Players take on the role of Brock and Kelly Burton. They have just bought a beautiful house, but they didn’t know there were other spirits living in the house. The house is full of ghosts. The Burton’s don’t want ghosts roaming around their new home, so they get Milton Hobblepop to take care of the situation. Milton is a self-proclaimed professional paranormal investigator and exterminator. He will get rid of the ghosts by finding the hidden objects in each level.  The game includes mini-games and challenges where players have to challenge each of the eight ghosts.

“As a company, we recognize the industry is quickly shifting and becoming platform agnostic,” stated Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing, Namco.  “With the PC version ranking number one in the Hidden Object category for Jay is Games’ Best of 2009 Awards, we wanted to extend the accessibility of this franchise by bringing it to the iOS platform.”

If you are looking for a hidden object game for your apple device, check out Mishap: An Accidental Haunting in the Apple App Store.

Press Release Follows:

SAN JOSE, Calif., September 2, 2010—Namco Networks, a leading publisher and developer of interactive content, today launched the smash PC hit, Mishap: An Accidental Haunting, on iOS devices.  Developed by Virtual Prophecy Entertainment, this addictive Hidden Object game is available on Apple’s App Store for $4.99 and $6.99, respectively.

Mishap: An Accidental Haunting is an endearing story where players assume the role of Brock and Kelly Burton, new owners of a beautiful home that happens to be occupied by an overabundance of ghosts.  Lucky for them, Milton Hobblepop, a self-proclaimed professional paranormal investigator and exterminator, is there to help players remove unwanted guests by locating the hidden objects in each of the 32 haunted rooms.  To add further depth to the gameplay, Mishap: An Accidental Haunting includes mysterious riddles and minigames where players must face off in challenges against each of the eight ghosts.

“As a company, we recognize the industry is quickly shifting and becoming platform agnostic,” stated Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing, Namco.  “With the PC version ranking number one in the Hidden Object category for Jay is Games’ Best of 2009 Awards, we wanted to extend the accessibility of this franchise by bringing it to the iOS platform.”

The sequel to Mishap: An Accidental Haunting will be making its way to PC and Mac towards the end of Fall.

For more information on this visually stunning game, please visit Mishap: An Accidental Haunting’s official game site.  Details on Namco and its suite of games can be found at www.namcogames.com.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ghost has come to you asking for help. You decide you can’t turn away such a great writer and you agree to investigate his death. The investigations takes twists and turns as you follow the clues. Players explore different areas and each area has clues to how Hawthorne died. The important areas are hidden object games. The hidden object part of the game is the same as most hidden object games. There is a list of items to find at the bottom of the screen and the player needs to find those items. Some of the items are described instead of listed, such as a squirrels snack.

There are hints scattered through out the levels to help the players. Every time the player finds a raven they earn a hint. The raven stays perched on a lantern at the lower corner of the screen. The lantern will show the user the item they are looking for. For instance, if you didn’t know that a squirrels snack was an acorn, you could touch the words and the acorn would be displayed in the lantern.

The adventure part of the game requires the user to use their brain. There are puzzles that need to be solved to progress the game, but the player is left on their own to figure the puzzles out. They need to use items from their inventory and think things through to progress. The game will not let you leave a room if you have not found everything you need to find, so there is no worry that you may miss something you need. The player picks up items along the way and keeps the items in their inventory. The inventory items are used to help progress the story line and solve puzzles. There will be items that are picked up that aren’t used until much later in the game. The adventure part of the game is challenging and keeps players engaged.

The graphics in the game are stunning and really well done. The ghosts look like graphics from a movie. The graphics are dark, but that makes sense giving the setting of the game and the tragedy the player is trying to uncover. The touch controls are precise. The game never missed a touch and the game is played by touching the screen to move and touching the screen to find the hidden objects.

Over all, Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials is a challenging, fun and entertaining game. There is a little bit for every type of game player in this game. The story is progressed by solving puzzles and using your brain and then there are hidden object levels thrown in too. Players are left to their own merit to progress the story and  need to use the clues in the journal and their brain to move on. Each time the story line is progressed a journal entry is made. The journal entry will have clues on what to do next. If you like adventure games that require thought with a bit of hidden object games thrown in, check out Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials in the Apple App Store.

