Lots of news today! Let’s get started!
Habbo Hotel Shutting Down Game Center
The game center is closing its doors as of March 31st. According to the company, the decision is an attempt to improve the overall Habbo experience; while plenty of users love the games, many found the different graphics to be distracting rather than exciting. This includes Snowstorm, Fast Food, Habbo Speedway, Habbo Pix, and everything else in the game center.
They aren’t going to offer refunds for any coins spent in the game, so use up your stuff before the end of March. However, you’ll still be able to play any of the third-party games offered on the developer’s site, including favorites World of Zombies, HeroZero, and Nova Raider, among others. You’ll have to set up a new account with the developer, which means you’ll lose any progress, power-ups, coins and the like.
So far, Habbo Hotel has no intention of creating a similar service.
Candy Crush Versus the Gaming World
King Digital Entertainment created a cash cow in the ever popular mobile game Candy Crush Saga, which now accounts for 78-percent of its revenue.
And other developers have been trying to cash in ever since, coming out with a slew of similarly titled games. At least according to King Digital. Two games, The Banner Saga and All Candy Casino, were targeted by the Candy Crush developers for their use of “Saga” and “Candy” in their titles. In fact, King Digital has attempted to trademark the word “candy.” Despite the fact that the two targeted games, and many others, have very little to do with the overall premise of Candy Crush.
So what do the rest of the developers think? Well, they’ve decided to strike back against the perceived crazy requests of King Digital, creating over 450 games in the App store with names such as “Super Candy Scroll,” “Candy Princess Saga: Crush King Trademark,” and perhaps our favorite “This Game is Not About Candy.”
Outside of being pretty funny, this explains the onslaught of candy-named games currently available. In case you were wondering.
Check Out Two Free Online Games!
Everybody loves free, and with winter trailing on for what feels like forever, we decided that showcasing a few freebies is a good idea. After all, what’s a better way to spend a winter day than curled up with a fun, exciting game that doesn’t cost you a penny? Here two of our favorites this week!
A Night in the Woods: This short game has you collecting a bunch of stuff (such as newspapers and notes), all of which is set in a relatively mild horror atmosphere. The artwork is stunning, the music gorgeous, and the sound effects surprisingly well-thought out. It’s clunky, has a very 90s feel, and isn’t exactly strenuous. But if you’re looking for an interesting time-killer, this one definitely delivers.
Space Pirate Dernshous: For a freebie, this one is rather ambitious. There’s an endless universe of space stations, complete with gobs of ships and docking lanes. Technically, the game is unfinished (as in, the developer is constantly adding to it), but the point is to control your pirate ship, docking and shopping throughout the universe, attacking space stations, conquering other space ships (and raiding them, of course; after all, it is a pirate game), etc. It’s fun, unique, and could be decidedly more interesting depending on the direction the developer takes.
The New Plants Versus Zombies Is Here!
It finally happened: Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is here, and if you haven’t bought it already, we highly suggest you get on it (unless you’re in Europe, then you’ll have to wait until February 28th).
A quick overview:
- You get to fight zombies, essentially practicing for the upcoming zombie apocalypse.
- You get to fight plants, if that’s your thing.
- You’ll never find more butt-kicking plants anywhere. Ever. They shoot, kill, chew, blow things up, zap ‘em, and the plants in this version are seriously fun to look at.
- And the zombies? Well, they take zombie to a whole new level, complete with tackling, sonic grenades, explosive balls, and one really cook warping ability.
- There are three game modes to choose from online: Team Vanquish, requiring 50 kills, Gardens and Graveyards, where you attempt to capture or defend checkpoints, and Garden Ops, a four-player cooperative mode specifically for Plants.
Unlike past versions of this game, Garden Warfare is more a team-shooter game than the tower defense construct we’ve all come to know and love. It’s not nearly as clever, which is disappointing.
However, it’s still fun, the graphics are bright and cheerful (despite the content of the game), and it will keep you occupied until spring, when you can enjoy real plants. But hopefully no zombies.
