Games.com News

Let Your Farm Flags Fly with Brand New Gifts in FarmVille

Libe Goad — 2009-11-20T18:33:00+00:00

FarmVille gift alert! Some attractive colored flags have appeared as new giftable items. You can pass along yellow, blue, green and red flags (they're more like pendant flags rather than flag flags) to your FarmVille besties, then they can use them to add a little color to their respective farmscapes. They also flutter oh so gently, so if you pretend hard enough, you can almost feel that cool country breeze on your face.

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

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Game Makers Unplugging Android Efforts?

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-20T17:05:00+00:00

Beating iPhone seemed impossible but phones based on Google's Android platform, especially the new Droid on the Verizon Wireless cellular network in the U.S.. But Gameloft, a well known game developer and early supporter of the platform says that it and other Android developers are starting to trim back their future game efforts.

As reported in Reuters, Alexandre de Rochefort Gameloft's finance director told a group of investors that the reasons for the disenchantment with Google's Android comes from "weakness of Android's appliacaion store" and "nobody is making significant revenue [on Android]."

Where might Gameloft focus on for future development? Rochefort's company made 13% of its revenue last quarter on iPhone/iPod Touch.

Source: Reuters

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Mafia Wars Toolbar Gives Players Limited Edition Utility Belt

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-20T17:04:00+00:00

Wish that you could monitor your Mafia Wars mafia all day without ditching work or school? Well the makers of the game have just introduced a new toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox that lets players check out their Health Energy, Stamina and the time remaining until they can use an Energy Pack. It's pretty simple but installers of the beta version of the toolbar will receive an in-game advantage, a Limited Edition Utility Belt that comes with 30 Attack/30 Defense.

While the Mafia Wars Toolbar adds yet another search field to the growing list of search options along with links back to Cafe World, FishVille and Roller Coaster Kingdom, it does add another level of scrutiny. Created with tools from Conduit.com, players can add apps to their toolbar that look a lot like the deals that Zynga has been getting a lot of flak for lately.

Install the Mafia Wars Toolbar >>

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FarmVille Storage is "Half-Baked" and "Useless" Says Tee'd Off Players

Libe Goad — 2009-11-20T11:34:00+00:00

FarmVille released a new feature that lets you store virtual items in barns or sheds. There are quite a few storage options to choose from, that is, if you are willing to pay up to 27 FarmVille dollars per barn or 22 FarmVille dollars per shed, which let you store 20 and 15 items respectively.

The problem is: If you don't want to pay, you're left with only two options: buy a barn for 40,000 coins, which holds six items, or a shed for 14,000 coins, which holds two items.

Players have been wildly debating whether storage barns are a godsend or a total rip-off. Here are a few choice quotes on the negative side of the big debate:

"It's almost like they get half baked ideas and just throw them together toss them into the game and move on to the next thing. In game storage for in game items is useless. If you guys at Zanga want to make money just offer 50 units of storage in the gift box for 50 Farm cash and people would jump all over that. Anything is better than in game storage units that take up space." - Rettahs.

"The new Storage is the biggest sh*t ever All the time i thought we get a Box and can put our items there unlimited.. i feel bad :S this sucks so much..." - gschw

"Why can't they have some storage like the gift box???Just drag the item and put it in??? Every item can be stored in gift box too.....Why cant we put it back to gift box??Is it that difficult?? These greedy people just here to make money. Not to make the players enjoy it more. That's the feeling i get from all this crap." - Judebinoy

I'm fully aware that FarmVille is only partially free to play and the company makes money on players buying virtual goods, but, there's a balance to strike between making bucks and keeping players happy.

It does seem a little weak that the storage you get without paying actual real-life cash holds almost a third less than what you can hold in the premium storage buildings.

I spent the 27 FarmVille dollars to buy a Sleek Black Barn and am pretty happy with it so far. Maybe the storage cap on all buildings need to be raised a little higher to keep a mob of angry farmers (with pitchforks) converging at Zynga's doorsteps.

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Breaking News: Now Play FarmVille on FarmVille.com

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-20T11:04:00+00:00

As rumored several days ago, Zynga has expanded the FarmVille world by launching a version of the game on the company's FarmVille.com web page. While it still uses Facebook Connect, which allows Facebook players to continue to maintain and grow their previously created farms, moving the game from the popular networking service is a first for the company and speculation is high that Zynga may break out its other games from Facebook.

Currently labelled "Beta," the game seems nearly identical to the Facebook version. Although the game seems to run faster and the game's visuals seem must sharper. More information to come as we find out whether players should ditch the Facebook version of the game for this one.

