Apples to Oranges: Apples to Apples MOD

I played Apples to Apples MOD (a slim travel edition) during vacation, and the cards were awful: a lot of celebrities and pop culture references that were completely lost on our group. (Hence, "MOD".) So far, the kids edition is the best one we've played, with the most cards for the most people. Obviously, Mattel was aiming for people who'd want cards like "Megan Fox" and ""Neil Patrick Harris", but games like this need to be a bit more timeless, rather than trendy and easily dated.

It reminded me of a Trivia Pursuit 1980s Edition. It may just be the haze of memory, but it seemed like every other answer was either "Michael Dukakis" or "Condoms". It became a running joke. Need a wedge? Just answer "Michael Dukakis" or "Condoms".

There also simply aren't enough cards, so they repeat very quickly. Plus, the cards are a bit too small.

On the positive side, the new dice mechanic for Apples to Apples MOD is pretty decent, as long as people remember they can make up their own adjectives. The system uses a multi-sided die imprinted with 26 letters and an apple icon. There are two cards with an alphabetical selection of words on each side, offering 4 possible adjectives for each letter of the alphabet. The judge rolls the die to select a letter, and then chooses an adjective beginning with that letter. He can use the cards, or make up his own adjective beginning with that letter. This word becomes the "green card" for that game.

It doesn't seem like Amazon even carries it, so it may already be out of print. I picked mine up at Target for $10. It won't be coming out again.

DC/Marvel Teaming With Lego

This isn't gaming news, but it touches on two beloved subjects here at Casa McD: superheroes and Lego. Starting January 2012, Lego will begin a multi-year deal to produce sets based on DC and Marvel comics characters.

A line tied to The Avengers feature film will include minifigs of Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Loki and Black Widow, while the the X-Men collection includes Wolverine, Magneto, Nick Fury and Deadpool, and the Spider-Man sets offer Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus. On the DC side, we'll be seeing Batman, Robin, Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Bane, Bruce Wayne, Superman, Lex Luthor, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.

In the past, Lego has produced significant lines for both Spider-man and Batman, but this is the first universe-spanning deal to date. They're launching the new endeavor with a Lego Super Heroes Unite contest, which invites people to use their minifigs to create artwork and films highlighting the characters. Expect to start seeing sets in May 2012.

LostWinds Coming to Mobile Devices

Eurogamer is announcing that LostWinds, a really clever little puzzle/platforming game, is coming to mobile devices later this year. This charming fantasy from the creators of Kinectimals features the adventures of a young boy who conjures the wind with gestures. It was originally published in the WiiWare store, where it got buried in the service's notoriously crowded marketplace. It seems like a great fit for iOS and Android, and should help this great little item get the audience it deserves.

Days of Wonder: Memoir '44 Out of Beta & Small World Underground

When I loaded up Days of Wonder's new online version of Memoir '44, I could swear my copy said it was still in beta, and mentioned that in my announcement. It has, in fact, been out of beta since late June, and is humming along quite nicely.Thanks to Christine Goutaland for correcting me.

Also, we got a chance over the weekend to play a warm-up game of Small World Underground, and we're liking it a lot. The new races are clever, the powers are dastardly, and the integration of places and relics puts a nice spin on the play. One caveat, however: don't use this one to introduce new players to Small World. The new additions add a little the learning curve and might put off novices.

PUZZLE: Tabling the Question

I haven't done a math puzzle in a while, so here's an old one to strain the average brain. (And by that I mean my brain: in the past, my readers have solved these so fast it's almost embarrassing.)

Mr. Jenkins comes home to find his son Todd reading a comic book rather that working on his quadratic equations. He sets about berating the boy, when Todd interrupts him with a deal. "If I can pose a problem you can't solve, you have to finish my homework, and I can to finish my comic." Mr. Jenkins, considering himself something of a math whiz, takes this bet in a heartbeat.

Todd pushes a large, perfectly round table into a corner, with its edge touching both walls. He places a spot and then turns to his father. "That spot," says Todd, "is exactly 9 inches from one wall and 8 inches from the other. Without measuring the table, tell me its diameter."