Prepare for a different kind of poker night in a very different kind of club. In Poker Night at the Inventory, you’ll deal with Penny Arcade’s clever, cunning Tycho, Team Fortress 2′s hulking Heavy, Homestar Runner’s self-proclaimed “awesome icon” Strong Bad and the hyperkinetic “rabbity-thing” from Sam & Max. These characters come together in ways some never thought possible, in a setting few would have predicted. You’ll experience a new style of poker, particularly when hands don’t go the way of the other fiery competitors at the table.

While some may be disappointed it’s just the four characters, the game is incredibly inexpensive. In fact, the preorder price is a mere $4.95, which can be purchased here.

Players take on the role of Scarlett that has been given an island farm in recognition of her hard work. The farm has a huge pond in the middle of the land. Scarlett decides to make the most of the pond and starts raising fish and making goods to export. Everything is going good until Scarlett makes a discovery that turns her world upside down.

The game contains six new animals, 90 new levels, new products, new buildings and an all new Endless Mode.

“Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing is sure to please fans angling for something exciting and new,” says Kirill Plotnikov, vice president of publishing at Alawar.  “We think players are going to love the tropical island setting and get a kick out of the sea horses, dolphins and sharks, which our animators have brought to colorful and vivid life.”

If you like time management games, head over to Alawar and check out Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing.

Princess Isabella has returned from a trip to find out an evil curse has been put on the castle. The curse has turned everyone in the castle into mirrors. The players take on the role of Isabella and fight the evil witch that has cursed the castle. The player does have a fairy that will be helping them battle the witch. Players have to search the castle for broken mirror pieces. The pieces have to be put back together to release the people from the curse.

If you are looking for a hidden object game/puzzle game for the Nintendo DS, check out Witches Curse.

Press Release Follows:

Avanquest Software is soon to release the award winning* puzzle adventure game Witch’s Curse, now on Nintendo DS™. Online casual gamers and fans of the PC version can now experience the new look and feel on the handheld format as they look to complete 40 puzzles and 15 mini-games, set against the backdrop of 135 magical castle scenes.

The game begins with Princess Isabella returning home from a trip to discover that an evil curse has been put upon her castle. The curse has placed evil in every room and turned everyone inside the castle into mirrors. With the help of a fairy friend, players must step into Princess Isabella’s shoes and battle against an evil witch to lift the curse.

Players must search the castle for shards of broken mirror pieces that are scattered around the rooms. Each piece must be collected and reassembled in the Hall of Mirrors to bring back loved ones and help to release the witch’s curse. Every time a loved one is freed from the bewitching mirror spell, players receive new clues that will help them progress through the cursed castle. A Fairy guide armed with hints, special abilities and power-ups including Fire, Water, Rock and Wind helps players through each stage should they become stuck.

Walking through the cursed castle and its mystical grounds, players will visit the rooms ruined by the witch. Starting in the Courtyard then moving on to the Grand Hall, Hall of Reflections, Piano Lounge, Hunting Gallery, Tea Room and the Observatory, players must complete over 40 spell-binding puzzles and hidden object games. Once the castle rooms have been lifted of the curse, players will then face the witch in a final puzzle showdown to win back the castle and banish the witch forever.

“TikGames and Creat Studios continue to lead the pack, offering more titles than any other publisher on PlayStation®Network,” said Anatoly Tikhman, Founder and CEO of TikGames, LLC.  “As school begins and autumn approaches, we are very happy to present such an excellent value to PSN fans!”

Some of the more well known games are Smash Cars, Magic Orbz, and Hamsterball. If you have not picked up these games and would like to, head over to the PlayStation network and get the games for a great price.

The adventure game wraps players in a story and uses puzzles to progress the story line. The player will listen or read a piece of the story and then have to walk to a location. Each location walked to brings a puzzle to be solved. Some of the puzzles are easy, but some of them are very difficult. There are all types of puzzles. There are math puzzles where you have to figure out people”s ages based on a word problem of sorts. There are logic puzzles such as requiring players to board off pigs in a pen by using three pieces of rope. Players have to figure out the correct pattern to separate all of the pigs.

