The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. April 12th: 50% off on Governor of Poker

Mon. April 13th: 50% off on Youda Farmer

Tue. April 14th: 50% off on Lethal judgment 4 – deluxe

Wed. April 15th: 50% off on My little Flufties

Thu. April 16th: 50% off on Purebreaker 3 -Deluxe

Fri. April 17th: 60% off on Happier than you

Sat. April 18th: 45% off on Petri Heil 3 -Gold Online

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. April 5th: 50% off on BABLS Game

Mon. April 6th: 40% off on Rescue at Rajini Island

Tue. April 7th: 50% off on Antarez Mssions

Wed. April 8th: 50% off on Antarez Prefect

Thu. April 9th: 50% off on B-Intruders 2 : Circle of extinction

Fri. April 10th: 45% off on Electro Master

Sat. April 11th: 50% off on Blue Balloonz

Sky Kingdoms is another game in the Luxor and Zuma family — moving marbles that you need to break by making matches of at least three of the same color. I guess you could call these “rolling marble match threes.”

The opening with the story moves very slow. The game doesn’t allow you to control the moving of the story so you can back up or move forward. Instead of taking place in the ruins of Egypt, this one takes on a fantasy twist with the action happening in the air.

Plenty of power ups keep things popping. The first power up you want sends coins flying down. Collect these coins so you can buy more power ups including more lives. The shopping happens between levels. Once you complete all pieces of a puzzle, you’ll get a new wallpaper for your desktop.

As you buy power ups, it’s not clear when you have access to them during the game. They just appear in the bottom ready for use. Boy, I need them all during level 5-2. I do manage to get one, but it’s not enough to help me survive the level and I’ve gotten faster.

During the bonus level, a snake comes out and you pop the marbles as you always do and collect more coins. However, you don’t get to keep the coins if the snake bites you. The game’s directions don’t clearly explain how this happens and it’s not obvious after playing this level plenty of times.

Sky Kingdoms includes 90 levels, multiple bonus upgrades (each bonus starts cheap and you can upgrade again, but it costs more with every upgrade) and 36 animated backgrounds.

Don’t play this game if you don’t like panicky games and can’t stand things happening fast. It’s also not ideal for those who have never played Luxor or Zuma. The Easy level is very hard. I’m forever stuck on level 5-2 — best I’ve done is almost clear two groups of marbles, but then I fail by the third group. Even if I manage to beat it, I’m betting the next levels will only be harder. Remember this is “Easy” mode. If you think the others don’t challenge you enough, try this one. You can’t complain that it’s too easy. Believe me.

Download Sky Kingdoms

I’ve been wondering what the next Dash series would be as PlayFirst enjoys a hit almost every time it releases a Dash. The good news: We have our answer: Diaper Dash. The bad news: This time management game doesn’t measure up to the other and more successful Dashes.

You’re not a baby sitter, nanny or caretaker. Instead, your Wilson, a scientist and inventor. He lost his job (read: fired) with an evil corporation. Wilson meets with Flo who gives him the idea to invent child-safe machines.

He opens a daycare in his sister’s basement and starts working on inventions to make his job easier beginning with Cleanatron, which cleans baby messes.

Like most Dashes, you’ll move around after spending 10 levels in a location. Every building contains a waiting area in the form of a playpen, high chair for feeding, cribs for sleeping, changing station for well… you know, and play area. Instead of customers of all kinds, you have babies with different needs and temperaments. One baby has a voracious appetite and another needs many diaper changes.

Like Diner Dash, you earn bonus points for matching the baby’s gender with the station. The baby’s current need pops up in a pink or blue colored bubble to indicate gender. If a baby needs to eat, you earn extra points by putting the boys in the blue chair and the girls in the pink chair. You can also earn more for swaps. Swap a girl baby in a crib with another girl baby needing a nap.

Not only do you move to new locations, but also get upgrades and new inventions such as a toy dispenser that spouts teddy bears to cheer up a sad baby and a storybook reader who reads stories to babies in the playpen waiting area. For each level, you want to reach the minimum cash goal and try to go for the expert cash goal. Fail to meet the goal and you replay the level.

As expected, the game has two modes: Career and Endless Day. Career tells the story and takes you from building to building in 50 levels. Endless Day comes with three levels (easy, medium and hard) and you play until five babies become unhappy. As you play Endless, you’ll receive upgrades. It gets crazy and makes a gal panicky — that’s why I don’t like Endless mode.

Diaper Dash starts slow and proceeds at a decent pace, but this one — story and game — doesn’t grip me as much as the other games. It feels repetitive and contains no surprises aside from the inventions. Still, the graphics remain top-notch of Dash games and Wilson is a likable guy.

