Casual Review

Here’s the official list of tips and tricks for Boomzap’s new farming sim game Orchard. Enjoy! Sit back, relax, grab a cup of coffee and play. What’s the rush? Orchard isn’t about hurried time management...

I did it. At 3:50 pm on November 30, I reached 50,000 words on my novel for National Novel Writing Month. I was at a coffee shop then; when I broke the 50K mark, I got a big smile on my face, and wanted to jump up and cheer (but that might have freaked the [...]

News flash: Big Fish Games is having a 50% Off sale on ALL its titles. Just use the coupon HOLIDAY2008 on checkout. The sale ends on January 1, 2009, so go to Big Fish Games and get your favorite titles now!

While there are those out there for whom making money is almost second nature, I am not one of them. I admit that freely...

As hidden-object games continue to gain in popularity, the market is getting flooded with a glut of games that, on the surface seem different from one another in that they all have different stories, different locations, and different characters...

Flo’s at it again. In this spin-off from the Dining Dash series, Flo’s cook, aptly named Cookie, has taken a vacation to participate in a broadcasted cooking competition show. This gives you another opportunity to play Flo as she gets busy around her diner...

This is the time to panic. According to the National Novel Writing Month website, 2,489 authors have successfully reached 50,000 words - they’re listed in the Winners page...

We love ice cream. We’ve dreamt of a game where you can scoop and scoop and scoop ice cream, with a whole rainbow of flavors and toppings to choose from. And at first we were disappointed with Anna’s Ice Cream, when all you could do at the start was serve one flavor (vanilla) and one [

If you’ve been observing the recent trends in media, you’d have noticed more and more instances of the convergence of the various media types...

We love mushrooms. Love ‘em. Like them in our burgers, on our pizzas, in our pasta and more. But in Mushroom Age, these little fungi take over the world, and we’re not really sure if we like the taste of that. Read on to find out why. In Mushroom Age, you travel through time looking for [

Tower Defense games are a favorite genre choice for many flash game creators, because despite its simple rules, it offers plenty of room for design and complexity. Plus, shooting things is a rest-assured, sound basis for fun...

James Patterson is an extremely successful author, who has penned a number of popular books and series, including classics like Along Came A Spider and Kiss the Girls. One of his more recent creations is the Women’s Murder Club series of murder mysteries...

The game’s title says it all. You have been warned: this rather unique puzzle game is rife with inside jokes pertaining to various prominent groups from popular culture...

The title “Magic Encyclopedia” doesn’t really describe anything about this hidden object game. If it were up to us, we’d have called it: “Fun mystery solving while teleporting around the world, with some cool mini-games along the way.” Okay, that might be too long...

We’ve added more games to our growing list of Tips and Tricks! We have juicy tips on how to play your favorite games, to help you get a better score or solve those difficult puzzles. Plus, the information comes straight from the developers - so you can be sure it’s good stuff...

We just reviewed Pet Pals: New Leash on Life last week, and we have some great news from Legacy Interactive - they are giving away five full copies of the game! Read the official announcement below to find out how you can be one of the five lucky gamers. Find the Puppy Video and Win a [...]

Here’s a game that might actually change children’s attitudes when it comes to cleaning up their room...

Games moved around a lot this week! From our new #1, Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear, to a slew of newcomers (including two game shows, one real and one fictional), the tides are a-changing. What will happen next week? Stay tuned every Saturday for our updated charts...

At Casual Review, we always complain that games nowadays have no personality. Studios can churn out the same game, disguise it under a different theme such as “beach” or “murder”, and call it new. But we gamers know better. We’re not fooled...

As of this writing, I am at 18,387 words! Yes! Though, today being November 15, exactly mid-month, I should be at 25,000! No! However, I am not so worried. Because, win or lose, I discovered a lot of things this week. I discovered that I cannot write with the Internet on. It is impossible...

Working on the farm was never this much fun (believe me, I know). Green Valley: Fun on the Farm is a classic match-3 puzzler at heart, but includes enough variety, humor, and top-notch production values to help it stand out from the crowd...

Even after nightfall, in the midst of their dreams, the Peggle Institute is still as active as ever. PopCap’s latest sequel is all you’d expect from the previous game, with a new take on familiar characters, and the same old pachinko-style arcade madness...

The award-winning pet vet game series is back with Pet Pals: New Leash on Life. Return to the vet clinic and take care of more than 15 types of animals, with over 30 real-life cases written by real veterinarians...

