Inside Social Games

The Christmas traffic decline has melted away, and a number of games saw significant growth in February — more so than January, anyway. However, for each significant gain, there were some loses as well, as roughly one-third of the list dropped in monthly active users, and a few of those drops are highly popular titles such as FishVille and Happy Aquarium.

On the lighter side of things, Zynga’s FarmVille continues to hold on to top honors with new records in monthly users once again, while competitor CrowdStar attempts to increase its popularity even further. Also, RockYou makes its move back to its former glory from the early days of Facebook with heavily increased MAUs for both Birthday Cards and Zoo World. Another game, Hero World, also made its debut this month.

February was a potentially big month for games, because Facebook introduced a home page redesign at the beginning of the month that moved applications from a bottom toolbar into the left-hand navigation column, and moved notifications from the toolbar to the top navigation bar. Facebook also added what it calls a Games Dashboard — basically, a home page filter that lets users see a page of the Facebook games they and their friends have been playing. So far, the impact does not look to be negative for social games overall. The full impact of the redesign will only be felt this month, though, as Facebook is removing application notifications from the new notifications bar.

Here are the highlights for the top 25 Facebook Games for February, 2010:

• Zynga’s FarmVille shatters its old records once again, gaining over 7.5 million new monthly active users, bringing the game’s total monthly players up to a whopping 83,004,461.
• At a distant second comes RockYou’s Birthday Cards with just over 47 million MAUs, having gained over 7 million new users as well — this gift-giving app isn’t really a game, although it contains a virtual currency. Rather, it has included a window for RockYou’s game Zoo World (more on that in a moment).
• Surprisingly, the virtual aquarium games did not do too well through February as Happy Aquarium from CrowdStar lost over 1.5 million users, with Texas Hold’Em Poker moving past it to #4. Zynga’s FishVille also dropped from #5 to #7 with roughly a 850,000 MAU loss. Furthermore, Fish World, from Tall Tree Games, has completely fallen off the charts.
• Though aquariums aren’t doing too well, zoo keeping seems to be growing as RockYou’s Zoo World gains an impressive 4.1 million monthly active users, showing that simple mechanics and cute animals — and however else the app is growing — can go quite far. It comes in at #8, up from #10.
• After a long game of cat and mouse, Playfish’s Pet Society finally loses out to PetVille by a difference of less than 300,000 users. They come in at #10 and #9 respectively.
• While CrowdStar’s long popular fish game dropped, the cold winter nights have proven lucrative for its tropical Happy Island app, as this warming title moves up from  #17 to #14 with almost a 2 million MAU gain. Unfortunately, Happy Pets still staggered slightly, losing 566,909 users, and dropping one ranking, to #17.
• In regards to tropical games, Island Paradise, from Meteor Games also sees minor growth, moving up one rank to #19, with just over 7.6 million monthly active users, and just behind it comes RockYou’s Hero World. The super hero RPG earns 7,033,749 MAUs for the month of February.
• Little farming app (Lil) Farm Life reappears on the list, coming in with about 5.9 million MAUs and landing at #22.
• Lastly, the boom that was Shikha’s Pillow Fight seems to have died out, as the app has lost more than 8.4 million users, dropping from #14 to #25.

While drastic fluctuations in users have never been the mark of MySpace applications, the coming core changes to the social network – including analytics – might provide some better insight into the site. MySpace applications may not be as big as Facebook’s, but developers have often reported higher revenue from them.

Nevertheless, the current method of tracking still showed some minor changes over January’s charts, with almost no games earning a negative monthly change. Of course, that doesn’t mean that a handful of titles didn’t shift about in February. In fact, even a newcomer appeared at the tail end of this month’s list.

On another note, many games on the MySpace list can often be classified as merely fun applications as opposed to “games” by traditional definitions. We track some of these applications because they have significant social game-like features.

Here are the highlights for the Top 25 MySpace Games for February, 2010:

• Unsurprisingly, the two mafia role playing games of Playdom’s Mobsters and Zynga’s Mafia Wars appear at #1 and #2 respectively. The two titles earn over 14.4 and 13.1 million installations.
• The simple concepts of Bumper Stickers and Own Your Friends from Playdom, continue to show that simplicity is the predominant preference for users on MySpace as each earn over 12.5 and 10.2 million installs.
• Another simple app, Tag Me from BitRhymes moves up from #9 to #8 to pass RockYou’s Super Pets (now dubbed RockYou Pets in the app gallery), with almost a 500,00 installation gain.
• BitRhymes app, Cheers!! also moves up one ranking to #10 to beat out the Zynga RPG, Vampires. It earns just shy of 5 million installs, but again, does not appear in the app gallery. More likely than not, this issue, that we have noted numerous times, is almost certainly hindering its growth.
• Same as January, Playdom controls ranks #13-#16 with Kiss Me (4,059,001), Sorority Life (3,566,896), Poker Palace (3,386,269), and Overdrive (2,626,783).
• Another simple app from Oxylabs Networks, PhotoBuzz sees an impressive jump, moving up from #23 to #21 with a gain of 152,316 new users. It now totals over 1.9 million installations.
• In fact, newly added to the list is another app from Oxylabs, What is your Street Reputation, which garners over 1.7 million installs. The game appears at #24 ousting Green Spot form the Top 25 and was added due to its similarity to What’s my Impression on friends from BitRhymes.

