Oops...Popped a Brain Cell

With the release of the Playstation 3 (PS3) only mere months away, and with a Playstation 2 (PS2), Game Cube, Playstation Portable (PSP), and Nintendo DS all lurking around my house somewhere, I find it a little funny that I'm still drawn to the allure of free web based games. I'm especially mad for the ones that are made by PopCap Games.

I have spent countless hours of my life playing World of Warcraft on my computer, and the various Final Fantasy series of games by Square-Enix on various gaming platforms, but sometimes when it all comes down to it, I fall back to the mindless diversions of Big Money, Zuma, and my personal favorite, Tip Top.

I don't know why. These free games are by no means high tech. They have no rendered cut scenes. They have no next gen graphics that warrants my need for the high end graphics card that I have in both my computer and laptop. They have no plot. In fact, a trained monkey could possible play Big Money. But I think it is because they are so mindless, that's what makes you waste so much of your day away.

In Big Money, you just have to click away little "coins" in four different colors, each with a different country's currency symbol. There needs to be at least tree coins of the same color touching in order to be clicked away. You need to "collect" a certain number of coins to get a money bag to fall on the play field. You need to click away the coin directly under the money bag to "collect" it. And after you collect the requisite number of moneybags, you go on to the next level. My little explanation of the game makes it sound much more complicated that it really is. Basically the game amounts to moving your mouse around while clicking at the screen as quickly as possible. I swear if you find me ever afflicted with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, you can probably blame PopCap (I wonder if I could sue them at this point?). And to top it all off, you have this cigar chomping, gruff voiced "C.E.O. Bigwig" encouraging you on.

In Zuma, you control this little frog that spits colored marbles out of its mouth. You shoot these marbles at other marbles that are coming along a track towards a hole. You need to match the colors of the marbles (and make a match of three or more again), to make the marbles disappear and keep all the marbles from falling in the hole. Sounds silly (though, it is no sillier than the "tribal" sound effects in keeping with the "ancient tribe" theme of the game), but trust me, once you get the hang of it after you start playing, you just don't stop. Well, I usually do end up trying to stop when I either die (loose my marbles), or I beat the free trial web version.

Then there is my personal couch potato game, Tip Top. It has this cool little 1950s retro Vegas Lounge vibe, with its sparkly lounge music, and classic slot machine symbols used in the game. In it, you have a playing field where you drop your symbol (cherries, lemons, diamonds, plums, bells, etc.) from the top. At the same time, a symbol comes up from the bottom. Three or more symbols touching each other will make a match and clear them off. This game, however, involves a little more strategy, as you cannot have your symbols get to the top (you control), or the bottom (you have no control of these, except to try to make matches from the top to clear them off). Though it still is pretty mindless in a way. I have found myself in front of the computer for five hours with a Madonna CD on repeat playing this game, not needing to stop for food, water, or bathroom breaks. My eyes are just glued to the screen like it was crack!

Heck, you can probably tell how crazy I am about these games just by the fact that I committed a whole blog post to them. It makes me wonder why I am spending $15 a month paying for a World of Warcraft subscription (I have to be honest, I haven't played the game in probably over three months, but in case you are wondering, I'm on the Bronzebeard server. I'm a level 46 Night Elf warrior named Aredacher). And why I have spent $49.99 to get crappy games based off of the X-Men franchise.