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Zynga Passes 200 Million User Mark

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-20T10:55:00+00:00

In a field of many such game developers, Zynga has stood out ahead of the pack with massive growth in games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and the recent rise of Cafe World. Now the company's games have hit a new collective milestone, 200 million users currently play one or more Zynga games.

To give users an idea of just how big that is, Facebook surpassed the 200 million user mark just this April (and that took five years to accomplish).

Source: AllFacebook

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Happy Aquarium Guide: Mating Fish

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-20T10:31:00+00:00

Growing fish and selling them for the most coins in Happy Aquarium is fun for millions but why should pay so many coins for fish eggs when you can add new baby fish to the tank the natural way? Mating is how most creatures reproduce in the real world and while your fish appreciate when you hit the Give Love button, sometimes they're looking to get love too.

To mate, there are a few conditions that you'll need to meet.

Of course, waiting for your fish to get to adulthood may take some time. Once an adult, make sure they're well fed, the tank is clean and make sure you have half the coins it usually costs to buy an egg from that fish (example: Auriga eggs normally cost 14 coins, so mating costs 7 coins). If you miss any of those conditions, you'll get the "Almost There!" screen until you figure out what condition's not being met. As you can see below, we had to wait for our male Auriga, Rascal, to mature enough to mate. Once ready, use the pointer to select either fish and click the Mate button.
Given that you have an 80% chance that the mating will produce a baby fish, you may not get an egg after the love ritual.

If it works, you'll get a "New Baby Fish Hatching Soon!" announcement that you'll be able to post to your Facebook page. The one bad thing is that eggs take half the time it takes for a new fish to become an adult. So with the Auriga time to adulthood being eight hours, a baby egg takes four hours to hatch.

Play Happy Aquarium >>

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FishVille Rises Above Happy Aquarium
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Aquarium Games, The Next Wave of Farming?

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Oh Joy! FarmVille Turns Barns and Sheds into Useful Storage Buildings

Libe Goad — 2009-11-20T07:39:00+00:00

Starting today, you'll be able to put your seasonal goodies and whatever else into storage on your virtual farm. When you log into the game, you'll see a tiny red barn icon on the left hand side of your screen. Click it and you'll be immediately taken to see the new storage options. Basically, all of those barns and sheds that have previously been just for looks will now hold those extras that might be cluttering up your farmscape.

Storage options come in large and small; you can buy a red barn for 30K coins and use it to store up to six items. A shed costs less -- 700 coins -- and can be used to store two items. The rest of the storage options (and, frankly, the better options) will cost you real-life cash. Barns that store 20 items run for 27 FarmVille dollars, and a pink shed that stores 15 items costs 22 FarmVille dollars. IMHO, it's worth spending a little cash for some extra space, especially if you are a power farmer, i.e. someone who obsessively logs in every day to play (like me).

Question: Do you think there are enough storage options for people who don't want to pay FarmVille dollars for them? Leave a comment below.

Related Articles:
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- FarmVille Without Facebook? Meet FarmVille.com

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Rumor: Zynga's Next Big Game -- PetVille

Libe Goad — 2009-11-19T17:35:00+00:00

We were tipped off to a document today that shows Zynga has applied for a trademark on the name "PetVille" in the UK.

The application was filed with the UK Intellectual Property Office on September 7, and was reportedly listed in the UK Trade Marks Journal in October 2009.

*The art above is not the logo for the game.

The document says the trademark can be used for "Downloadable computer game software for use on wireless devices and computers; computer game software, video games, online games, and game related applications... ' and "Entertainment services, namely, providing computer games, enhancements for computer games, game applications and development tools... providing an Internet website portal in the field of computer games, gaming, social networking and virtual communities..."

We also ran a search through the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and found no publicly available documents linking Zynga to a trademark application for PetVille in the the states. That doesn't necessarily mean that this process isn't in the works, but this is based on the information currently available on the USPTO Web site. Update: We contacted Zynga ~~for comment and will update when the company replies~~ and the response was "no comment."

It's not totally out of the realm of possibility that Zynga would be thinking about launching a pet-based game. If you look at the company's existing portfolio, a pet game would be a welcome edition, especially considering the success of Playfish's Pet Society and some positive buzz around the new Happy Pets game from CrowdStar.

This also follows a well-established pattern for Zynga (and to be fair, many other social gaming startups) -- launching games inspired by others. FarmVille has been called out for being a little too similar to Farm Town and was also slapped with a lawsuit that claimed Mafia Wars was a copyright infringement of text-based gangster game, Mob Wars.

Thanks, Justin!

