Arcade Game Central

WorldWinner, one of the leaders in online game competitions, has announced a partnership with leading games developer MumboJumbo to develop online competitions in MumboJumbo’s popular puzzle game Luxor for cash and prizes. Luxor was one of the most downloaded games of 2005, compelling players to play repeatedly to achieve new levels and high scores. Since Luxor was introduced last year, the game has been downloaded tens of millions of times. Through this agreement, WorldWinner will give Luxor fans, as well as online gamers looking for a new challenge, a platform to prove their skills by competing against other players for cash and prizes.

Luxor is an action-puzzle game that takes players on an exciting adventure across the lands of ancient Egypt. Players must shoot magical spheres and destroy the approaching colored spheres by making matches of three before they reach the pyramids at the path’s end. Power-up talismans, such as explosive fireballs, thundering lightning bolts and magical multi-color spheres, are up for grabs to aid players in their quest.

“With a tremendous install base, and that easy-to-learn, but difficult to master quality that online gamers crave, Luxor is well positioned to become an instant favorite at WorldWinner,” said Stephen Killeen, president and CEO of WorldWinner. “Players who think no one can top their score in Luxor will now have an opportunity to prove it by competing at WorldWinner for cash and prizes.”

“Given the wild popularity of Luxor, which remains one of the most downloaded casual games week after week, we’re excited to work with WorldWinner to broaden the game’s appeal to an even larger audience,” said Ron Dimant, managing director, MumboJumbo. “Offering cash competitions in Luxor is guaranteed to elevate the level of fun to a whole new level.”

Luxor cash competitions in will be available at WorldWinner in the second quarter of 2006.

Wik and the Fable of Souls was selected as the 2005 Downloadable Game of the Year by The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) at the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards held Las Vegas in early February.

The Interactive Achievement Awards is a peer-based award that recognizes the outstanding products, talented individuals and development teams that have contributed to the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.

Wik beat out several other outstanding titles including PopCap’s Chuzzle and Playfirst’s Oasis. “We are thrilled to be recognized by the Academy for our labor of love that Wik represents” said Ion Hardie, Director of Product Development at Reflexive Entertainment. “Such wonderful acknowledgment really fuels our fire to stretch the creative envelope in our future projects.”

Already a winner at the 2005 Independent Games Festival (IGF) as Downloadable Game of the Year, in addition to winning the IGF awards for Innovation in Visual and Game Design, Wik and the Fable of Souls has captured the imagination and hearts of gamers around the world with its innovative game play, engaging atmosphere and distinctive visual design.

In early January, Big Fish Games) acquired the French-based casual game developer (FunPause), a leading European casual game developer. FunPause is known for the cinema-quality game production values, soothing music and addictive game play of best-selling games such as Atlantis, and Fairies.

Big Fish Games is a developer, publisher and distributor of casual, family-friendly games. Their website portal offers more than 300 downlodable game titles. The acquisition gives Big Fish control of FunPause’s portfolio of titles, which includes 20 downloadable games and 55 online games. Patrick Wylie, Vice President Big Fish Games Studios said that “FunPause brings AAA production values found in core console games to the easy-to-get-into addictive world of casual games.”

All current FunPause employees will join Big Fish Games, but will remain in a new branch office in Montpellier, France. “We are excited to be a part of the fastest growing casual game site in the world,” said Emmanuel Marty, former CEO of FunPause, and now Director of Big Fish Games Studios Europe. “We are being given the liberty to maintain our creative freedom to produce award winning games, while benefiting from the years of experience and success that Big Fish Games brings to this market.”

In an article on CNN’s Game Over column (Whither the gray gamer?), Chris Morris discusses how aging gamers are not being served by the video game market. “The gray gamer is a revenue stream that’s not being tapped”, the article reports, “leaving senior gamers to Web-based games, such as PopCap Games’ Bookworm.” Why is that?

“One of the biggest stumbling blocks is determining what sort of games would engage an older audience. Certainly, there are folks like Barbara St. Hilaire, a 70-year old gaming enthusiast who goes by the nickname “Old Grandma Hardcore” and plays up to 10 hours per day, but the more typical buyer is more likely to only play a few hours per week.”

Morris reports that Nintendo is planning to release two new “Brain Age” titles, targeted at gamers 35 and older, consisting of short mental brain-training challenges. The games have already sold over 1 million units in Japan.

With the aging population in the United States, the number of senior gamers will only rise, so we should certainly begin to see more video games for an older audience. The casual game market is already there, with numerous titles, including the aforementioned Bookword, that while perhaps not designed to appeal to “gray gamers”, are certainly popular with players of all ages. Many of the games on this site would fit that description.

Professor Fizzwizzle is a fun, mind-expanding puzzle game, where you take control of the diminutive genius, Professor Fizzwizzle. You must help the professor use his brains and his gadgets to solve each exciting level. Do you have what it takes to get past the Rage-Bots and bring the prof back to his lab?

Canada.com features an article (Score One For The Little Guy) about Matt Parry and Ryan Clark of Grubby Games, creator of Professor Fizzwizzle, which was released in mid-2005 and has garnered a good deal of industry recognition, including being named “Indie Game of the Month” by PC Zone magazine, winning the 2005 “Casual Game of the Year” award from Game Tunnel, and being a finalist for the 2006 IGF (Independent Games Festival) Seumas McNally Grand Prize award. GamaSutra published an interview with the developers in early January.

The game has also been reviewed by a number of sites, including:

• Bytten - Gold Star Award
• FNG Gaming News - 4/5
• Game Tunnel - 5 Stars
• Home of the Underdogs - “Top Dog” Award
• Inside Mac Games
• JayIsGames
• Nomad Gamer
• PC Magazine - 4/5 Discs
• Softpicks.net - 5 Stars