If you want to take care of virtual babies, Daycare Nightmare is a better option since it adds a twist. If you want to check out a good Dash, go for Diner Dash, Cooking Dash or Wedding Dash.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. March 23rd: 45% off on Pandora’s Pests

Tue. March 24th: 50% off on Train Your Brain

Wed. March 25th: 45% off on The Magic Seal

Thu. March 26th: 50% off on Galactic Dream – Rage of War

Fri. March 27th: 45% off on Rooby Run

Sat. March 28th: 50% off on Crazy Basketball

Sun. March 29th: 45% off on 3D Snake Arena

The casual games industry is giving The Serpent of Isis high accolades. I haven’t checked it myself as I’m swamped with client projects. Here are the details:

Someone stole the legendary artwork, The Serpent of Isis, from the grand opening of the Egypt Museum in Cairo. Your character’s grandfather originally discovered the artifact that has been missing for years. An anonymous letter arrives saying that the person who has the artwork is on board the Mont Palu Express. Catch the train to find the artwork and solve the ancient mystery.

Although the artifact comes the very popular hidden object game setting of Egypt, the action doesn’t all take place in Cairo. In fact, it ends in London — one of the first places I want to visit outside of North America.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. March 16th: 50% off on Red Cross ERU

Tue. March 17th: 50% off on Baby Blimp

Wed. March 18th: 50% off on Youda Camper

Thu. March 19th: 50% off on Kindergarten

Fri. March 20th: 50% off on Skies of War

Sat. March 21st: 50% off on World Domination 2

Sun. March 22nd: 50% off on Rail of War

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. March 9th: 60% off on Jets ‘n ‘Guns Gold

Tue. March 10th: 60% off on Archibald’s Adventures

Wed. March 11th: 50% off on Larva Mortus

Thu. March 12th: 50% off on Wendy’s Wellness

Fri. March 13th: 50% off on Jet Ducks

Sat. March 14th: 50% off on Chinese Chess Soul

Sun. March 15th: 45% off on Family Restaurant

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. March 2nd: 50% off on Squaricon

Tue. March 3rd: 40% off on Galactic Teddy

Wed. March 4th: 50% off on Master of the Board

Thu. March 5th: 55% off on Dreamsdwell Stories

Fri. March 6th: 50% off on BlackJack Dash!

Sat. March 7th: 40% off on Arcade Race

Sun. March 8th: 40% off on Galactic Teddy 2: Back to Home

Fabulous Finds, a hidden object game, has a few hidden gems to offer something a little different. Rather than being one big game with several mini-games, Fabulous Finds offers three-in-one as no one component dominates.

Great Aunt Beatrice left you her home in Carmel, California. The home needs a makeover, so you dig through the house for stuff to sell in the yard sale to collect the needed funds for redecorating. The three-in-one components include collecting items for the yard sale (hidden object), selling them in the yard (connecting customers with what they want), and decorating rooms (puzzle).

The hidden object portion contains no list of things to find. Instead, you read the newspaper to identify a trend and then search rooms for items fitting that trend. One trend is gardening. Click all items that have some association with gardening. This offers a creative twist, but it has flaws. I see a garden hose and click it. Nope. It’s not acceptable. This sort of thing happens at times.

Since you’re weeding through junk, some items have missing parts or need repairs. These have helper items, but those won’t show up on the list until you’ve picked up the original item. A high heel shoe, for example, has a missing heel. After you find the shoe, the missing heel appears on the helper list. Find the broken heel to reunite the two items.

After collecting everything for the theme from several rooms in the house, time to hold the yard sale. Items appear spread around the yard, on tables, on the porch, on the corners of the yard. The customers enter and notes show up describing the customer and what he/she needs. “The librarian wants to cook.” So you look for the stereotypical librarian who dresses impeccably and has her hair up. Then you need to find something that has to do with cooking — pots and pans, perhaps. Drag the librarian to the pots and pans.

Sometimes the clues can be obscure. It makes the game more challenging. Each customer has a happiness bar. The longer it takes you to find what they need, the shorter their happiness bar. So not only do you need to find the right customer, but also the item he/she needs. Kind of a mix between hidden objects and a puzzle (using content to figure out what you need).

When the sale ends (after all customers receive what they want), you can proceed to redecorate a room. Or you can start looking for items for the next yard sale. The game doesn’t care which order you take. The only thing that matters is that the yard sale can never come before finding the items for it — obviously.

In decorating a room, Fabulous Finds gives you clues as to how to decorate the room. The closer you match the clues, the higher score your room earns. Most of the time, this is too easy. At least, after you finish the game, you can decorate the rooms in any way you’d like.

The fabulous part about the game is its colorful and sharp graphics and creative approach to finding items. Fabulous Finds, however, needs to last longer and provide a little more challenge in room decorating. Or maybe turn it into a SIM environment where you can play in the room with characters. It also needs to avoid not accepting objects that fit in with the yard sale theme. Despite the few nigglings, Fabulous Finds deserves its name.

Download the PC game.