Entertainment

Aspirin. I know I have aspirin around here somewhere. Man, what a headache.

Ok, I’ve just been playing Astrawareís Hidden Expedition: Titanic, and I have a massive headache. Actually, I have a couple of them.

I remember where I was and what I was doing when we landed on the moon for the first time. After hearing Neil Armstrong’s first words, I hopped on my bike and tore through the neighborhood shouting it out. It was an exciting time, and already I was displaying the telltale signs of massive nerdiness.

Most sports simulations use the same interface- push and hold a button to aim, then push and hold for power, then tap to shoot or release. While it is annoying that no one seems to have figured out a better interface for playing, say, mini-golf, it is nice that the interface is becoming almost intuitive.

Your PDA has been infested… infested by a world of pesky gnomes that pop up from holes a la ‘Whack-A-Mole’. Ye gods- this demands our immediate action! Taking our trusty stylus, we can bop, pop, bash, or hammer the invaders to submission!

Most personality profiles have four major categories that they think we fall into. Usually we are ‘mostly’ one category, then partially another… which results in twelve general types like the Zodiac signs! (Of course, we all know there are really 10 types of people those who understand binary, and those who don’t!)

I’m a bit of an odd-ball. I prefer Dr Pepper over colas. I prefer ‘Mythbusters‘ or ‘Good Eats‘ to ‘Survivor’ or ‘Desperate Housewives’. I even kinda like mini-vans and don’t like iPods so much. Worse, I prefer dice games to card games [hanging my head in shame]. I’ve always enjoyed a category of dice game called ‘10,000‘- although it has many other names, like ‘Cosmic Wimpout’.

I’ve been playing Astraware’s Cake Mania, and the sweet, sugary, fun to play game was getting on my nerves. I turned to another Astraware game- My Little Tank (MLT). This shoot-em-up has been out for about a year but somehow slipped under my radar.

There seem to be two major groupings of “running a business” simulators. Those where you make decisions, set things up, then let run (such as DopeWars) and those that make you hustle to keep up with all of the things going on, like Lemonade Stand or Insanaquaium. Astraware’s Cake Mania is definitely one of the latter!

Let’s start with a quick quiz:

1. Do you use the Internet Movie Database site a lot?
2. Are you often involved in conversations that include questions like “What was the name of that movie? You know, the one with Norm Macdonald in it?”
3. Do you often wonder what critics thought of some obscure movie you found at the rental place because all the good movies are gone?
4. Do you wish you had a convenient way to track movies you want to buy or rent, or that you already have?
5. Do you wish you knew what the top 50 comedies of all time are (perhaps while stalking the rental place aisles)?

I’m a sucker for IQ tests and ‘brain building’ programs, which considering that I am a major idiot (at least according to my very intelligent kids) is probably a waste of time. Recently, I fell in love with the Nintendo DS game ‘BrainAge‘. This is a real tragedy since I don’t have a Nintendo. (Hmmm, this may be a sample of why my kids call me an idiot!)

I used to play the original Bejeweled until I wore through my screen protectors! It was a great game that kept my interest for several months. Astraware has now released ‘Bejeweled2’, and I had to see if it would be a new favorite.

I love games that I can pick up and almost instinctively know the rules for, and that play fast so I can just do it and put it away. This freeware version of the classic game Breakout accomplishes both.