My Jenkins puzzled and puzzled 'til his puzzler was sore, and then wound up finishing Todd's homework while the boy returned the adventures of Uncle Scrooge. Would you have done any better?

A Closer Look: French Tarot: Trumps 15 & 16

Many people are familiar with the standard Tarot suits (the "Major Arcana") used for "divination" purposes, but they're less aware that Tarot cards were created for playing trick-taking games and have a rich and diverse design history. These images are part of an ongoing series highlighting the art of a single deck used in France, which contains scenes of rural and domestic life in the 19th century.

Click to enlarge

Tarot Trump 15: Detail

Click to enlarge

Tarot Trump 16: Detail

App O' The Mornin': Tiny Tower

Grade: B
Price: freemium (extra in-game money can be purchased)

Compulsion loop games are not one of my favorite categories. Any title that requires someone to check in and do something at regular intervals feels less like a game and more like a poor lifestyle choice. Yet the genre remains insanely popular among people who forget just how irritating it was to keep a tamagotchi.

Tiny Tower (NimbleBit) is designed in such a way that it can be played by people who like to check on their game every 30 minutes or so, but it doesn’t have to be played that way. This rather clever balance between compulsion loop design and simple simulation gaming is what makes Tiny Tower work.

The game is like a stripped down, pixilated version of the much-missed SimTower. You build a high-rise, one floor at a time, and designate each floor as either residential or work. Tenants are rated for their work skills in food, service, recreation, retail, or creative businesses. After you build each floor and designate it as a business, you assign tenants to a job, preferably in some area of their ability.

Sometimes these are dream jobs for the tenants, while other jobs make them unhappy. Either way, they work where they’re told to and earn the money needed to continue construction and restock and the stores. The  Marxists at Popmatters try to read Deep Meaning into this, with lines like "I have become an exploiter of digital-human capital." (There is no more unintentionally hilarious read on the net than game coverage at Popmatters.) Because we all know that 16-bit dude with a frowny-face is dying inside as he quietly hums "The Internationale".

Tony Tower is free to play, but if you want to play faster you can buy more “bux” online. If you don’t get too obsessed with it, Tiny Tower is great fun and can provide a few minutes of daily play as you manage your little building. If you do get obsessed with it, it ceases to become a fun little game and transmorphs into a time sink.

Your Turn: The Games Magazine Electronic Games 100

It's that time of year again. For the next two months, I will be working with my crack staff to compile and write the Electronic Games 100: a buyer's guide to the best 100 video, computer, and handheld games published since last November. (We also do a small section of previews for titles we do not yet have in completed form.)

So let me know what you think. What have you been playing? What did you love? What did you hate? Do you know something small that deserves more attention? Something big that deserves less attention?

On Twitter, use hashtag #games100 to make your suggestions. I'm also on Google+ and Facebook, or you can use the comboxes. This is the first time I'm doing this "live," so let me know what you think. You can check out the Awards tag on this site for some examples from last year, which saw Super Mario Galaxy II winning as game of the year, just because that's the way we roll.

I can tell you this much: it's going to take a concerted effort to keep mobile games to only 1/4th of the list (25 titles), as I did last year. Given the sorry state of originality in PC and videogaming, and the startling originality and fun found on mobile platforms, that may not be easy. Four words, people: Axe in the Face.

Please note: this is for electronic games only. I don't edit the Traditional Games 100.

Shaun the Sheep: The Hedge Maze

Because I won't ever pass up an opportunity to put Shaun the Sheep on my blog, here's a picture of the giant new Shaun corn maze that's about to open in Staffordshire, England.

It appears to show Shaun striking a sassy pose while his brain shoots out the top of his head. It seem to be based on this (without the shooting-brain part):

Snapdragon: A Festive Children's Game Played With Flaming Food

Thou art easier swallowed than a flapdragon.

Wm. Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost

In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Alice is introduced to various fanciful insects by a gnat the size a chicken. To an American child, these creatures appeared to be little more than whimsical creations, but one insect had special connotations for the British:

A snap-dragon-fly

`Look on the branch above your head,' said the Gnat, `and there you'll find a snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of plum-pudding, its wings of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy.'

