.

Quick Review: In the world of casual games, where it can become all too difficult to tell one game from another sometimes, Balloon Express offers a unique gaming experience. With large and detailed locations, charming animation, and an engaging storyline, Balloon Express looks simple at first, but the action quickly becomes frantic as you must move quickly and accurately to deliver your packages on time. As the challenge intensifies, you’ll find that it will take a great deal of concentration, coordination, and occasionally a bit of luck in order to meet your quota and move on to the next location.

More information about Balloon Express
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A company called TVHead has announced a premier games-on-demand TV network, bringing high-quality casual games to broad television audiences.

The TVHead Games-On-Demand Network (TVHead) seamlessly integrates into existing VOD (Video-on-Demand) infrastructure providing a uniform high-quality game experience to 100% of VOD-enabled households.

“TVHead was created to enable cable and IPTV operators to become a major force in the games industry. By offering a rich gaming experience to all of their subscribers today — not just the small percentage with high-end set-top boxes — TVHead allows operators to monetize gamers directly, and keep them in front of their televisions,” said Sangita Verma, the company’s CEO and Founder.

With new and updated games added daily, TVHead will showcase a multitude of genres, including puzzle, arcade, card games, word, trivia, sports, and kids games that appeal to everyone in the family. The unrivalled programming lineup features blockbuster brands and classic favorites, including Space Invaders®, Bejeweled®, Diner Dash®, Zuma®, Texas Hold’Em, Solitaire, Backgammon, and many more.

TVHead will create a rich casual gamer community, including high-score leader boards and system-wide multiplayer that allows players to compete with others throughout the country from the comfort of their living rooms. In addition, players may use internet and wireless devices to check their stats, taunt their opponents and compete for high-score bragging rights.

No specifics on exactly when and where TVHead will be available …

Daemonica is an intriguing 3D interactive murder mystery that offers everything that adventure gamers appreciate - immersive storyline with unexpected twists, extensive dialogues with believable characters, puzzles and both mandatory and optional quests.

Set in the medieval England it tells a story of Nicholas Farepoynt, an investigator who can talk to the Dead. Throughout the game you will explore the gloomy surroundings of the slowly dying city of Cavorn, make sacrifices, talk to both living and dead characters, fight and punish those who deserve it, gather information, collect herbs and make potions to enhance your senses and slowly discover what role you play in all of this. As you strive to solve the murder of a young girl, more dead appear and the town starts to slowly slip into insanity. A grim, long-forgotten secret, something that should never see the light of day again, slowly awakes…

• Engaging and immersive storyline
• Detailed and realistic 3D environments
• Enhanced environmental effects
• Intriguing characters with unique personalities
• Easy to control, yet thrilling action fights
• Potion-making, raising of the Dead
• Optional quests and various endings

Daemonica is published by Meridian4, an interactive software publisher located in Montreal, Canada. The game was developed by RA Images and Cinemax.

“We are very excited to see Daemonica ship out to the North American audience. It has received favourable reviews in Europe and we are anticipating the press and gamers will love the storytelling in the game.” said Lukas Macura, CEO of Cinemax.

“With its unique blend of RPG style and mixture of Adventure and Action, this murder mystery is a stand out title,” said Andrew Sher, CEO of Meridian4. “Unique gameplay, an intriguing storyline, interesting characters and you get to talk to the dead, what more could you ask for in an adventure game?” said Steve Milburn, Marketing Director at Meridian4.

More information about Daemonica
Download Daemonica

Forbes.com has an interview with Andrew Pedersen, vice president at Electronic Arts’ Pogo.com, which offers both free casual games and a subscription-only portal which boasts 1.2 million customers.

“Part of the appeal of casual games in the work population is that in a 15-minute work break you can play five sessions of your favorite game and feel very satisfied. It is a way to relax,” says Pedersen.

Pogo offers a variety of online casual games. They’re a little short on arcade games, but feature a nice assortment of card, word, and puzzle games.

Play games at Pogo now!

Alawar Entertainment, a leading publisher of casual games for the PC, has released Snowy: Lunch Rush. In the game, Snowy the Bear sets out to run the best restaurant in town. Using nothing but his drive to be rich and famous, Snowy scampers all over his eatery seating customers, taking orders, serving food, collecting tips and cleaning up. Combos and other special feats can help him earn enough cash to keep the restaurant open and upgrade to swankier locations.

Things start off slow, but soon, the heat is on! While it’s not easy satisfying a room full of hungry patrons as you wait on drive-thru customers and take reservations over the phone, Snowy’s singing will entertain edgy customers and help you survive the shift.

Snowy: Lunch Rush comes with a Career Mode, unlockable Endless Modes and a side order of fries. (Just kidding! You’ll have to supply your own snacks.) The game includes:

• Simple point-and-click gameplay
• Help Snowy win a 60-day contest
• Serve VIP and drive-thru customers
• Select awesome upgrades in Endless Mode
• Hear Snowy sing to impatient customers
• Hand-drawn comics between levels

Snowy the Bear is the charming hero of a popular series of games from Alawar, including Snowy: Fish Frenzy, Snowy: Puzzle Islands, Snowy: Space Trip, Snowy: The Bear’s Adventures, and Snowy: Treasure Hunter.