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More Social Game-Villes We'd Love to See

Rela

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Go From Zero to Hip-Hop Hero in Platinum Life on Facebook

Libe Goad — 2009-11-19T16:24:00+00:00

A new social game for Facebook -- Platinum Life: Web Edition -- takes wanna be hip-hoppers from "the streets to penthouse suites."

Start out playing shows at small dive bars and then move up the ranks to playing in brand-name venues, all the while watching your star-meter rise to the top. You'll be living la vida Diddy before you know it.

"Platinum Life on Facebook lets players fully realize their fantasy of having it all and showing their friends just how high they're riding," says Anthony Castoro, CEO of Heatwave Interactive.

A similar Facebook game, Diva Life, lets you go from struggling artist to a Beyonce-style triple threat, a total diva who can sing, dance and act. The game from LOLapps launched in late October, and has almost tripled in popularity in November (AppData).

Platinum Life: Web Edition is the social game counterpart to Platinum Life, a full-fledged MMO for that's currently in development, release date is still unknown. PL:WE arrives on Facebook in the beginning of December. We'll drop more details as soon as we have them.

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Social Game Villes We'd Love To See

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-19T15:50:00+00:00

Management games like FishVille and Restaurant City follow a basic set of rules. Make things, maintain things, sell things and add new friends in order to grow your in-game virtual fortunes. It's an easy set to apply to nearly everything. Already there are farm games (FarmVille, Country Story), aquarium games (Happy Aquarium, FishVille, My Fishbowl), mafia games (Mobsters 2, Mafia Wars) , pet games (Pet Society) and foodie games (Restaurant City and Cafe World). But there are all sorts of other real-life concepts that could easily be applied to the "management game" model. Here are just a few ideas that we thought were so good, we even checked to see if the trademarks were available:

ZooVille (Trademark available!)

Players might start out with a zoo animal of their choice. From there, they could choose to have a cage style zoo or even create a massive wildlife reserve where the people drive around in cages for protection. Of course, players make money per exhibit, zoo-themed food, new attractions like penquin exhibits and more.

ChurchVille (Trademark available!)
Looking to start your own church or even your own religion? Gather your flock and their tax-free donations as you create a small church with simple pews, wall hangings and ceremonial items. Then as the flock turns into a herd, players will build bigger churchs and eventually a faith-based network of churches.

BandVille (Trademark available)
Build a band from the best players, book shows, manage roadies and merchandise for an early band of your creation. Choose friends who master skills for guitar, drum, bass, vocals or other instruments as you eventually booking tours, album releases, fans, rehab and more.

SimsVille (Trademark abandoned in 2002)
While EA owns The Sims and it did work on a game called SimsVille that never released (FYI: the associate producer for the defunct game, Virginia McArthur now works at Zynga). Now that the trademark is available, players of the game might hone the skills of their on-screen selves as they interact with friends, neighbors, pets and the occasional police raid. Experience points would also come from the strength of your friend network. Imagine a virtual game about your real life social networking skills... I smell a paradox!

BarVille (Trademark available)
Finally, you could manage your very own house of libations. Stock the bar with top and bottom shelf liquors, add staff to manage tables and orders, create nightly specials, book cover bands, laugh at comedians and occasionally escort out those who may have stayed too long. From Irish pubs to trendy joints to Coyote Ugly, BarVille would offer accessories and options that would cater to anyone's tastes, as long as they have the money.

Give Us Credit
If you use any of the ideas, make sure you tell us first! We'd love to hear about how we might create the next social game. of course, what Villes would you like to see?

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New Games This Week - Meeblings and More Bloons

Larry C — 2009-11-19T14:52:00+00:00

NEW Free Online Games:

More Bloons - (web, puzzle)
http://games.com/game/more-bloons/
Fifty more new levels for the original Bloons game.

Meeblings - (web, puzzle)
http://games.com/game/meeblings/
Help the Meebling use their special abilities to get home.

NEW Downloadable Games:

1. Avenue Flo - (downloadable, puzzle)
http://download.games.com/t_01ac1/s_1497_13696/Puzzle/Avenue-Flo.html

2. Creatures: Exodus - (downloadable, time management)
http://download.games.com/t_01ac1/s_1492_13697/Time-Management/Creatures-Exodus.html

3. Creatures: Village - (downloadable, time management)
http://download.games.com/t_01ac1/s_1492_13698/Time-Management/Creatures-Village.html

4. Mystery P.I Special Edition Bundle - (downloadable, puzzle)
http://download.games.com/t_01ac1/s_1497_13703/Puzzle/Mystery-P.I.-Special-Edition-Bundle.html

5. Kitchen Brigade - (downloadable, time management)
http://download.games.com/t_01ac1/s_1492_13705/Time-Management/Kitchen-Brigade.html

6. Hollywood - The Director's Cut - (downloadable, puzzle)
http://download.games.com/t_01ac1/s_1497_13711/Puzzle/Hollywood-The-Directors-Cut.html

7. Delicious - Emily's Holiday Season - (downloadable, time management)
http://download.games.com/t_01ac1/s_1492_13731/Time-Management/Delicious-Emilys-Holiday-Season.html

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FarmVille Black Cat Harvest: From Yarn to Hair?