`And what does it live on?'

`Frumenty and mince pie,' the Gnat replied; `and it makes is nest in a Christmas box.'

I'd never really paused over this reference to a "snapdragon fly", but the most recent episode of Masterpiece Mystery, an adaptation of the Inspector Poirot novel Hallowe'en Party, included an alarming scene of kids playing a party game during a Halloween celebration. Children kept reaching into a flaming bowl, grabbing something, and popping it in their mouths while chanting "snip snap dragon." You can find the scene (for as long as it stays up on Youtube), at the 7:00 mark here. I hadn't the faintest idea what they were doing until we looked it up and learned that it's an old game (no one knows just how old) called snapdragon or flapdragon.

from Poirot: Halowe'en Party (2010)

Here's how Martin Gardner describes it in The Annotated Alice:

Snapdragon (or flapdragon) is the name of a pastime that delighted Victorian children during the Christmas season. A shallow bowl was filled with brandy, raisins were tossed in, and the brandy set on fire. Players try to snatch the raisins from the flickering blue flames and pop them, still blazing, into their mouths. The burning raisins also were called snapdragons.

The chant that accompanies the game goes like this:

Here he comes with flaming bowl / Don't he mean to take his toll!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
Take care you don't take too much / Be not greedy in your clutch!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
With his blue and lapping tongue / Many of you will be stung!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
For he snaps at all that comes / Snatching at his feast of plums!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
But Old Christmas makes him come / Though he looks so fee! fa! fum!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
Don't 'ee fear him but be bold / Out he goes his flames are cold!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!

Snapdragon is normally a Christmas tradition, although it's played at Halloween as well. There's no clear indication of the game's origins, but some sources trace it to the ancient Greeks or Druids, which seems rather fanciful. It pops up several times in the works of Shakespeare, where he uses "flapdragon"  and "snapdragon" interchangeably to indicate something that's easy to swallow. You know: like flaming fruit. That pushes the game back to the 16th century at least. Like so many indoor amusements, it became traditional during the Victorian era, because nothing says "fun for kids" like sticking your hand in a burning bowl of liquor.

I'm annoyed that I even have to add this, but if you try this game at home, please remember that fire is hot and if you're injured it's totally your own fault, not mine.

D-Day Dice

Since we're talking about D-Day, let's linger a little longer and turn our attention to Emmanuel Aquin and his print-and-play game D-Day Dice. The game has thus far been available in a free trial version, as Aquin spread the word to generate interest. Now, it's being picked up for publication by Valley Games, and will be out by November of this year. A Kickstarter campaign should begin shortly, and I'll post a link when it goes live.

If you scroll to the bottom of the Valley Games page, you can download the trial version, print it out, and give it a test run. Based on a read-through of the rules, D-Day Dice appears to have an interesting mechanic, calling to mind a mashup of Roll Through the Ages and Memoir '44, with an added layer of depth. I'm going to print this one out and give it a spin, and I'm looking forward to trying the finished game.

H/T: W. Eric Martin

Memoir '44: Play Online

Days of Wonder has launched an online version of their best-selling casual war game, Memoir '44. Like many DOW games, Memoir '44 gets a heavy workout here at Casa McD, so this is welcome news. So far, I've just taken the solo mode for a spin, but it's a straight-up computer conversion of the tabletop game. It plays on a single screen, with your cards aligned at the bottom and the board dominating the center of the layout. Mouse click responses seem a little odd: if you double click too fast, it doesn't register the move. Other than that, it's looking good so far.

Right now it's in "open beta," and people who sign up get 50 free "gold ingots." The game uses a pay-to-play model in which you pay ingots to play solo and online games. Ingots can be purchased at a rate of 200 for $8. For $30, you get 1,000 ingots plus the Expert Mode, which allows you to create and upload custom scenarios. For $60, you 2,400 ingots, plus expert mode, plus $30 off any Memoir '44 product. Sessions cost 2-3 ingots each.

