Casual Games Boost the Brain

. An ongoing study out of East Carolina University’s psychophysiology lab has released information regarding the relationship between playing casual games, such as PopCap’s Bejeweled and Peggle, and improvement in both cognitive response time and executive cognitive function (doing things faster and getting them right). The study group consists of adults over the age of 50 and focuses on the short term cognitive abilities measured by both electroencephalography (EEG) and parts A and B of the standardized Trail Making Test™, a timed neurological test that incorporates numbers and/or letters in a ‘connect the dots’ format. Compared to the control group, those who played 30 minute sessions of either Bejeweled or Peggle showed significant improvements in both areas (87% in cognitive response time and 215% in executive function). “The initial results of the study are very intriguing, in that they suggest that the ‘active participation’ required while playing a casual video

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Where’s Your Bejeweled Love?

“More than half a billion people worldwide have played Bejeweled over the past decade, which still blows our minds,” said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at PopCap and co-creator of Bejeweled. “Their enthusiasm for the game is unquestioned and we thought it would be fun to reward that incredible devotion in some way.” What way is that, you ask? Well, by holding a contest and giving away prizes, of course! The Contest: Show Your Bejeweled Love – part of the Bejeweled 10th Anniversary celebration extravaganza The Entries: Participants are to make a video in some creative way showcasing their love for Bejeweled – in 2 minutes or less - and post it on YouTube via the “Post Your Video Responses” button found at Bejeweled.com The Prizes: A limited special edition Bejeweled 10th Anniversary laptop, (one of) 2 Apple iPads, or (one of) 7 complete PopCap game libraries The

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PopCap Celebrates Bejeweled’s Birthday All Year!

Bejeweled is turning ten this year, and it looks like we get all the presents! To celebrate, Popcap is kicking off a 10 month long Bejeweled bonanza with contests, prizes, new games Bejeweled, new ways to play, and a community wide Bejeweled Blitz competition. “Bejeweled has obviously succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,” said Jason Kapalka, co-creator of the game and co-founder and chief creative officer at PopCap. “When Brian Fiete, John Vechey and I built the game ten years ago, we had no grand aspirations for it or PopCap, we were trying to survive as a company during the depths of the dot-com collapse. Little did we know we’d still be selling copies of Bejeweled a decade later!” Bejeweled was originally launched in Spring of 2000 titled, “Diamond Mine,” and has since undergone a few makeovers, adding “twist”s, and spanning across multiple platforms, selling more than a staggering 50 million

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Kick Off the New Year with XBL Indie Games

Four new Indie Games have come to the Xbox 360 over the past few days. For those of you unfamiliar with Indie Games, these are games made by very small studios, usually just one or two people working out of a home, who just want to put together small game that they hope people will enjoy. Not all of these are massive hits (there are quite a few duds out there), but it does give these individuals a place to showcase their talents. Battle Beat allows you to use your instrument peripherals for more than just Rock Band and Guitar Hero games. Using your guitar and drum accessories (feel free to use a normal controller if you wish), you will command your outer space armies to save the home planet. The game’s creator touts this as a rhythm game, and after watching a video trailer for the game via the

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The Most Inspiring Games of the Decade

This past decade we’ve seen many innovations in games. Some were amazing and some …flopped. Some innovations brought new people to gaming and one game alienated gamers. To celebrate the past decade in games, some of our writers thought we’d give our thoughts on what we consider the most inspiring games and publishers of the decades are. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Trina – For me the decade contained many great moments in gaming. The rise and fall of EA and the rise of Independent gaming, and a console that made everyone gamers. Here are my top three games that I feel really made an impact on the game industry this past decade: Portal Portal was an amazing title made by a group of students out of college. It was a game that everyone loved to play and fell in love with. Valve was smart

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PopCap launching free Bejeweled 2 update for iPhone and iPod touch

