Wow! There are a lot of new games out this week! And quite a bit of variety too!
True, there’s the multitude of hidden object games that seem to endlessly appear each week. (They must be really easy to make.) But there are also some really intriguing games from other genres available too!
The PC game based on the movie Shutter Island (PC) debuted this week. The latest entry in the Aveyond orbs series, Aveyond: The Lost Orb (PC), was released as well. And puzzle games like Dale Hardshovel and the Bloomstone Mystery (PC, Mac, Linux) and Super Jigsaw Kittens (PC) are out as well.
This week’s best bets are: Aveyond: The Lost Orb (PC) and Shutter Island (PC)
Awakening: The Dreamless Castle
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Availability: Big Fish Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: You’ve woken up in a castle, and must find your way through in order to find the princess.
Demo Available: Yes
Big City Adventure: Vancouver
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Availability: Big Fish Games, GameHouse, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: Just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics! Search through Vancouver, Canada, learning about the city by searching for hidden objects and playing mini-games.
Demo Available: Yes
Shutter Island
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Availability: Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: Based on the Shutter Island movie, Shutter Island the game follows Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule as they search Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane on Shutter Island for the escaped murderess Rachel Solando.
Demo Available: Yes
Aveyond: The Lost Orb
Genre: RPG
Availability: Big Fish Games, Amaranth Games, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $10
Platform: Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista and 7
Premise: In the third part of the Aveyond Orbs of Magic series, Mel’s wedding day is interupted, as her future husband has been stolen and she’s inherited Mordred Darkthrop’s orb with the power of death. Mel has to find and destroy the orb before anyone uses it and save her fiance.
Demo Available: Yes
Super Jigsaw Kittens
Genre: Puzzle
Availability: GameHouse
Retail Price: $19.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: There are 50 kitten jigsaw puzzles you can assemble. You can choose the difficulty level and how many pieces each puzzle will have.
Demo Available: Yes
Dale Hardshovel and the Bloomstone Mystery
Genre: Puzzle
Availability: Phime Studio
Retail Price: $9.99
Platform: Windows 2000 and better, Mac 10.4 and Linux
Premise: Dale’s daughter Daisy has found a piece of papyrus that she wants to include in an exhibition, but it’s untranslated. In order to read it, they must get the Bloomstone from the Big Pyramid in Egypt. Anubis won’t let them aquire it easily though, and they must solve 100 puzzles to collect all of the Bloomstone pieces.
Demo Available: Yes
The Tarot’s Misfortune
Genre: Puzzle (Hidden Object)
Availability: Big Fish Games
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: A shadowy figure has captured Rosalie, a fortune teller, scattered her tarot cards and caused trouble for the people of Luzio. Rosalie must escape, find her cards and save the innocent citizens.
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]
yay for hidden object games!! THEY ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD!
I know, right? It's almost ridiculous though how many there are. Each week there are at least four new ones!
haha, they are fun when you are looking for something to do for a few hours!