Tradewinds Classic Game Review

By Ruff Bismonte

The art of trading among sailing merchants was already a thing of the past, but you really can't discount the fact that they did have many adventures of their own in those days. Good news that the Tradewinds Classic game lets you relive the glory of the 19th century Far East as you step into the shoes of merchants in search of riches in this trading adventure game.

Tradewinds Classic is all about you trying to aim for the top of the trading world by sailing the open seas in search of fortune and fame. At the beginning of the game, you get to choose between 4 adventurers each needing your help to make it big trading goods. Buying low priced goods and selling them high is just the tip of the iceberg. In this game, you earn money from collecting pirate bounties too. It's just up to you on which path to take, just be sure that you'll survive the whole adventure because the seas won't be forgiving either way.

Depending on which character you take will start you off on their respective homelands. Each character has a difficulty in handling too, with the easier ones having more money and mercenaries fighting for them, or if you want a challenge, go choose someone who doesn't even a single penny in him to start his journey. One thing's for sure - that this game is a real test of wits and cleverness, because all characters are definitely able to make the journey, it just depends on you on how you play them.

One thing I loved about Tradewinds Classic is how much freedom the game gives you on your actions toward your goals. Lending money and saving them on banks, buying and selling goods, getting tips from the alehouse and port authorities, or buying and equipping ships, it's your call on what to do. The main aim though is to make money doing all these things, and that's the main challenge presented by the game.

Tradewinds Classic is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Tradewinds Classic and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.

New Wii Fitness is Not Just For Kids - People of All Ages Can Enjoy It!

By Ian Pennington

Nintendo Wii is fighting against American obesity. The great thing is the new Wii fitness is not just for kids! This new video game technology is for people of all ages. Nintendo Wii has developed a method of gaming and exercise built into one fun activity. You can play fun sports or do aerobic activities while playing your favorite video games.

Nintendo Wii has developed technology that allows the games you play work with your movements. This means that you are the controller for your favorite video game characters. This helps eliminate the laziness of conventional video games. No more just sitting around with a controller and playing hours of your games. These games require you to get up and move! This helps fight the obesity issue in America by making you move while you play your games. The new Wii fitness is not just for kids because everyone can get involved with these great games. They have games that are dedicated to fitness and makes working out fun! It is getting America interested in staying healthy and adding an entertaining aspect to it as well.

Nintendo Wii also has sports games such as tennis, which really make you move and helps burn the calories that normally would not go anywhere by just sitting around. A game called Dance, Dance Revolution also creates a good cardio exercise by having you do the dance steps to your favorite songs. All of these games come with their own custom control or footpads for them. The new Wii fitness is not just for kids because they have exercises for adults that can be helpful in staying healthy. Exercises such as pilates and yoga that help stretch and exercise the muscles in ways ordinary video games could never do. This would also save tons of money since you would not have to go to yoga clubs or pay pilates instructors. You pay one price and get a permanent aerobics instructor inside your television.

You cannot deny that Nintendo Wii has developed a gaming technology that has taken America by storm. These types of games are going to be the future. Games that really make you interact and exercise at the same time. It is a beautiful thing to burn calories while doing something you enjoy at the same time. A huge problem with exercising is trying to find fun ways to do it and Nintendo Wii has cornered the market with this new technology. They even expanded their target market by not making the new Wii fitness just for kids. When parents and children can get along playing these healthy games it makes for a great atmosphere. With this technology growing you will begin to see children fighting to get their parents away from the video games.

Ian Pennington is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about new Wii fitness, please visit Sports Fitness Store for more discussions.

Mario Kart Wii

By Robert A Lawrence

Mario Kart Wii is the latest addition of the Mario Kart series. Designed with the Wii in mind you could say it was designed for the Wii, So what do you get with Mario Kart Wii, well you get a Wii Wheel thrown in the package, giving you a more realistic driving experience. It is, however, compatible with other controllers as well. Mario Kart Wii still has its classic Mario Kart characters as well as additional characters.

Mario Kart Wii requires you to have 23 blocks on the player's Wii system so you can save game data. The game data can't be copied so don't bother waste your time trying. This feature prevents players from transfering game data from one wii to another. The Mario Kart Channel uses 78 blocks, but unlike the game data, players can actually copy the channel onto their SD cards.

