A little history into my i<3games blog…

Games make me happy!

I started this blog six months ago, in the middle of summer, during the interview process with Mochi Media… It was part of a campaign to convince Mochi that I could be passionate about games even though it had been many years since I last played games regularly  (the time: Junior High School, the game: Super Mario).

At the time of my Mochi interview, I was well into my third year at a big bank  and I was sooo ready to be back at a start-up, excited about work, and motivated to excel again.  I set my sights on Mochi Media and was convinced this was absolutely where I wanted to be.  So here I am — 6 months on, deeply happy to work with such a fun group of passionate, stellar individuals who make up a company that is destined to do great things in gaming.

Now I’m blogging purely for fun so I can share my favorite games  with whoever’s interested.  I’m amazed to have 3500+ hits today since I stopped forcing friends to visit this page a long time ago!

A Cheeky Holiday Game

My gift to you this holiday season — and your gift to yourself is to play this super fun, super easy, and very rewarding holiday game.  It’s called Butt Scan and it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds!  One hint: Click on the photocopier. 

Click here to play and see if you can beat my score of 5!  

I wish gifting could always be this easy

Playing for Cash

There’s a category of games I recently discovered — called Cash Games.   Cash Games are based on the concept that people should be able to play games of “skill” for cash against one another.  It’s not considered gambling since winning is not associated with chance, but rather skill.

I don’t think I’ll be playing for money any time soon, but I’ve been enjoying playing King.com’s skill games for fun.  My favorite is Model Studio, a resource management game where you have to get the model prepped within a given amount of time, and if you keep her waiting too long – it’s model meltdown.  Another fun game is Kalorie King.  Both are addictive!

Retardo!

My bad.  Sorry for the long delay between posts!  Ohhh, but do I have something special to make up for it.  I recently came across this AWESOME game, called Retardo.  The name speaks for itself.  It’s a point and click game.  Your character, Retardo, can’t move.  You can only click around at the objects on the screen to get him to advance past the guards and rescue the princess.  If you’re in need of a good laugh, you’re in luck!  Play Retardo here.

Bring on the Election Games!

Isn’t it fascinating that the viewing audience for the Vice Presidential debate was significantly larger than the debate between the Presidential candidates?  Not only that, but the draw of 73 million viewers makes it the most watched debate of any kind behind the debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in 1980.  Wow.  That can definitely be chalked up to the Palin factor.  People have a morose attraction to the catastrophic, and regardless of who you support in the race, I think most people will agree that the likelihood for a train-wreck appeared high.

Now that the VP debates are over, what’s a hungry electorate to do?  I’m not suggesting you should play video games per se, but this election game kicks ass!!  Literally.  It’s essentially Street Fighter and the fighting characters to choose from are Obama, McCain, Michelle, Cindy, Biden and Palin.  Absolutely fantastic.  Play Kung Fu Election here!

Summer in the City

It’s finally feeling like summer in SF.  I love it!  A group of 10 of us actually had a picnic lunch yesterday! Atop blankets, on grass, in the shade of a lush tree in South Park, in the middle of quiet, yet bustling SF.  Sound far-fetched?  I was there and I can barely believe it! 

The killer thing here is that you can have an amazing summer experience too!  Right at your desk, actually.  There is a fun new game that was released last week by game developer Alexander Shen called Summer of Lawn.  It is a game of chance and cheek.  That’s right.  And it’s a Lawn Mowing video game.  Odd, you say?  Creative, I say.  What else reminds you of summer more than happy chirping  birds, lush green grass, and the sound of a powerful lawnmower?  OK, hot dogs at a ball game works too, but if you’re inside, it’s hard to beat Summer of Lawn.

Give it a couple of goes to get the full affect and work your way through the slew of cheeky insults.  I’d like to suggest an interactive feature where players who make the leaderboard can submit fresh new insults that might be featured in the game!

Play the game here!

A Costanza Classic

Do you remember watching the Seinfeld episode where George discovers that he still holds the highest game score on Frogger at the pizza joint they frequented as kids?  It’s a classic!!  And it’s hard for me to play Frogger without visualizing George turning into a real-life version of Frogger as he moved the video game machine across a crowded street of cars and trucks — to its eventual doom.

If you’re having a hard time rembering the episode, or missed it altogether, check out the youtube clip here.  And if you’re feeling nostalgic, give the game a go!

I’d love to hear about other classic TV episodes or movies with strong video game references.  Share  yours via a comment if you have one!

I <3 Othello

Growing up, my brother and I played Othello probably a thousand times.  It was my favorite board game.  If you haven’t played Othello before, it’s a game of strategy similar to Tic Tac Toe — but much more fun and challenging.  It’s a great game for any age group, and a fun way to engage the mind.

Give the online version of this classic board game a try here. The graphics and play may be simple, but it delivers!

Bday cookies + Soul Calibur IV = A great combo

I recently joined the Mochi Media team and earlier this week we celebrated our CEO’s bday with cookies and milk.  Super fun.  But the highlight for me was playing Soul Calibur IV for the first time.  I had a captive audience of cookie eaters, and there were ’oooh’s and ‘ahh’s all around as the newbie and first time Soul Calibur gamer took to button mashing like a star, killing everyone in my wake.  Not a bad way to get props as a newbie.

Soul Calibur IV is available on Xbox and PS3.  It reminds me a lot of the StreetFighter games.  You should definitely try it out!  Cookies are optional, but recommended.

Totem Destroyer — nearly Jenga!

A couple weeks ago I posted a blog about Jenga and how cool it would be to have an online version of Jenga where you can play against friends and the tower would jiggle and tumble like it does in real life play?  A friend pointed me to Totem Destroyer which is a single player game, but similar to Jenga, except there is an ape-looking glowing totem that you have to get to the ground safely by knocking down blocks that stand between the totem and solid  ground…  Kinda fun – check it out!