Gaming Signal: Popcrack Games

Popcrack Games

The guys over at PopCap Games have no doubt made a bundle on their amazing casual games - like Bejeweled, Rocket Mania, etc. But rather than pull an EA and keep releasing new versions of effectively the same game or only doing things based on big-budget licenses, these guys actually try to innovate. Yes, they started with Flash games. And yes, the games are simple. But they sure are addictive! And they play on tons of platforms - my son loves playing Bejeweled on my wife's phone, for example, and most of them will play without difficulty on the Intel-embedded-graphics Dell laptop my company graciously provides me with.

Take the latest addition to the stable - Bookworm Adventures. Now, the original Bookworm was a fine game to be sure. It's a kind of Tetris for the linguist in you. But this new game - wow. I sure hope it succeeds because I could see many more games like this. The fun part is, it plays to many different ages. I can play and try to get 8 or 9 letter words (Cartilage is my current best) or my seven-year-old can work and spell 4 or 5 letter ones and proceed just fine. I suppose this one could be described as an RPG for the linguist.

I suppose what impresses me most about Popcap is how they keep trying things and pushing the envelope. Not every game they make appeals to me, but that's OK - I'm confident they appeal to others. It's just refreshing to see such cool work going on.