PopCap Games has announced a free update for Bejeweled 2 for the iPhone and iPod touch. Bejeweled 2 has sold well on the iPhone (I have it on mine), and they are adding a new mode featuring a Facebook Connect integration of the “Bejeweled Blitz” game previously only found on Facebook.com. The new iPhone Blitz game move allows gamers to post scores and achievements on their Facebook profiles. The update is free for users that have already downloaded the game. Bejeweled 2 is listed at $2.99 at the App Store for gamers that haven’t purchased it yet. “Ultimately, social gaming is about being able to play games with and against your friends, and the new Blitz update for Bejeweled 2 on iPhone lets you play against your friends anywhere,” explained John Vechey, co-founder and director of PopCap’s social gaming initiative. “This is a natural next stage in our multi-platform and

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Zuma’s Revenge! Review

Platform: PC ESRB: E Genre: Puzzle Number of Players: 1 Publisher: PopCap Games Release Date: 09/15/2009 Official Website Basic Idea as I See it: Little froggy jumps ship and floats (with the help of a comical sail) through a storm to mysterious island. Big bad Tiki Bosses threaten to squash little froggy… So little froggy blasts through levels upon levels, shooting colorful balls to fight Tiki Bosses and win happy life. Graphics: For Zuma fans, there is no comparison between the old and new Zuma graphics. It’s like the first time you put on glasses and can see – everything! Who knew it could be so crisp? For fresh Zuma eyes, prepare to be dazzled with sharp pictures, attention to detail, interesting movement (sometimes the lines of balls twist and turn on themselves – or each other), and enjoyable colors. Zuma’s Revenge artwork and graphics are stunning from the water

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Square Enix teams up with PopCap Games for Gyromancer

It’s really a match made in heaven. One of our favorite Casual Games (not really so casual) company, PopCap Games is teaming up with the king of RPGs, Square Enix for Gyromancer. Puzzle gameplay from Bejewled Twist and Square Enix’s background in RPG and experience points help to create a new game in the puzzle/RPG genre. In Gryomancer, players assume the role of a deadly mage Rivel who is trying to rid “Aldemona Wood of a brooding darkness.” There are 10 stages to collect the monsters using Bejeweled Twist battles to fight evil. “We’ve always enjoyed a strong partnership with PopCap Games and Gyromancer represents our goal of developing unique gaming experiences, ” said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. “We believe that Gyromancer will appeal not only to core gamers, but will further introduce the RPG genre to casual gamers as well.” I hope

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Bejeweled Twist Follows Bookworm to DS and DSi

“We’re bringing serious innovation to Bookworm and Bejeweled Twist – two of our most important game franchises – to deliver unique features and cool new multiplayer capabilities that have been specifically designed for the Nintendo systems,” said Ed Allard, vice president of strategic development at PopCap. “This Fall, Nintendo DSi Shop will give consumers an immediate jolt of high quality fun and value with titles that feature more great gameplay content than any other downloadable titles available on this platform. We’re following them up with enhanced and expanded, must-have retail versions for the DS that are the most full-featured installments of Bookworm and Bejeweled Twist we’ve ever created.” PopCap Games treads into the DSiWare market with to of their most popular titles starting later this month. Bookworm will make its debut in the DSi shop by month’s end, followed by Bejeweled Twist in mid October. This is the first time

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Are You One of Bejeweled Blitz’s 5 Million Friends?

The Fabulous Facebook App from PopCap Games, which has just made it out of Beta, has quickly become quite the phenomenon. As a pressure cooking, one-minute version of the original incredibly popular Bejeweled, Bejeweled Blitz has created a highly competitive (at least on my team) social community unto itself in just the 6 short months since it’s December ’08 debut. “One-minute Bejeweled was initially an in-house joke,” said Jason Kapalka, PopCap’s chief creative officer, “because who’d think anyone would play a ‘casual’ game with such a frenzied time limit? But it turned out the one-minute timer actually made the game more accessible, as a bite-size entertainment for people busy doing other things on Facebook.” John Vechey, PopCap’s head of online and social projects, added, “The social nature of the game felt like the missing link. Playing Bejeweled on your own was always fun, but playing with and against family and

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