It's an interesting model, and I'm not sure how it will work out. It avoids the problems of a subscription-based system, but it's hard, at this point, to determine whether the value-versus-cost balance is quite right. If we calculate about 90 games for 200 ingots, with anywhere from 30-45 minutes for each game, you're looking at maybe 200 hours of gameplay for $8. That doesn't seem unreasonable.

EA Buys PopCap For ...

... $1.3 billion. (It sounds better if you use a Dr. Evil voice.) That can buy a lot of zombie-eating plants. Congrats to the PopCap folks. They're good guys, and I remember when they were just a few dudes making casual games. They went from nothing to $1.3 billion in ten years. It's as though all those jewels were real.

Via TechCrunch.

App O' The Mornin': Bumpy Road

Grade: A
Price: $3

This sophomore effort from the creators of Kosmo Spin has a delightful aesthetic, with a muted but eye-catching color palette and charming art. It’s a look that works perfectly for game about an older couple out for a Sunday drive on a corduroy road past windmills and impossibly narrow houses.

The gameplay is just as interesting as the visual element. Bumpy Road uses a novel mechanic to create a twist on the 2D platforming, move-to-the-right genre that has thrived on mobile touch devices. In this case, you don’t control the car, which moves at a steady pace, but the road itself, which is comprised of a series of little bumps. Touching the road raises it a little bit. Touch behind the car to create a hill that makes the car go faster. Touch in front of it to create a hill that slows the car down. Touch beneath it to make the car hop.

It’s as simple as that. The levels consist of multiple platforms and occasional water hazards, with minor variations for the two gameplay modes. In Evergreen Ride, you need to go as far as possible without falling into one of the water hazards. The trip is endless, with little powerups found along the way to close traps and allow you to focus on gathering items to improve your final time. There are no traps in Sunday Trip mode, so the goal is to get to a finish line as fast as possible by grabbing the accelerator powerups and avoiding the brake powerups. The result is a great little app, with a novel mechanic and engaging gameplay.

Site Update: Changes and Other News

I started State of Play a year ago this month for a few reasons. I wanted a place to write about games that I didn't always have a chance to write about in my print work, but also to just have a little corner of the internet that was all my own. It's been a place where I worked out ideas for print stories, most notably with the long series on gaming in Colonial America, which eventually appeared as a lead feature in Games Magazine. I wanted to create a personal blog from a the point of a view of a someone who does a lot of gaming for a living and thus has to think and write about this material on a daily basis.

I got off to a pretty serious start with an average of 20 posts a week in the beginning. That gradually tapered off, and then posts started getting a bit more irregular back in April. Part of this was because I had a lot of work to do in order to go on vacation, and part of this was the beginning of graduate school. I've been trying to find a good way to balance the blog with work and school, and might have finally found a pattern that works. So, here are the changes:

• Posts will be 3 times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This gives me a target to shoot for that shouldn't be too hard to hit, while also providing regular visitors with a better sense of when to expect new content. 
• The App O' the Mornin' will return in a reduced form. I wrote about 100 app reviews for the site, and another 50 or so for various print venues, and then my brain when pfffft. This was around the time that Axe in the Face was released, and I don't recall a lot of apps grabbing my attention after that. Maybe it was app burnout on my part, but there seemed to be a bit of a lull in quality appage. In the intervening time, the well of good apps has gradually refilled, giving me something to write about again. Thus, each Monday, starting today, I'll do an App Review.
• I also have a stack of board games to review, but I take these very slowly. I hate reviews that are done on one or two playthroughs. I tend to take a couple of months to test things and gradually build some kind of opinion. Yes, I can form a pretty fast snap judgment like any other experienced gamer, and it will usually turn out correct, but without a number of plays under my belt, I just don't feel like I have much to say. For instance, I've been testing Rivals for Catan, in its many different play modes, for over a month, and I still want to play a couple more times before I write about it. 

Also, I'd ask you to please remember to use the Amazon links from the sidebar when you shop at Amazon. The Amazon Affiliates program is the only way I make anything for my work here (Google Ads are a joke). Using my link anytime you access Amazon costs nothing, but gives me a 4-6% commission for anything you buy. The depression has ruined us here at Casa McD, so every little bit helps. 

