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Pogo.com, for those of you who don't already know, is an online game site owned by the mega powerhouse game development team, Electronic Arts better known as “EA”.
There you can play a bunch of web games, which puts a heavy emphasis on card and casino type games although they do have puzzle and sports games there as well, just not so much.
Members (yes it’s a cult I mean club, sorry silly me) earn tokens to trade-in to then be entered into the daily, weekly, or monthly cash drawings. Wow, cool beans! Sounds like a win- win situation doesn’t it? It’s important to note that it will cost you though, and while we’re not talking big bucks here, approx. $5.99 a month and $39.99 for a year, it is something to stop and think about before committing yourself and signing up to become a ClubPogo member.
As one of the web's leading casual game sites, I guess Pogo.com knows a thing or two about ultra-addictive online gaming, a million fans and counting think so, in fact an estimated 7 billion (!)gametime minutes have been clocked in there this past year alone!
“The Poppit! Show”, is one of their most popular puzzle games to date. It is a balloon popping (hence the title) puzzle game. And it has a cute gimmick that sets it apart from others of its kind – a TV game show-theme, complete with a host that’s a cactus(symbolic for something I’m sure) with a bad toupee named Spike, a stage and a cheering audience. Each TV show contains a different theme, so get ready to disco, cook, go on a safari, do some magic or fly out of this world.
Note: there are 2 different versions of the game. One on Pogo.com where you can play as part of a network which essentially means you get to chat with other players, and the other on BigFish Games, which doesn’t connect to a network. This review focuses on the Pogo.com version — but the gameplay is practically identical.
You will have to complete a series of puzzles composed of balloons, a whole bunch of balloons to be exact, floating within a grid. You must clear all the balloons to successfully beat the levels. This is done by clicking 2 or more balloons that are next to one another of the same color. All of which, naturally, disappear with a distinct pop. The goal of the game is to pop the balloons to release "prizes” until there are none left in each column. Releasing all the prizes will earn you a jackpot spin. After you release all the prizes, you must also try to pop all the remaining balloons. If you leave 5 or less balloons, you'll earn bonus tokens! This is not as easy as it sounds mind you; making even the most basic matches is tricky.
Even once you get the hang of it; it's really quite possible to accidentally work your way into a tight spot, with no matches available. That's where these stars - a.k.a. power-ups, earned the same way as prizes - come in handy.
With each new TV show that you unlock a handful of catchy bonuses will be awarded in addition to the power-ups, like tiki heads that drag columns down and stick pins that let you pop any balloon on the board.
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The game is really helpful and encouraging. First off, there's no time limit. In fact, you can go as slow as you'd like. This makes it a great title for the ultra casual gamers out there where you can take your attention away from the game without paying the consequences. Secondly, you're encouraged to use the "undo" option to rewind time and fix your mistakes. Every move you make is remembered, so you can go back several steps and try to make things right. Good thing there are 3 levels, easy, medium and hard as well- and please don’t be ashamed to downgrade to “easy” every once in awhile in order to advance- I did and I’m a professional!
The Poppit! Show avoids becoming just another monotonous mind numbing “click-color-match” game by adding a neat twist to the action. Not only do you want to pop same colored balloons together at the same time, but you are also challenged to release all of the prizes hidden in certain balloons in order to complete the level.
Like I said earlier, playing “The Poppit! Show” on Pogo.com allows you to play on a network, and it is definitely more fun when you play connected rather than disconnected. I started off by playing disconnected to get the feel of the game and see how it plays.
And to be quite honest with you I usually steer clear of chat enabled online games as a general rule. Mostly because I find the people on them to be either annoyingly over chummy or obnoxiously rude; but I decided to put my misgivings aside (all in the name of science) and signed up. I didn’t become a paying ClubPogo member however, I am just a lowly ol’ regular member, in other words, one step up from “guest”!
After the initial mandatory pleasantries GL-good luck, TYVM- thank you very much, YW- you’re welcome, LOL- laugh out loud, and ROFL- rolling on the floor laughing the game finally got under way. Good Lord!
And to my surprise when I played connected to the Pogo network, the gameplay completely changed, in a good new and improved kind of way.
Y’know, playing against other players really got my competitive juices flowing! More things happened within the gameplay to keep me interested and kept me inspired to move up the ranks and earn more tokens. You can also be charitable with your power-ups and donate them to other players. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t be playing Poppit after my review was written, I was giving away power-ups and tokens left and right. Needless to say I made a lot of new friends! I didn’t chat (much), yet I had a blast.
The graphics are well done, with bright, colorful balloons that appeared weightless; they floated and bobbed around realistically.
The background music is upbeat and fun, but the host is annoying after a while (happens both connected and disconnected) but I couldn’t find the option to turn him off. Probably written somewhere in his contract!
As a given rule, if you've played one color match arcade game, you've played them all right? Well, thankfully, what they lack in ingenuity, games like Poppit more than make up for in charm, personality and good, old-fashioned entertainment value to keep it uplifting.
GG
TYVM!
So give it a whirl, but you better hurry because another round of The Poppit! Show is just about to start. Prepare to go live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
Get The Poppit Show Here
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Posted by oxyjen on Mar 22, 2007
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