Author Archives: Yelena Kozlova

What We’re Playing: Thanksgiving Edition.

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on November 18, 2009 – 5:41 pm
Filed under What we're playing

Eat. Drink. PLAY. And be merry!

Thanksgiving is upon us once again, a time for reflection, a time to show your appreciation, and a time to stuff your face with turkey. Hey, it is tradition, and I’m not one to argue with roughly 388 years of history. Plus, cooking and eating are definitely a few of my favorite things! The other one is, of course, playing games on Shockwave.com.

If I’m not in the kitchen prepping a feast or bellied up to the table, you’ll find me with friends and family visiting Shockwave.com for all the online games I can handle. With temperatures dropping and fires crackling, ‘tis the season to kick back, relax, and play games.

Here are a few of my favorite free online games to share with friends and family before and after our big feast. Some are Thanksgiving-related. Some are food-related. The rest of these flash games are just downright addictive.

Turkey Fling – With turkey overload during Thanksgiving it feels really GOOD to hurl (them)! This game is as hilarious as it is addictive. Launch your turkey and send it flying as far as you can. Grab corn to help your flap meter and crackers for a special boost. Watch out for hazards along the way like snowballs, pointy forks, gooey pies, and jelly traps! The further you fly, the more you’ll discover. There are 17 special landing places. (Hint: Make it to space for more power-ups.)

Cooking Academy – I love this game because it’s like training before the big dinner, but it’s the kind of school that will make you lick your fingers. You’re going to need your oven mitts for this fun-filled game Chop, knead, fry, and mash your way through culinary school as you prepare more than 50 different recipes. Make the grade and you’ll unlock new recipes and earn trophies. There are also food trivia and mini games to keep the fun boiling.

Let’s Get Cookin’ – This is my favorite way to procrastinate before actually making the Thanksgiving feast. Head into the kitchen to prepare delicious meals using just your mouse. First, you’ll find ingredients, then slice them and dice them, and finally blend, fry, boil and bake them into 10 mouth-watering recipes. You can even print them out! This is one of the most delicious multiplayer games  around, so play with the whole family guilt-free!

Jigsaw Puzzles: Fabulous Foods! – Who says you can’t play with your food? Fun has never looked tastier with these popular downloadable games. Arrange and re-arrange pieces of food to your heart’s content, there are 60 puzzles and 4 difficulty levels to satisfy your appetite and no mess to clean up after. Each puzzle features mouthwatering imagery and rewards you with a relevant recipe or fun food fact when you’ve put the pieces together.

Two Minute Football 3D 2010 – I can’t say that I’m a sporty gal, but even I can’t resist two minutes of football. All the action is back with kickoff returns, tap control for realistic tackle breaking and dragging, a wind feature for more challenging passing and kicking, and other features that’ll make you an even bigger fan. Choose College, Pro, or All-Pro mode, and customize your playbook and players. If you’re good enough to score 21 points in 2 minutes, you’ll advance. With Two Minute Football 3D 2010, I don’t want to watch the game, I want to play it!

Family Feud™ – Every family’s got something to feud about and my family and I like to do it while playing another title on Shockwave.com’s list of must-play downloadable games, Family Feud offers hours of fun for all ages. Answer questions and see if your responses match the survey. The more you match, the more points you’ll earn. Race the clock in the Fast Money Round to pick up huge points. You can play solo, with a friend, or challenge other teams in this game show classic! My favorite way to play is to gather the whole family.

With titles like this, it’s hard not to be merry at Shockwave.com, one of the most popular destinations for online games. Not to mention Club Shockwave and Shockwave Unlimited, which take gaming to a whole new level. It’s going to be a good Thanksgiving.

photo credit: lakejunaluska.com

We’re Playing Monstrous And Spooky Games on Shockwave!

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on October 30, 2009 – 6:51 pm
Filed under Community, Download Games, Events, Online Games, Uncategorized, What we're playing

Halloween is almost here and I’m spending my last moments before Trick or Treating (yes, I still go Trick or Treating) with all the Shockwave Monsters.  I’ve gathered them all up in one place where they’re waiting to shoot, hit and run and finally R.I.P. Whether you’re up for a grave shift, in the mood to pop some eye balls, or want to become The Pretender I’ve got you covered.

If you’re not scarred enough, there are some Spooky Download Specials.   I’m enjoying some legendary stories by the campfire, peeking into the Dracula Files and getting hooked on the spooktacular Fishdom sequel.