Libe Goad — 2009-11-19T13:32:00+00:00

Looks like the Black Cats in FarmVille have undergone a change. Now instead of harvesting yarn from these furry felines, you harvest ... hair?

That's right, once your black cats go 100%, you now have the option to brush them instead of collecting yarn from them. What -- did the FarmVille folks decide pulling yarn from cats was a tad too surreal? One that note, if you found a donkey hiding in one of the new pink mystery boxes, s/he can be brushed as well.

Related Stories:
Pink FarmVille Mystery Boxes Arrive: Find Out What's Inside
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FarmVille Turkeys: A Tale of Two Gobblers

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

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FishVille Pointer Returns... With Fish Love?

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-19T12:38:00+00:00

As players swim to the waters of FishVille, the team behind the wet and soothing Facebook game are adding several enhancements that it hopes will improve your gameplay.

For those who are managing multiple tanks, simply click on the MyTanks button will add a red glow to any tank that needs immediate attention. Friendly-types will appreciate that they can now gift up to 60 items a day, a great way to show your love and appreciation for any neighbor. Finally, the team has brought back the pointer tool after users asked for its return. While the team is still evaluating other options, the pointer tool that the team posted on its official Facebook page has Fish Love hearts on it... could a new pointer replace the Fish Love button?

Play FishVille on Facebook >>

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Sneak Peek: Cafe World's Thanksgiving Menu Items

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-19T11:31:00+00:00

With three hours remaining in the Cafe World's Super Slider event, fans were already wondering about the Thanksgiving menu items that Games.com confirmed were coming soon after the event. Last night, the team behind the Facebook social networking game gave fans a glimpse of two items: a turkey and a cornucopia.

No other details were given about when the two items (or additional menu items) may show up. Historically, new Cafe World items do tend to show up on Thursday so players may see them later on today today.

Play Cafe World on Facebook >>

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FarmVille Without Facebook? Meet FarmVille.com

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-18T21:09:00+00:00

Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, are ready to break the 65 million plus player game out of the confines of Facebook by making a full version of the game available on FarmVille.com. First word of Zynga's intent to build the site broke on TechCrunch. The game will still use Facebook Connect as a way to log into the game (which means that your farm will be saved) but by breaking outside of the social networking site's confines, Zynga may allow other logins as well.

Given Facebook's recent rules around viral marketing that many on the services consider spam, Zynga may have decided to go it alone due to some of those restrictions. But with the company's admission that it has had deals to offer "scammy ads" to players, early comments about the move were mixed.

When will the game launch on FarmVille.com? Maybe as soon as today.

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Pink FarmVille Mystery Boxes Arrive, Bearing Carousels and Zen Gardens

Libe Goad — 2009-11-18T18:35:00+00:00

A new mystery box has appeared in FarmVille -- a pink box that costs 16 FarmVille dollars (roughly $5) and when opened, reveals a surprise inside. The boxes will only be around until So far mystery boxes have yielded surprise items from the lukewarm (striped rest tents) to the super hot (as in, our very own manor).

These new Pepto-Bismol pink boxes include some groovy prizes including a Zen Garden and an Animal Float that looks like it's prepped and ready for a FarmVille Thanksgiving parade.

Below is the complete list (so far) of the pink mystery box items and how many experience points you earn with each of them.

Animal Float
XP Gained: 250
Sells for: 1,250 coins
The float looks ready for parading, complete with a cow, duck, pig and, of course, turkey made of flowers.

Water Tower
XP Gained: 250
Sell for: 1,250 coins
It's a tower. With water. Probably the least impressive mystery item in this batch.

Carousel
500 XP
The carousel looks great, and it's animated!

Zen Garden
XP Gained: 300
Sell for: 1,500 co
The animated Zen Garden is like, totally, Zen, but your farmer can't actually use it. Bummer.

Silver Streak Trailer
150 XP

Donkey
500 XP

We don't have pics (or all of the info for) the Trailer and Donkey yet. If you have them -- please email them to us at editors@games.com, and we will post them here (and give you credit, of course!).