The great thing about Mario Kart Wii is that up to 12 players can race against each other to the finish in multi-lap race around a given circuit, you can employ all sorts of tricks, shortcuts, horseplay to earn yourself first place. You can also select twelve types of vehicles, six karts, and six bikes, to compete in each of the three classes available. Your selected Vehicles will vary depending on your characters weight, as will your colour scheme, depending on which character is shown.

Tournaments

If you fancy your chances against other opponents online there is a list of tournaments available, there is a new mode in Mario Kart Wii called "Tournament Mode", the PAL version of this is called the "Competition Mode".

You can play the Tournaments on the Mario Kart Channel, but make sure the Mario Kart Wii disc is in the Wii. You will of course need an internet connection, and Wii Connect 24 to be turned on before they can be played. After a while, a tournament is archived to make room for a new one. However, you can still view the rankings of older tournaments on the ranking table.

Types of Tournaments available

• VS. Race - A standard VS. race; however you will find the race courses are somewhat altered.


• Time Trial - A standard Time Trial; race courses are somewhat altered.


• Numbered Gates - You must drive through the gates in order, as fast as you possible can.


• Coin Collecting - Here you must collect the coins on the stage as fast as you can.


• Boss Battle - You must fight against a boss from Super Mario Galaxy or New Super Mario Bro.- These Tournaments are played on special stages.

There is a new feature called "Tricks" or "Stunts" and it is now a part of gameplay. When a player performs a trick, the player is able to gain a momentary boost of speed, which allows characters to do a few different things, such as grabbing an Item Box out of midair. One example of trick is pulling off acrobatics in air, which can be performed by shaking the Wii Wheel upward, but try not to shake your arms off, while doing this, ha ha ha!

Guess what, Mario Kart Wii also features a text chat in online multi-player Mode. You can send pre-written phrases to other players before the series of races starts. Unfortunately you cannot type your own message, because this facility is not available, however you can text when racing or battling against your friends or other competitors.

Robert Lawrence has written articles and game reviews on Nintendo wii games, you can get even more information on Mario Kart Wii as well as reviews of the games available for the Nintendo Wii.

Safari Island Deluxe Game Review

By Ruff Bismonte

Mahjong will always be same old mahjong they say, and nothing can change that, but in Safari Island Deluxe, we get to see a new face in the same addictive mahjong gameplay. And yes, based from the name itself, this game features tons of wild animals and other safari-based stuff. But there's more to tackle in this game besides the theme, and that's what I aim to show you in this review.

Like what I had said earlier, Safari Island Deluxe actually plays like mahjong, but there's an outstanding twist to the gameplay. Instead of matching two tiles of the same design, you have to match tiles that combine to form a picture. For example, two tiles will separately illustrate the head and tail of a snake. You have to combine both tiles to eliminate them from the game. Eliminate all tiles and you get to move on to the next level.

Your aim is to reach the end of the island while unlocking animal clouds along the way. Each level you finish will be ranked according to how well you did on that particular game. Removing all tiles will only rank you a bronze check mark, removing all tiles within the time limit is worth a silver check mark, and beating the target score set in each level will earn a whopping gold check mark. Now, while all of that sounds good, one complaint I have on this ranking system is how impossible it is to earn a gold mark on many of the levels. The target score is just too big and you have to be god-like fast in order to attain it.

The unique gameplay of Safari Island Deluxe opens up a great deal of innovation in terms of challenge. Many of the items and animals illustrated on later levels are just too big to contain in only two tiles. This means that you'll have to contend with combining up to 5 tiles for just one picture, and if you're a seasoned mahjong player, you know that unlocking tile parts can really be such a pain.

Safari Island Deluxe is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Safari Island Deluxe and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.

Redrum Game Review

By Ruff Bismonte

Just when you thought that most of the mystery casual games you've been playing are scary, along comes Redrum from Anarchy Enterprises. This game is as weird as a casual game can be and that's why I sincerely suggest only mature audiences dare try out this surreal thriller.

Redrum, in a basic sense, is murder spelled backwards. This game is about a girl named Rose whose ability enables her to see, talk and interact with ghosts. Not only burdened by her parents' divorce, she was also sent to a psychological institute led by the money-hungry Dr. Sigmund Fraud by her father, blinded by the doctor's falsely administered diseases to Rose. Now, it seems that her only hope lies upon her detective uncle, whose mission is to get Rose out of the madhouse, and upon her friends, the ghosts that Rose interacts with mostly in her dreams.