However, I must confess that my all-time Halloween game favorites are the special treats found in Daily Jigsaw and The Daily Diff.  Check ‘em out, ‘cause the special images and game trophies will be gone once the ghosts and zombies return to their graves.

Happy Halloween everyone!

What We’re Playing: R&R With Spa Games on Shockwave

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on October 2, 2009 – 2:29 pm
Filed under Community, Online Games, What we're playing

Spa time: we all want it, we all need it.  Ah, the glorious minutes set aside to relax and think about the finer things in life like pretty nails, haircuts, and pedicures.  But these days, I find it so hard to make time to relax.  By the time I‘m done with work, errands and dinner, all the spas are closed.  So what’s a girl to do?   That’s when I turn to Shockwave for pampering and indulge in a wide array of free online spa games.

Here are my favorite Shockwave spa games, with some for our four legged friends, ’cause puppies need pampering too!:

Sara’s Super Spa
Sara’s Super Spa – Vegas Style
Belle’s Beauty Boutique
Paradise Pet Salon
Doggie Dash

Coming Soon: Redline Rumble 4

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on September 10, 2009 – 3:22 pm
Filed under Coming Soon, Community

There are few games out there that offer a hair-raising thrill ride with crazy twists and turns that  make you hold on to your keyboard for dear life.  The Redline Rumble series blew me away the first time I sat down to play it, and though I was a pretty terrible racer, I just could not stop playing as I was hooked on the thrill of the chase.  Now, it is my immense pleasure to announce that a new installment in this awesome racing series is coming out exclusively on Shockwave September 15th!  The game is jam packed with new surprises and features that are sure to thrill not just the seasoned Redline Rumbler, but pretty much anyone who’s ready for a great joy ride.

While we can’t yet take Redline Ruble 4 out for a spin, we can at least get the best inside scoop from the creator of this racing classic himself, Richard Smith.

The Spark: How has the Redline Rumble Series evolved over the last 3 games?

Richard Smith: The races have evolved from crude linear freeways to track like curves, and finally to a full open 3D world with working traffic flow encompassing a vast geographical area giving far greater gameplay variety.

The Spark: Yes, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Rumbling worlds that you’ve created for us!  So what’s new in Redline Rumble 4?

Richard Smith: Full multi layered environments are the biggest addition, enabling you to race around car parks, inside aircraft hangars, over roofs and under traffic tunnels. You can even play chicken with a landing 747 Passenger Jet!

The Spark: Wow, that’s crazy! You have a great imagination! What RR4 feature is your favorite and why?

Richard Smith: Boosting off the raised bridge near the dockyards is my favorite moment in the game, for sheer airborne thrills.

The Spark: From the little that I’ve been privileged to see so far, it looks like the game has a super interesting setting that is a combination of many famous cities.  Can you give us a quick tour?

Richard Smith: IgNitro City is in fact a mutant combination of real and imagined places and architecture. Cisco style hills, NY style financial district and traffic lights, LA style runway, Chicago style docks and so on, with some humorous parody buildings and fictitious companies to spice things up a bit. The Nerd Burger Ring pokes fun at the famous Nurburgring race track in Germany. The ‘Gould & Gates Bridge’ looks very familiar. Wellard Hardware has a sky scraper shaped like screwdriver. The cosmetics headquarters takes the form of a giant lipstick. Lunkopf & Stubbs has cigarette and lighter shaped building with an ash tray roundabout. I’ll leave people to work out what the ‘Sunny Pierce Toole’ Legal Office building is based on…

The Spark: Wow, the anticipation is totally killing me!  You must have had a lot of fun creating Redline Rumble 4! Can you share a funny production story with the Redline Rumble fans?

Richard Smith: I probably work in the smallest home game studio in the world (no prizes for guessing what use the room had before I converted it). My midi keyboard touches the walls each side. But like a techno-monk in my cyber-cell I have everything I need to zone out and create the complex code and graphics for each game. Things get really interesting when my 3 step-kids all pile in at once trying to help me ‘Beta test’ the current build.   :)

The Redline Rumble 4 production is racing up to the finish line, so I’ll let the creator and his team of testers get back to the game.  In the meantime, you can prepare yourself for the RR4 challenge by sharpening your skills on the first 3 Redline Rumble adventures: Redline Rumble, Redline Rumble 2: Detonator, and Redline Rumble 3.

Inside the Game: Tower Up!