It seems like a small thing, but for me,the best thing about Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena is the doors. By that, I mean the gates, portals, trapdoors, passages, exits, egresses, stairwaysand holes in walls...

Top down shooters are all about dodging enemy projectiles and making sure the enemy doesn’t dodge yours. At the end of the day, those narratives about great wars and piloting giant Japanese robots are merely façades made to hide that similarity between all shooters that have ever existed...

Tropix 2: Quest for the Golden Banana gets chops just for having “banana” in its title. Everything about the game is pretty silly - you’re a monkey hopping from island to island in search of treasure, meeting penguins, crabs, and birds along the way...

We have a new #1 this week! Just when you thought Flo could never leave the top spot, Dr Lynch: Grave Secrets unseats Cooking Dash to be our new #1. What will happen next week? Stay tuned every Saturday for our updated charts! Rank...

Games like Diner Dash and Cake Mania will always hold a special place in my heart and my game library. It was these types of time-management games that showed me there was more to this whole “casual gaming” craze than color and shape matching puzzles...

Electronic Arts headlines today with the shutting down of EA Casual and their $150 million investment in online and digital distribution; the latest news from Ubisoft, WildTangent, Gameloft, and Wal-Mart (now the top US games retailer); China taxes virtual goods; Sandlot Games debuts Glyph for the...

It’s November 7, the end of the first week of National Novel Writing Month. If I were a good girl, I should have 11,667 words clocked in by today, to reach the 50,000 mark by the end of the month. Instead, I have 6,518. Numbers, numbers. What do numbers mean, anyway? To an outsider my number [..

Even psychics have to rely on natural human means to find missing items sometimes. You play the role of Cassandra, a young medium who has taken after her grandmother in the practice...

Tired of worrying about the economy? Wish you could invest risk-free in real estate? Well, this is your chance. Rusty Axe Games has just given us a preview of their next game, Big$hot...

Elven Mists 2 is as magical and dainty as its name. You are a young elven lad (young in elvish terms is 99 years old), about to take the role as Awakener of the Elves. For the elves have been sleeping in their petals, which are flowers scattered across a game board. Your job is [...]

We have a new feature for you, dear readers: introducing the CR Bulletin...

As a break from all that restaurant-dashing, crop-growing, puzzle-solving madness, Reflexive takes on the adrenaline rush experience in a more conventional way: with spaceships and plenty of guns...

I played the Sims when it came out way back when, and I liked it very much. But I never liked how it had no apparent goal nor end: my Sims were cute and funny, but that was it. If you’re like me, and you want a sim game that also lets you work towards [..

TechFront is the largest game development studio in Brazil, with several great titles like Burger Island, Eye for Design, Purrfect Pet Shop, and now Pakoombo under their belt. We were lucky enough to have a long chat with their president, Rafael Aguilher da Costa...

Happy Halloween! The spooky game Dr Lynch: Grave Secrets jumps seven places up to #2 this week, but still not strong enough to scare Flo off the top spot. What will happen next week? Stay tuned every Saturday for our updated charts...

Okay, we admit it - we use Facebook on the job. With the variety of Flash games available on Facebook, there’s really no excuse for having nothing to play on your 10-minute coffee breaks...

TechFront is the largest game development studio in Brazil, with several great titles like Burger Island, Eye for Design, Purrfect Pet Shop, and now Pakoombo under their belt. We were lucky enough to have a long chat with their president, Rafael Aguilher da Costa...

Every year, once a year, writers from around the world participate in an event called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The rules of the event are simple: Writers start writing a novel on November 1, and must finish at least 50,000 words by midnight of November 30...

Dr Lynch: Grave Secrets, developed by Floodlight Games and published by I-play, is an appropriately themed hidden object title released in the spirit of Halloween...

Good news for all you Bejeweled fans - PopCap Games has just released Bejeweled Twist! Your gem-matching favorite is back, but this time, you’ll be rotating gems instead of swapping them...

When afriend of mine found out I was reviewing Defender of the Crown, he went wild. “I loved that game!” he raved - he had played it on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) years ago. Defender of the Crown was also on DOS, Atari, Apple, and more; this latest port by Techfront has much of [

Archibald’s Adventures belongs to that rare breed of independent games that really touch my heart: it’s a game that takes pride in its simplicity to deliver a play experience coupled with childlike exploration...