This game is a hidden object installment where you're tasked to find clues listed on the bottom of the screen. Before any puzzles are to be solved though, a mystery will take place as narrated by the local newspaper. Playing as the detective, it now becomes your job to solve these murders by trying to crack the clues supplied by Rose, and while playing as Rose, your task is to interact with your ghostly friends and solve puzzles in your dreams, later to be written in Rose's diary.

With that said, the gameplay of Redrum is just like any other hidden object game. Lists are sometimes in a form of silhouettes or part of an image you have to find from the collective whole. The uniqueness of the game though comes from the disturbing images it presents. The scenes are most of the time gruesome and just plain weird, and really, all that green in the background successfully made by stomach very queasy.

Redrum is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Redrum and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.

Pet Show Craze Review

By Ruff Bismonte

After many a time management game already focused on selling pets for profit, Pet Show Craze proves that there is much to earn from just simple pet care too. Yes, this is a much higher form of pet love, but the market is still that big considering that this is also one frantic time management game.

In Pet Show Craze, you play as Maria after you learned from your Aunt Agatha that Petsville is about to be demolished to make way for a factory selling plastic toys. Armed only with their unparalleled love for animals, Petsville citizens are already on the verge of selling out realizing that they needed the money. But Maria is set to prove them wrong. Starting her own pet care shop, she aims to earn enough money to save Petsville and make all of Petsville's pets become show material in the process.

Being in the time management genre, the game's objective is much the same as most games as you try to satisfy customers and give their pets service for profit. The aim is to reach the target profit per level, and if you want to earn bonuses, do it within the challenge time limit. As the game progresses, a higher target profit will be set, but you'll have a chance to upgrade your services as well, owing from the money you earned coming from the last level.

Serving customers involve you seating them, taking their ordered service, servicing their pets and giving them additional items they may ask for. While you may earn combos from chaining service requests, there are also heart bonuses to be made after seating compatible customers with each other. In fact, they don't even want to be seated with their own kind. And all those clicking action comes very smooth while you constantly queue tasks for Maria and her assistants to do, making the game very comfortable when it comes to gameplay.

Pet Show Craze is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Pet Show Craze and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.

Pet Pals - New Leash on Life Review

By Ruff Bismonte

My sister would always ask me to play doctor with her when we were kids, and while mostly I found treating her dolls to be boring, I still loved the whole concept very much. Surprisingly, the whole concept in playing vet is much the same too, and the game Pet Pals: New Leash on Life lets you play vet as much as you want, and without those boring dolls too, I might add.

In Pet Pals: New Leash on Life, you take the role of a rookie vet stationed for your first assignment on a local animal shelter. Here, you're about to learn many things about caring for pets and keeping them healthy, alive and kicking. And with a little bit of help coming from the senior vet and from the team of veterinary technicians and an enrichment specialist, you're off to do wonders for these sickly animals, hoping to get them back on track and ready for adoption.

For each game week you'll play, you're given a list of all the tasks you need to fulfill. First tasks involve checking up on your animal patients and treating those with sickness and injuries, but afterwards, you have to do your part in enrichment activities too, wherein you play, train and groom the animals to get them ready for adoption.

The actual treatment interface enables you to harness a variety of tools and equipment necessary for any veterinary practice. From a simple palpitation glove to x-rays and an EKG monitor, you have to utilize them all depending when the need arises, to correctly diagnose and treat the patients. Furthermore, you're guided in every step of the way too, with the operation stopping once in a while to ask you for important decisions you have to make as the vet.

Clearly, Pet Pals: New Leash on Life is really one educational game. Even though the gameplay is very linear in nature, with you asking questions first then guided throughout the whole treatment, it's nice for the game to provide such great information on all the animals with additional knowledge provided about their ailment and its particular cure. Honestly, this game is just like Zoo Vet, and both coming from Legacy Interactive, that's really no surprise.

Pet Pals: New Leash on Life is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Pet Pals: New Leash on Life and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.

Pakoombo Review

By Ruff Bismonte

When I was a kid, I discovered that treasure hunting with your siblings isn't really a rewarding experience, after ending all your efforts with just more dirt in your hands. However, in the Pakoombo game, you're off to find real treasure in a small tropical island. How do I know it's real? Well, an authentic age old treasure map is involved, and we all know age old maps mean real treasure, right?

