I had the opportunity to sample two casual games recently, Youda Farmer and Ice Blast. One's farmed a flop and the other blasted off rather nicely. I always found casual games more captivating than hardcore games. Their ability to not be moulded into genres but rather in specific categories, like Match 3 or Hidden Object.
That said, I was a tad disappointed in Youda Farmer. I played their previous game, Youda Camper, a mix of strategy and time management, and found it be rather innovative. After all, which game allows you to run a campsite?
The aim of the game is to garner enough crops in the shortest time possible, and then sell it at the town center as soon as possible. A simple point-and-click game that would require no brains. The only thing it exercises would be your finger.
The game, however, brought up a flaw of casual games which is its limited levels. There's only so many levels till you complete the game, and even though the price for a casual game could be as low as one quarter of a hardcore game, a hardcore game lasts longer than any casual game.
Perhaps somebody should come out with a casual game rental system. Why not charge a lifetime membership fee, and then be given the chance to play all games within the database? Okay, so maybe the game developers won't earn much. So, insert a variety of options to ensure that the game developers get some profit as well, say, a time cap on each gameplay, or only games within the same category can be played or cap the number of games to be downloaded in a particular frame of time.
The other game that proved rather satisfying for me was Ice Blast. In it, you control three female heroes with each a unique talent for well, blasting ice, as the name suggests. No surprise there, but what makes this game stand out is the emphasis on strategy and time management and not a game of fastest-clicker-first.
Well, if you wanna have your sample of both games, you can download the trials at the various links:
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/4707/youda-farmer/index.html
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/4160/ice-blast/index.html
Cheers,
R@n.