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on July 30, 2009 – 4:52 pm
Filed under Club Shockwave, Community, Online Games

Tower Up is finally here. You’ve seen the “Coming Soon” teaser for this awesome new Club Shockwave game and now you can finally play it for yourself. If you’re anything like me, once you get hooked on a game (and this one is sure to reel you in), you’ll want to know about the people, the process, and development of your new favorite pastime. That’s why I interviewed the developers of Tower Up, Steve Bullock and Andrew Young at Adveractive, and the game’s producer, Michael Ruppert. Here’s what they had to say:

The Spark: Michael, where did you get the idea for Tower Up?

Michael: We’ve always wanted to have a great stacking game for Club Shockwave. But we needed to put a unique spin on the genre. I thought a lot about some of the more popular games for inspiration and it dawned on me that we needed to give you some purpose to explain why you really care about stacking these pieces. I thought, why not make a game where you don’t make the pieces disappear at the bottom of the screen and instead have them stack skyward and have the player build something? What better thing to build than enormous skyscrapers!

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Coming Soon: Sara’s Super Spa, Vegas Style

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on July 21, 2009 – 3:17 pm
Filed under Coming Soon, Online Games

What if you could play with beauty and indulgence in Las Vegas? Well… on July 28th you actually can, because Sara’s Super Spa – Vegas Style is coming to Shockwave! Yes, it is true, Sara is moving to Vegas and she’ll need help making her spa a super success. I tore Sara’s creator and game producer, Michael Ruppert, away from the Spa to get some inside info for us about the best online beauty retreat in Vegas.

The Spark: Everyone is really excited about the new Sara’s Super Spa – Vegas Style, but we NEED more info to fuel our spa dreams! Could you please share with us your favorite feature of the new game?

Michael Ruppert: My favorite new feature of the game is the Product Creation Station. Once you unlock this station and place it in the spa, you can click on it at any time during a level and play mini-games that allow you to create new shampoo, nail polish, and facial creams. You even get to select the ingredients for each! Once you’ve finished a product, some clients will either ask for it when at a station or may purchase one of your new products before leaving the spa. And depending upon what ingredients you put in the product, the client’s behavior will change as well (they may even give you higher tips!).

The Spark: Wow, we get to create our own spa products? Now I really can’t wait! How did you get the idea to make Sara’s Super Spa?

Michael Ruppert: I’m a big fan of the Nintendo DS. I love using the stylus and performing different kinds of actions. One day, I was playing Nintendogs and was washing my dog and it dawned on me that using the stylus was really just like using the mouse. Then I started thinking about time management games. I always felt that something was missing in most time management games. I noticed that you never got to do any of the tasks and I thought that it would be fun to manage people in a game while dragging them around to various stations AND be able to perform the actions at those stations. Why should some character have all the fun? So I coupled the idea of mouse based gestural movements with a time management game and decided to place it in a spa where all sorts of fun mouse movements could be used to simulate real world activities.

The Spark: Great idea! We’re really excited to see what happens next at the Super Spa! You must be going through all sorts of last minute fixes right now, could you please share with us the most challenging aspect of developing this game?

Michael Ruppert: The most challenging part of developing this game has been the testing and the bug fixing. This game is extremely robust for an online Flash game and there are many moving parts that can cause a lot of problems. The biggest issue has been the Customize Spa portion of the game. Due to the fact that players can customize their spa in so many different ways, it has been difficult to find and fix all of the little problems that can arise from such a flexible customization engine. This game has been undergoing testing for a little over 1 month.

The Spark: Wow, that sounds pretty intense! You’ll definitely need some R&R after July 28th when Sara’s Super Spa: Vegas Style comes out. One final question before you get back into the spa world: what kind of field research was done for the game? Were you pampered at a spa (for research purposes only, of course) and how was that experience?

Michael Ruppert: Well, I didn’t actually go get a spa treatment (that would have been really nice, thought), I was too busy thinking about the game. I did go out to different spas to find out what treatments are out there and what we didn’t put in the original. Maybe once this game is out, I can go get a massage!
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Hmmm, a massage does sound nice. So does a beauty treatment, and on July 28th you’ll be able to do much more at the spa! How about acupuncture reflexology, and a massaging facial? Oh, a girl can dream! Until then, this girl will be at Sara’s Super Spa on Shockwave.

Coming Soon: Burnin’ Rubber 3

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on June 29, 2009 – 6:31 pm
Filed under Coming Soon, Community, Online Games

To me, there is nothing more iconic in racing than the smell of burning rubber.   You know that it’s not a good race unless there is smoke under your tires, and you know that some of the best online racing games are Burnin’ Rubber and Burnin’ Rubber 2.  But, what you don’t know is that on July 7th, Burning Rubber 3 is coming to Shockwave!


