Inside Social Games

Part pinball, part pool, part quirky, cartoon entertainment, social game Bumper Stars has players collecting hoards of food in a most peculiar way. In the game, created by PressOK Entertainment and Large Animal Games, players control a rather rotund animal and knock it about a pinball table to collect scattered fruits in a limited number of attempts.

In the game, players are granted three tries to collect everything on the board, simply clicking and dragging the animal to determine direction and force, and it proceeds to bounce of walls and pinball bumpers in the hopes of tagging that floating food products. As difficult as it might sound, at first, the game is actually quite fun once you get used to it.

To that end, this simple Facebook game is also now available on the iPhone. Through the use of Facebook Connect, fans of the Bumper Stars game will now be able to play Bumber Stars Mobile anywhere they want for about $1.

All of the game’s familiar mechanics are still present, and players can log in using their existing Facebook accounts. In fact, the asynchronous game play allows players to invite and challenge friends regardless whether they are using the mobile device or the Facebook platform itself. In addition, the new mobile version attempts to fight off stagnation by adding in the ability to earn points by playing, creating, winning challenges, and inviting new friends. Through the points, new content such as backgrounds, bumpers, and even characters are available for purchase.

Currently, Bumper Stars Mobile is among only a few other games that have interwoven their web and mobile titles, but while it may be one of the first, it is hardly the last. Bumper Stars is also slated to be released for the Blackberry, Android, J2ME, and BREW by the end of Q3 this year.