Gamertell

It’s Friday again, which means it’s time to prepare for the weekend and unwind with, you guessed it some casual games. This has been a big week for fans of puzzle games and simulation games. If you’re a match 3 or time management game fan, you could find something new to keep you busy for a few hours.

There were also two pretty big releases. Tradewinds Odyssey has popped up for purchase on practically every casual game site this week. It’s a time management, trading simulation game. Scrabble Plus also made it’s debut, which should delight word game fans.

This week’s best bets are: Tradewinds Odyssey for PC and Scrabble Plus for PC.

Hidden Wonders of the Depths 2
Genre: Puzzle / Match 3
Availability: Big Fish Games
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: Go through match three puzzles to reach treasure chests and help a crab explore the various unknown areas underwater. There are also other assorted mini-games included.
Demo Available: Yes

Tradewinds Odyssey
Genre: Simulation / Strategy
Availability: Playfirst, Big Fish Games, RealArcade, GameHouse
Retail Price: $19.95
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: Travel back in time to ancient Greece where you will step into the shoes of one of five different heroes and attempt to expand and develop your homeland through trading. However, the seas and oceans hide all sorts of nasty monsters, and it’ll be up to you to overcome them.
Demo Available: Yes

Hollywood Tycoon
Genre: Simulation / Strategy
Availability: PlayFirst
Retail Price: $19.95
Platform: Windows
Premise: You manage a Hollywood studio, which means you go through all the tasks required to create a film and then hope it’s a success.
Demo Available: Yes

World Adventure
Genre: Puzzle / Match 3
Availability: Big Fish Games
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Windows XP and Vista
Premise: Go through Match 3 puzzles to travel around the world to find artifacts and a lost grandpa.
Demo Available: Yes

Sky Taxi
Genre: Action
Availability: PlayFirst
Retail Price: $19.95
Platform: Windows
Premise: The fairies are under seige by aliens! Oh no! Players must assist Mitch the mouse and his friends by attacking the aliens and saving the day in 180 levels.
Demo Available: Yes

Coyote’s Tale: Fire and Water
Genre: Puzzle / Hidden Object
Availability: Big Fish Games
Retail Price: $6.99
Platform: Mac 10.4 and 10.5
Premise: The Aztec gods are causing trouble for humans, and it’s up to two sisters on vacation in Mexico to stop them.
Demo Available: Yes

Scrabble Plus
Genre: Puzzle / Word Game
Availability: GameHouse, RealArcade, Harmonic Flow
Retail Price: $19.99
Platform: Windows Vista, XP and 2000
Premise: Basically, it’s Scrabble with multiple game modes. There’s Scrabble Classic, Scrabble Wizard, Scrabble Golf, Scrabble battle and Clabbers.
Demo Available: Yes

Bilbo: Four Corners of the World
Genre: Time Management
Availability: Alawar Entertainment
Retail Price: $19.95
Platform: Windows
Premise: Bilbo the hamster wants to get the girl, but in order to do so he’ll have to become a restaurant mogul. Don’t ask me why. Maybe she’s a food afficianado. Anyways, Bilbo needs to run restaurants around the world and compete in mini-games, and it’s up to the player to help him accomplish his goal.
Demo Available: Yes

Editor’s Note: Due to so many casual games sites offering game plans or preferred member prices, which can cause a game to have multiple price-points, the games’ average retail prices is mentioned in Casual Friday.

Site [Big Fish Games] Site [PlayFirst] Site [GameHouse] Site [eGames] Site [Alawar Games] Site [Amazon] Site [Reflexive Arcade]