Casual Friday: Update for February 6 – 12, 2010

There’ve been quite a few lovey-dovey casual games released recently, if you combine last week’s release of The Flower Shop (PC, Mac, Linux) with the recent releases Matchmaker: Joining Hearts (PC, Mac) and Love Story: Letters from the Past (PC). Even Settlement: Colossus (PC) has minor love-story elements! Seems like even casual game developers and publishers are in the mood for love.

Anyways, there are five new games this week. Once again, hidden object games are the most prevalent, with only one new entry, A Dwarf’s Story (PC), falling into a different category. (It’s a match-3 game, if you’re curious.) I hope you like finding things!

This week’s best bets are: Settlement: Colossus (PC) and Matchmaker: Joining Hearts (PC, Mac)

Nightfall Mysteries: Curse of the Opera
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Availability: Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: A murder mystery game, where as a stagehand you must find out who’s killing members of the opera invited to perform exclusively for Count Vladd Vansig III and his assistant.
Demo Available: Yes

A Dwarf’s Story
Genre: Puzzle (Match-3)
Availability: Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: A magician has stolen a dwarf artifact, and you must create a custom dwarf character and head to the surface by playing match-3 games to recover it.
Demo Available: Yes

Matchmaker: Joining Hearts
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Availability: Sugar Games, Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $9.95
Platform: Windows 98, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista and 7 and Mac 10.3 and better.
Premise: You’re a matchmaker who must make matches and help people find love by searching for hidden objects that show common interests.
Demo Available: Yes

Love Story: Letters from the Past
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Availability: Big Fish Games
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: Mary’s received 30 year old love letters from her first husband, and you must help her put together and recall all of the wonderful memories the two of them shared.
Demo Available: Yes

Settlement: Colossus
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object) and Simulation
Availability: Alawar Entertainment
Retail Price: $9.95
Platform: Windows XP, Vista and 7
Premise: A cursed, 300 year old emperor must serve the gods and build them a glorious city and civilization in order to be reunited with his true love. Don’t feel too sorry for him though, as he made a huge mistake and this task is his means of atoning for it. You help him create an empire. It also works with Facebook, allowing you to update your status, post pictures and send messages while playing the game.
Demo Available: Yes

Editor’s Note: Due to so many casual games sites offering game plans or preferred member prices, which can cause a game to have multiple price-points, the games’ average retail prices is mentioned in Casual Friday.

Site [Big Fish Games] Site [PlayFirst] Site [GameHouse] Site [eGames] Site [Alawar Games] Site [Amazon] Site [Reflexive Arcade] Site [Harmonic Flow]