That’s right, the next installment of our favorite online racer is almost here, and when I found out,  just had to get the inside scoop to share with you.  I caught up with our producer on the game, Michael Ruppert, and the talented developers from Xform, who are currently putting the final touches on Burning Rubber 3.

The Spark: Michael, can you let us in on the back story of how the Burnin’ Rubber racer series came to Shockwave?

Michael Ruppert:  Part of my job as a Game Producer is to scour the web for top online game developers. During one of my routine searches, I stumbled upon a fun little prototype Kart racing game from Xform, a group of talented individuals from The Netherlands.  The game had lots of potential thanks to some great art style and track design.  I got in touch with Xform, and quickly found that we all had similar tastes in racing games and could create top quality racing content.  We released the original Burnin’ Rubber on Shockwave on December 4, 2007 to extremely positive reviews and it became an instant hit on the site. Xform really enjoyed the experience and were eager to start work on a sequel. For Burnin’ Rubber 2, they pulled out all the stops and added a ton of great features like daily races, hidden packages, and a bunch of new cars and tracks. Needless to say, Burnin’ Rubber 2 was an even greater success than the original and is still one of the most played racing games on Shockwave.

The Spark:  Pieter and Diederik, your work at Xform on the Burnin’ Rubber series has delighted racing fans on Shockwave since 2007!  Can you tell us a bit about the evolution of this awesome game over the years?

Xform:  Technically a lot has changed from the first one to Burnin’ Rubber 3, from what goes on behind the scenes to how we make our games in general. We stopped making tracks based upon laps. Instead the tracks are always a path from A to B. This allows us to build tracks with reusable tiles (big square blocks with a road and additional scenery) and makes for much cooler scenery as you speed down the racetrack. We first used this approach in Burnin’ Rubber 2 and it was a big hit.  In comparison to BR1 the other games have almost ten times the content.  BR1 featured 3 tracks and 3 cars. BR2 had 15 tracks and about 5 cars. With Burnin’ Rubber 3 we went completely overboard with content (a bit too much to be honest ;) ) Over 10 cars (all customizable), weapons, upgrades and lots of tracks!

The Spark: Wow, I can’t wait!  Burnin’ Rubber 3 is not just bigger and cooler; it has new features as well.  Just when I thought it can’t get any better!  What made you decide to put weapons in BR3?

Xform: There are two main reasons. First of all we had great fun seeing the traffic cars explode in Burnin’ Rubber 2 when you bumped into them.  Although not very realistic, it was great to see them burst into flames and fly away.  So, we were already thinking about how fun it would be to destroy more stuff during a race. Secondly, we wanted to do something more action packed than our previous games and thought that adding some guns and rockets would be a great way to do so.

So there you have it.  If you thought that your favorite racer can’t get any better, on July 7th Michael Rupert and Xform will show us that it can with Burnin’ Rubber 3.  I hear the game still has those awesome hidden packages that will score you extra goodies, the race will still get your adrenaline sky-rocketing, and now you get to customize 10 brand-new cars complete with weapons!  I’m told there are a few other surprises in the game, but we’ll just have to wait (impatiently) until July 7th to find out more.  In the mean time, I’ll be practicing with my old friends Burnin’ Rubber and Burnin’ Rubber 2.

Happy Mother’s Day from Shockwave!

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on May 8, 2009 – 4:52 pm
Filed under Events
Photo ©Stefan Patashvilli

©Stefan Patashvilli

Certain days of the year are dedicated to a purpose that is above the day to do day cares and worries. This weekend that purpose is the person that most often finds herself deeply entangled in the day to day care and well-being of her family, the Mother. Mama is a word that transcends language barriers and is often one of the first words that children learn to say. In 1905 Anna Jarvis decided that Mom needs some official attention for all her hard work and dedication, so she spent many years and much of her fortune promoting the Mother’s Day movement. She succeeded and now each year the beginning of May is dominated by window displays advertising gifts for Mom. However, Jarvis’ original intent was beyond printed cards, candy and commercial tokens of appreciation; it was intended to for us to make Moms feel special.

Special is by definition a break from the ordinary and to celebrate Mother’s day we invite all Moms to drop everything and just relax. Since our world is games, we’ve taken the liberty of picking out some games that can help you unwind and put them on sale.