I binged on seven of these new mystery boxes -- and four of them were water towers. I like water and all -- but there's a limit. Fortunately, I also picked up the Animal Float, Carousel and Zen Garden. Viva la mystery boxes!

Related Stories:
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Scared Wild Turkeys Wander into FarmVille

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

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UPDATE - Six Reasons Every Man Should Play Bejeweled Blitz

Larry C — 2009-11-18T16:05:00+00:00

Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook is taking the dude world by storm. While Bejeweled 2 and Bejeweled have always largely attracted the females, the Blitz is taking the Bejeweled to the boys. Even the name, "Bejeweled Blitz" appeals to men - when I hear the word Blitz, I think of linebacker coming off the corner to sack a QB or maybe some cool World War II documentary covering the Blitz on England.

I don't know what secret sauce Popcap Games is using (maybe the same they used with Plants vs. Zombies, which was just nominated for a dude-tastic Spike TV Video Game Award), but here are five reasons every man should play Bejeweled Blitz.

UPDATE: Popcap games loved the post so much they were kind enough to send me a reply.
They thought of another awesome reason for dudes to play Bejeweled Blitz.

6. Smack Talking
From the time we're little dudes, men always talk smack. You know, an "everything you can do, I can do better" type of thing. Bejeweled Blitz addresses those manly needs for one-upmanship (see, even that word has 'man' in it) with Jewel Jabber, a messaging system that lets you send taunts to friends on Facebook.

5. Lots of Game Stats
Guys love numbers and showing we know things. Bejeweled Blitz feeds that need by letting you dive into your game numbers and compare your stats with other players. It's almost like playing fantasy sports, except it has got more diamonds than your average baseball game.

4. Totally Awesome Explosions

It's not exactly a secret that dudes are action movie junkies and love things that go BOOM! Bejeweled Blitz has the craziest explosions in gaming -- we swear Pop Cap hired Hollywood director Micheal Bay to consult on this game's over-the-top bust-ups. If you play the game right, the whole screen lights up with flames and lightening bolts, while your computer speakers rock with the sound of sweet 'splosions.

3. It's Free to Play (Finally, mean don't have to buy any jewels)

The only other interaction men have with jewels (and we're not talking about the family variety) is when they buy their lady an engagement ring. Ever bought one? They are expensive and they don't do anything (aside from help you keep your wife!) A man can get behind anything that is free and awesome.

2. Competition

Men love to compete and Bejeweled Blitz is all about showing off your scores. The leaderboard sits to the right of every game, so you know what scores (and more importantly, whose scores) you have to beat. Having your buddy from high school staring down at you is enough to turn those one-minute games into, well, many hours worth of minutes.

The new number one reason for dudes to play Bejeweled Blitz is:

1. Three Quarters of all Bejeweled Blitz players are women.
If you've got game in Bejeweled Blitz you are bound to command respect from the ladies. Even though it's been bro-tasticated, Bejeweled Blitz is still a chick magnet and if you play well you can be one too!

More On Bejeweled Blitz and Bejeweled

- Click Here to Play Bejeweled Blitz Now
- Click here for more On Bejeweled Blitz
- Click here to play Bejeweled 2 on Games.com

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Happy Pets Update: Choose the Gender of Your Kitten

Libe Goad — 2009-11-18T15:38:00+00:00

Big news for Happy Pets on Facebook -- when you adopt a pet, you can now choose whether its male or female. Previously, the cats genders were already decided, so --- just as an example -- all white cats were male and black cats were female. Why does this matter? Because players like to have options, and pet obsessives (like myself) want to re-create my real-life pets in the game...

Anyway, I'm glad to see Happy Pets developers are listening to player suggestions, which might help explain the exponential growth in this game's popularity since it launched in early November. Then again, maybe it's the fact that you can adopt adorable fluffy kittens.

Related Stories:
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Play Happy Pets on Facebook >

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Turkey Rides Invade Roller Coaster Kingdom

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-18T15:23:00+00:00

Americans will celebrate their most confusing of holidays next week with Thanksgiving. While nearly every aspect of the loosely historical day causes outrage by one or several groups, this year's rebranding has been boiled down to two things: giving thanks for something special and turkeys.

Last night, two new rides and two eateries appeared in Roller Coaster Kingdom that all feature turkeys. Ensuring less outrage, Tofu Turkey is bound to make the vegetarians happy and for those who don't like turkey at all, there's always the turkey-free Cranberry Jelly shop.

If you've got the park space and $4,000,000 coins, the Turkey Escape might finally add less confusion and more action back into the holiday.

Play Roller Coaster Kingdom on Facebook >>

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