The puzzles are more on the difficult side and take some thought to complete. There is a hint button, but you only get three hints and the  hints. The hints provide clues on how to finish the puzzle and usually require two hints to get the answer to the puzzle. The player can buy more hints, called Eureka’s. They sell the hints in bundles. Personally, I don’t like this method of making money. Players already pay for the game and they shouldn’t be required to pay for hints. Usually, you can earn hints throughout the levels or earn items that get you hints. Some players may not mind this style of game play, but it is a turn off for me.

The graphics in the game are cartoonish, but nicely done. Each location is drawn clear and crisp. The story line keeps the game moving and keeps the player engaged. There is just enough mystery keep the player going.

Over all, The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files is a challenging game. If you are a player that enjoys challenging puzzles, this is definitely the game for you. The puzzles take some thought. If you are a player that gets frustrated easily, this may not be the game for you. The game does contain a good story, but without getting the puzzles solved the game will come to a halt. If you are looking for a challenging puzzle game, check out The Jim and Frank Mysteries in the Apple App Store.

Sale prices:

• * Ecco the Dolphin for $0.99
• * Golden Axe for $0.99
• * Phantasy Star II for $2.99
• * Shining Force for $0.99
• * Sonic the Hedgehog for $2.99
• * Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for $2.99
• * Streets of Rage for $0.99
• * Super Monkey Ball 1 for $1.99
• * Super Monkey Ball 2 for $2.99
• * Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition (iPad) for $3.99

Let us know if you pick any of these titles up.

There are three game types included with the game. In ‘Find the Stolen Gold’, the player has to find clues that will lead them to $250 Million in stolen solid gold, which had been pilfered from an armored car. The search will take the player around San Francisco, visiting sites such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman’s Wharf, among other for a total of 25 scenes. The scenes feature over 2100 hidden objects. Collecting all the Keys & Peace Symbols unlock two bonus game modes: Unlimited Seek & Find and a Match-3 Bonus game.

“Since San Francisco is sometimes affectionately dubbed the Golden City, we thought it was the perfect setting for a gold heist. Glittering and gritty locations alike make this seek-and-find mystery a fun adventure for the whole family,” states Duncan Magee, co-director and co-founder of SpinTop. “We focused our efforts on creating the best visual locations ever to keep our millions of Mystery P.I. fans happy. We’ve always kept our artistic standards high, and I think we’ve exceeded them with Stolen in San Francisco!”

The deluxe version is available now at Spin Top Games, and will eventually be available in a few months at other game portals such as Gamehouse, MSN Gaming Zone, Pogo and Yahoo! Games.

SpinTop(TM) Launches Mystery P.I.(TM) Stolen in San Francisco

Latest Game in Award-Winning Series Boasts Best Graphics To Date, Golden Gate Setting

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ — SpinTop Games, a division of leading casual game developer and publisher PopCap Games, today announced the immediate availability of Mystery P.I.™ Stolen in San Francisco, a new “hidden object” puzzle game set in the Golden Gate City. Stolen in San Francisco is the latest addition to the immensely popular, award-winning Mystery P.I.™ series which has been downloaded more than 100 million times since the series began in 2007.

Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco challenges players to solve the biggest theft in San Francisco history by exploring dozens of locations for hidden “clues.” Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco carries a retail price of US$19.99, and a free trial of the deluxe version is available now for download at www.SpinTop-Games.com. The game will also be available on other leading game portals, including Gamehouse, MSN Gaming Zone, Pogo and Yahoo! Games, later this quarter.

“Since San Francisco is sometimes affectionately dubbed the Golden City, we thought it was the perfect setting for a gold heist. Glittering and gritty locations alike make this seek-and-find mystery a fun adventure for the whole family,” states Duncan Magee, co-director and co-founder of SpinTop. “We focused our efforts on creating the best visual locations ever to keep our millions of Mystery P.I. fans happy. We’ve always kept our artistic standards high, and I think we’ve exceeded them with Stolen in San Francisco!”

In Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco, $250 Million in solid gold has been stolen from an armored car. The gold’s owner has hired you, the world famous Mystery P.I., to find and return the gold before the trail goes cold. Seek and find over 2100 hidden objects in 25 amazing San Francisco-centered scenes to track down the stolen gold! Locations include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman’s Wharf and many more.

Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco features three enthralling ways to play: In ‘Find the Stolen Gold’ mode you must find clues that will lead you to the gold. Collect all the Keys & Peace Symbols to unlock two bonus game modes: Unlimited Seek & Find and a Match-3 Bonus game. Go for a ‘Perfect Investigation’ and speed bonuses to maximize your points to become a Master P.I.!
Key features of Mystery P.I.™ Stolen in San Francisco include:
More than 2100 cleverly hidden objects to find.
25 stunning San Francisco locations to explore and investigate.
3 fun game modes: ‘Find the Stolen Gold’ plus two Unlimited game modes
7 unique mini-games: Match-3, Word Search, Circle Rotation, Spot-the-differences, Jigsaw plus a unique final puzzle.
Locate the secret Keys and Peace Symbols to unlock two Unlimited game modes.

About SpinTop:
SpinTop™ Games www.SpinTop-Games.com is the world’s leading developer of hidden object video games and a subsidiary of PopCap Games www.popcap.com, the worldwide leader in casual games. SpinTop is best know for its award-winning Mystery P.I.™ franchise which first launched in 2007 and now boasts 6 games in the series. Mystery P.I. has been downloaded over 100 Million times and the series is available in 9 languages worldwide. SpinTop’s mission is to offer customers the best PC games in a safe and secure family friendly environment. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, SpinTop was founded in 2004 and acquired by PopCap in 2007.

Team17 has developed their latest in the series, Worms Reloaded, and if this was the last game ever produced in the series, it would be a marvelous tribute to the history of Worms and a fitting end to the series. This is the best game in the series, and the most fully packed.

For starters, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. The game has always featured cartoon-style graphics, but now, the images are crisp, with some fine details and smooth animation, all in loving high def. In addition, the sound has been jacked up as well – there are 70 speechbanks, 50 of which are from the previous Worms titles, and 20 all new speechbanks.

The speechbanks really come into play when you’re building your team of four. You can completely customize them, from their hats, speech, color, gravestone for when they die, victory dance, and as you progress through the missions, you earn money to buy new items to edit them even more. You’re given full control over your wormy A-Team for the battles. The worms themselves aren’t the only customizable part of the game – you can create your own levels as well, and share them with the Worms community.

Combat is a blast. Every weapon from the previous Worms games make a return, including the bazooka and the Holy Hand Grenade, and includes 14 all-new weapons including killer ferrets, for a total of 47 weapons. If that weren’t enough, levels now have verticality in which you can fight from all-new heights, aided by the jetpack and the ninja rope that allow you to scale up to higher vantage points.

As for gameplay itself, the game has more than enough for single player and multiplayer. On the single play campaign side, there are 35 regular missions, and an addition 30 mishes for the advanced player who needs a little challenge. If that weren’t enough, Worms Reloaded has its own “horde mode” in which your worms take on endless enemies to see how many they can dispatch before perishing.

Multiplayer is even more featured. Since the game is fully integrated with Steam, it’s a fully featured Xbox Live-style experience, which will incorporate your friend list into the game, for easy game invites, leaderboards, and VOIP chat. You can play up to three other players, both online and offline. The game comes chock full of new gameplay modes, including Crazy Crates, Bazooka and Grenade, Forts (a deathmatch game where opposite teams are separated in the ocean or a cavern in their own forts)  and Rope Racing (players race using Ninja Ropes to swing them around like Spider-Man Spider-Worm). For those Worms veterans who hate new things, you can play in Classic Mode as well.

All in all, Worms Reloaded is a love letter to the series. It has everything any Worms fan would ever want, and its the perfect entry tool for gamers who’ve never tried Worms; the game includes a nice tutorial that will bring them up to speed. The game is available exclusively on Steam for $19.99, so just go buy it and try it. If there is never another Worms game released, this will satisfy every fan’s desires.

System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7
• Processor: 1.25GHz AMD Athlon or Intel equivalent
• Memory: 1GB
• Graphics: 128MB Video Card (GeForce4 or equivalent card)
• DirectX®: DirectX® 9 or above
• Hard Drive: 2063MB
• Sound: DirectX® 9.0c-compliant sound card
• Other Requirements: Internet connection required