If you prefer to relax at the spa, Sara’s Super Spa is the free online R&R that can take your mind off the daily routine and immerse you into a world of pampering. Moms, enjoy your day and remember to take the time for YOU this May 10th.

Roll up your sleeves for some earthy gaming

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on April 22, 2009 – 2:55 pm
Filed under Online Games

Remember your mama today! No, I’m not asking if you called your mother today (though that would be nice), I’m talking about our global mother Earth. Today is the 39th annual Earth Day , set aside in 1970 to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Planet where we work and play every day. Celebrated all across the globe, Earth Day is a day to stop and smell the roses, perhaps even plant one should you get so inspired. It’s also a Wednesday, so sometimes it’s hard to find time in the midst of everyday work, errands and chores to take a moment and appreciate gifts of nature. If you do find a second for a gaming break (you know you need one!), I invite you to join me is some good earthy games on Shockwave.

One of my favorites is Plant Tycoon, where you get to start with a handful of seeds and cultivate an empire by growing, letting your inner tycoon blossom. Garden Defense calls you to defend your virtual garden from pests in natural creative ways like wild lawn ornaments, and even bug-fighting plants! If you’re in the mood for a little country escape check out Ranch Rush where you get to experience life on the farm by planting crops, milking cows, gathering honey and much more to save the nursery from the clutches of big developers.  You’ll also win some tokens for your troubles, with a chance to win enough cash for a quite a few gifts of nature.

So remember our global Mama today when you play games. Who knows, perhaps you’ll have so much fun in the virtual world of gardening that you may get inspired to start a garden of your own. Happy Earth Day from Shockwave!

Fooled Ya!

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Posted by Yelena Kozlova on April 2, 2009 – 9:49 pm
Filed under Community, Online Games

Did you play The Daily Diff on April 1st?  What about today?  It absolutely must become a part of your daily routine, since you never know what you’re going to find.  Or what you’re not going to find :).    If you played the ‘Diff yesterday then you saw the lovely Social Butterfly pup.

Social Butterfly

You may have also noticed that something was different about the two images.  Wait, was it?  After squinting and looking a little more closely, and then looking some more, you finally click somewhere with a small glimmer of hope.

That’s right, in the words of John V, Shockwave Diff-rolled you yesterday.  We had a ton of fun putting this little prank together for you.  Looks like you had a lot of fun too!  Here’s what some of you wrote in the reviews:

yowzasma: “Thank you so very much for the APRIL FOOL’S :) joke….I’m thinking that I needed new glasses and you-all made me laugh so hard that I nearly spilled my 3:45AM cup of wake-up coffee… Thanks for starting my day with a laugh, it sure felt good!”

lowachee: “Oh man, am I gullible. I was completely perplexed until I saw the other reviews. That was great!”

CARMENLOU: “Hard day at work today.  First time to play this game and I thought to myself: ‘I know I cannot be this stupid and this cannot be this hard…’  Great April Fool’s joke, I needed a good laugh.  Thanks for the great ending to my day.”

Thank you Shockwave Daily Diff players!  Reading all of your reviews was a great ending to my day.  Be sure to come back and check out the ‘Diff daily, because you never know what tricks we’ll have up our sleeves in the future!

Take a peek behind the scenes of Shockwave.com at The Shockwave Spark, an online gamers blog that keeps you up to date on the coolest titles, the hottest deals, and other newsworthy and buzz worthy tidbits. Get the scoop on the latest in online games, you'll have the chance to ask questions, comment on recent posts, and chat with the rest of the gaming blog community.

Of course, we appreciate your feedback on our gaming blog, including all your game suggestions. But, there's a lot of it! So, while we read every single one of our members' comments, we can only do so much. We'll get to as many requests as possible, but usually don't get a chance to respond to everyone individually. This is one popular online gamers blog! Check back each week and we'll post a response that addresses the most commonly requested games.

For even more fun, check out Club Shockwave and Shockwave® UNLIMITED. As a member of Club Shockwave, you'll have access to exclusive versions of the best games around, including Free Cell, Mahjong, Bingo, Daily Jigsaw, Solitaire, and more. When you play games, you'll earn tokens, win trophies and have a chance to play instant win scratchers or enter sweepstakes for big cash prizes! With Shockwave® UNLIMITED you'll receive access to exclusive online games and downloads for a low monthly fee, unlimited play on all downloadable games, no ad interruptions on all games, and brand new Flash games each week. Plus, you'll have full access to all of the great online features of Club Shockwave, including multiplayer games like Bingo.