Let me have some feedback. Is there something you like? Don't like? Something you want to see? Shoot me a Twitter at StateofPlayBlog and let me know.

Thanks for your continued support.

VIDEOGAME DECISION: Two Stories, One Meaning

Exactly a year ago, I wrote the following column for the July 2010 issue of Maximum PC. I'm reprinting it here in light of today's Supreme Court decision.

Look, I’ve been on the internet since the internet was on. In those weird early days, I saw enough of alt.binaries.ohmygodicantbelievetheyredoingthat to illumine the darker corners of humanity.

            Thus, I was not at all surprised that some ostensibly human-like creatures get their kicks watching videos of attractive women crushing small animals to death under stiletto heels. It’s a fallen world, and any cursory glance at history or headlines shows us that men are capable of unspeakable depravity.

            I was surprised, however, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that these “crush” and dogfight videos were, in fact, protected speech. In their April decision on United States v. Stevens, the court voted 8-1 to overturn a ban on the sale and distribution of these videos. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that, although the acts depicted are in fact illegal, the ban on images of these creates a “criminal prohibition of alarming breadth,” and violated 1^st amendment protections.

            Why is any of this of any concern to gamers?

            Simple: the Roberts court is about to get their first swing at the gaming piñata. In a case bearing the sublime name of Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Association, California’s laws banning the sale of violent games to anyone under the age of 18 have already failed to pass muster with various courts. Most recently, the notoriously liberal 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law was in violation of the 1^st and 14^th amendments, clearing the path to a Supreme Court challenge.

The Stevens decision, although not an exact analog, is a pretty clear indication of where the Roberts court stands on freedom of speech, with obvious applications to video and computer games. After all, if 8 out of 9 justices can rule that video recordings of illegal acts of animal cruelty are protected speech, then the court is packed with more 1^st amendment absolutists than the staff of Reason magazine.

Of course, what the VSDA and the development community should be asking themselves is, “How did our content become so depraved that we’re relying upon animal torture videos as precedent?”

Breaking News: Supreme Court Strikes Down Videogame Law UPDATED

No surprises here. This court is seriously--almost radically--against perceived curbs on the First Amendment.

Excerpt:

On a 7-2 vote, the high court upheld a federal appeals court decision to throw out the state's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento had ruled that the law violated minors' rights under the First Amendment, and the high court agreed. 

"No doubt a state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," said Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion. "But that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."

UPDATE: Here's the complete decision, and it makes for an interesting read. As I warned it would last year, the court drew on their decision in United States vs. Stevens, which overturned a ban on animal torture videos. This is horrible company for the video game industry to find itself. We have reached a point where our entertainment is so grotesque that it winds up in the same legal category as animal snuff videos.

PopCap On Sale for $1 Billion?

That's what TechCrunch is reporting. The story is unsourced and PopCap isn't talking. $1 billion is about ten times their annual earning power, but PopCap (creators of Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, and other mega-hits) is a proven entity. TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid runs through the standard speculations about buyers: Zynga (boo, hiss), EA, and a Chinese company called TenCent. As long as we're just making up possibilities, it could be Apple, Walmart, or Papa John's Pizza. Nobody knows anything yet, so all we have right now is rumor and speculation. All of the stories out there--including the post you're reading right now!--are just reporting TechCrunch's initial story, so we'll have to wait and see. 

Guys? That's Not Cool [Chess]

A Canadian company is producing a War on Terror-themed chess set. The rook is shown to the right.

Since the company produces toy soldiers and other miniature militaria, they probably think this is a tribute or something. Memo from America: it's not.

And did I mention the Taliban Suicide Bomber Knight?

h/t Kathy Shaidle

Disney Forgets to Renew Club Penguin Domain

Oops!

Disney paid $700 million for Club Penguin, an online gaming site for kids, only 4 years ago. On June 13th, they lost their domain because they forgot to renew the registration for $10.

Yesterday, the site went offline, leaving 12 million angry little penguins who were unable to feed their puffles.

All the stories are saying that the problem was quickly corrected, but as I write this, ClubPenguin.com is nothing more than a dead domain screen. I snapped this picture on Tuesday afternoon.