Anyway, Pakoombo is about the story of the brothers and sister tandem of Cathy, Stewart and Leo as they try to find lost treasure within their little tropical island. After their father, Opkins was informed that the resort he was working on will be closed for good; the family is at a lost on how to keep living their fun and simple lives. Luck struck good though after Leo found a part of a treasure map by accident, which may mean unimaginable riches if this map actually leads them to buried treasure.

The game plays just like your average match 3 puzzle where you have to swap tiles and match them with the same designed tiles to clear them off the board. During story mode, you are sometimes tasked to gather objects and clear a set amount of them before the game lets you continue on the rest of the story. However, the real gameplay comes when you're off challenging enemies and the island natives on a game of Pakoombo, which is basically a match 3 battle mode.

The Pakoombo game plays very much like Puzzle Quest where you take turns in draining the life out of your opponent before he gets a chance to drain yours. Your objective is to match skulls to reduce a point from your opponent's life and if you think it's more advantageous, use power-ups called gifts against your opponent too. Remember though that gifts are mostly limited, and your enemy is most likely to have gifts equipped too, so be ready for tougher enemies as you go along the game.

Pakoombo is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Pakoombo and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.

Operation Mania Game Review

By Ruff Bismonte

Filling in a doctor's shoes is real hard, especially when you are the only doctor running the whole hospital. That's not possible, you say? Well, in Operation Mania, everything seems to be possible as you try to help Dr. Humerus run the whole hospital in this wacky time management game.

Operation Mania is all about the story of Dr. Humerus as he tries to attain both wealth and fortune by being the best doctor in the whole world. Well, you might say that's certainly not a doctor-like trait, but the guy only has his skills, tools and word puns to go around with, so a little fame can be an impressive addition to his resume as well. Besides, if you're the only doctor in the world, you really won't settle for anything less, right?

Anyway, your primary objective in this game is to earn enough money for each level in order the reach your target profit per day. Reaching intern status will let you move on to the next level, but in case you want more money and prestige to come with all your efforts, try aiming a little higher for doctor or specialist status. All you got to do is to match patient colors and make service combos to reach ever higher on your career. But of course, that's easily said than done.

Funny thing about Operation Mania is the fact that Dr. Humerus is the only one available to do all hospital duties. From admission, to consultation, to even the actual operation, you'll have to manage your time effectively to see to all of your patient's illnesses. And during times of emergency or epidemic, brace yourself for more and more patients trying to get treated first in line.

Funnier still are the actual maladies that you'll confront during the course of patient operations. From actual butterflies in the stomach to a wrenched back, all the diseases are presented with their literal meanings, making the game much wackier still. Of course, you can optionally do manual operation yourself by playing mini-games, but keep in mind that mini-games get faster every time you play them, so it's just easier just to play them during emergency situations.

Operation Mania is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Operation Mania and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.

Miss Teri Tale - Vote 4 Me Review

By Ruff Bismonte

Miss Teri Tale, the New York novelist is back, and now, she's finally settled in her own little home at Peeking Town after solving the mystery of the missing dog named Jason. This time in Miss Teri Tale: Vote 4 Me, it's nearing election day, and what a great opportunity it is to come snooping around the town, learning for whom the neighborhood's alliances lie.

In Miss Teri Tale: Vote 4 Me, you again put the shoes of the sleuthing writer as you try to gather clues and hints on who will the town vote as their new mayor. After the former mayor left town, his seat immediately needed a successor, and from the local neighborhood stood up Tyron Douglass and Norman Montgomery, each wanting to claim the town's mayoral throne. But these candidates seem to have their own dirty little secrets too. And what if our own Miss Teri Tale joins the race? Will it spell another disaster waiting to happen?

Anyway, all will be answered once you play the game yourself. And speaking of playing, this hidden object installment employs a classic seek-and-find nature where you have to find all items listed on your notebook before time runs out in each level. Sometimes, items are also highlighted in green, meaning that instead of gathering them, you have to put these items in their proper places for completion.

While you may get tired eventually of all that stuff-finding, the real shine of Miss Teri Tale: Vote 4 Me is actually found on its unique mini-games. Examples of these games include a time management-like game where you get to wash dogs, a find-the-same game which is basically a twist to the old find-the-difference, and even a tower defense game where you're off to fight evil computer viruses. All in all, the mini-games are very addictive and fun, and are even enough to make you altogether buy this game.

Miss Teri Tale: Vote 4 Me is one of the many games featured and reviewed at Casualicious. Please visit our site to read more about Miss Teri Tale: Vote 4 Me and get to play hundreds of other games worth your time and enjoyment.