OK, this week, we give you three games with balls. By that, of course, we mean the real balls, not the figurative ones. Interestingly enough, all three take a very simple, single game mechanic based on interacting with spherical objects, and make a completely different game from it. Good stuff. Now let’s get to the [...]

You know, every time I talk to developers and reviewers about video games, I hear the same old story: “Innovation is dead in games.” These people haven’t been looking at the top indie casual games lately. Little gems like Fizzball, Wik, and Eets come out with shocking regularity. They get a lot of hype on [...]

Every now and then when I play a new game, I turn to my roommate after 30 seconds and say “Hey, check this out!” This is always a good sign, because it means I am seeing something for the first time. And to be honest, as a casual game reviewer that doesn’t happen nearly as [...]

With all of the hype, people can forget that Luxor, when it originally came out, was considered just a clone of Zuma. However, that was never entirely true. Luxor did use a very similar base mechanic to Zuma, but it added the cool factor of having an Arkanoid-style piece along the bottom that could collect [...]

OK, there are a lot of games out there whre you spit things at encroaching waves or chains of things. That’s leading a lot of people to decry casual games as a bunch of clones, and to some degree there is truth to that. But actually, some of these “clones” are better than others, and [...]

The common wisdom on casual games is that they should be easy, slow, and somewhat… sedate. Someone forgot to give Pi Eye Games the memo. Another entry in the “ball shooter” genre, this one takes a strong twist for the more frantic and visually stimulating. It is to Zuma what “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” [...]

It’s another ball shooter. And it’s underwater. So at some level, you have seen this before. But don’t let that spoil your fun, because the developers knew all of this, and went out of their way to make this a fresh and original underwater ball shooter. I guess they like a challenge.

Sparkling diamonds, mystical Aztec relics, fine ivory carvings, and piles and piles of beautiful, glittering gold as far as the eye can see. In short, treasure! And it can all be yours, if you’re hungry for adventure. Just don’t expect to be fighting swordfights, gunning down naval ships, or drinking rum in this bold little [...]

This game has been lingering on the shareware boards and independent game sites a long time. It maintains it’s presence with a loveable sort of naiveté and fresh design that you just can’t help but like a little bit, even if the whole premise of the game is patently ludicrous.

You’ve probably seen a pachinko machine before. You know them. They’re those crazy games where a ball drops onto a series of pegs and bounces down into one of several holes. Where will it land? That’s the fun! You never know. Well, Peggle is what Pachinko would be if it were a zany after-school special [...]