With the unveiling of the iPad, the cottage iPad speculation industry that had grown up around it has… kept going. Having seen and, in some cases, actually used the iPad, blogs and magazines are continuing a non-stop torrent of ideas and predictions for the upcoming Apple slate.

A particularly popular subject so far has been games. So we’ve taken some of the better lists out there and combined them — not to pick out specific games (for the most part), but to point out the concepts and game mechanics that are getting the most attention ahead of the iPad’s launch.

For this list, we looked at CNET’s top 30 picks, TechRadar’s top 20, Touch Arcade’s iPhone games to port, and Techland’s 5 games to make ASAP. Here’s what we came up with after melding them all together:

Civilization — This game is a top pick for pretty much everyone. Sid Meier’s classic has always been at least partially about seeing the sprawling extent of your empire, and smaller screens like the iPhone haven’t quite done it justice. Along the same lines, SimCity; and, for the real-time fans, Command & Conquer is a popular choice.

Board games — Another no-brainer, perhaps due to the close resemblance of the iPad to a real-life board. You you can take your pick: Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Chutes & Ladders or pretty much anything else would work. Several of the lists pick Monopoly, but we’d have to disagree, unless there’s a major breakthrough in battery life.

FarmVille — Maybe it’s just this game’s unending popularity on Facebook, but FarmVille seems to be a consistent pick for any iPad wish-list. There’s certainly a synergy between the intended audiences, although the gameplay might have to be modified for longer play-times.

Line-drawing – CNET wants DrawRace, in which you draw out your car’s intended course, while Touch Arcade wants Boom Brigade, which is a bit like real-time, directed tower defense. The idea is the same in either case: lots of contact between your finger and the screen.

Nintendo games — Techland’s top two picks are both Nintendo games: Scribblenauts and Boom Blox. The latter seems like a good pick; a potential mechanic could involve first touching your target on the screen, then twitching the iPad for an accelerometer “throw”.

Point n’ click adventure — TechRadar suggests Beneath a Steel Sky; our own vote goes to King’s Quest. It’s the ability to tap the screen to achieve any action (this style of game interprets your click to perform the action on its own) that would make these games work.

Physics games — Draw objects with your finger, tilt the iPad to move them around. Crayon Physics, for example, was excellent on the computer, and would probably do even better on an iPad. There’s also World of Goo to consider.

Tower defense — The only question is which tower defense games will do best on the iPad. Fieldrunners would probably do well, as would Plants vs Zombies, which we reviewed earlier tonight. Our own vote is for a graphically amped-up version of Gemcraft, which blends in RPG concepts.

Bright lights, flashing colors — This isn’t a genre, exactly, but extremely visual games seem to be a thematic undercurrent in many of the lists. Pinball, Missile Defense, Geometry Wars — the idea is that the iPad will be bright, beautiful and perfect for some hand-twitching, seizure-inducing action.

Wooden labyrinth — Props to CNET for coming up with this one. This isn’t a computer game, of course. It’s an actual wooden labyrinth in which you guide a stainless-steel ball bearing with physical knobs. The iPad’s accelerometer and flat shape could pull it off perfectly.

Looking through these lists, it might seem that pretty much everything is being fingered as an iPad potential. But we can think of at least a few games that wouldn’t work at all. For example: Whac-a-Mole, played with real hammers. Or, more seriously, any full-on FPS like Quake or Medal of Honor. Without an external controller of any kind, some games will simply be awkward.

Finally, our own pick: Bubble Ghost. Sure, it’s an old game, and one that was never really revived during the console era. But the idea of navigating a bubble through a spiky maze is perfect for some intense iPad gaming, and the internet connection could even make use of some cooperative ghost-play. Just think it over.

The latest international company to delve into the social gaming world is a Japanese mobile service provider by the name of C.A. Mobile. Since the Tokyo-based company focuses mostly on mobile content in the country, it partnered with French-Canadian developer, Montreal-based ODD1 to help it get a foothold with a simple little social Facebook app called Bingo Derby.

With a history of casual and mobile games – most recently the iPhone title Catch Me! If You Can – under its belt, ODD1 seems like a good choice. However, how did their first social game attempt measure up?

Well, Bingo Derby is quite the simple app, and isn’t exactly something that’s going to enthrall the user with overwhelming game play. It’s bingo, for the most part. Essentially players sit in a game with eight standard bingo cards and every couple of seconds a new number is called and is automatically marked off on all eight cards (since it is automatic, multiple games can, in fact, be played at once).

The standard rules of the game apply, which is five numbers in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Here is the gimmick though: it is Bingo “Derby,” comparable to a horse race in that players do not buy a bingo card, but bet on one. As numbers are called, a rating on the card will increase or decrease depending on how many numbers it is getting. Users will then pick one of those cards and bet a virtual currency – Coins – on it. The higher the rating is, the higher the payout, but the less likely it will win, while the lower ratings are the exact inverse.

Bingo Derby is amusing, at best, with its bright colors and quirky sounds, but unless you’re a fan of bingo in general, it probably isn’t going to be all that exciting. Furthermore, there doesn’t look to be any way to get more coins other than actually buying them, so any additional games after you lose everything become a bit… difficult. Granted, it is simulated “gambling,” but it shouldn’t simulate a completely empty wallet like the horse track does too.

Frankly, this is a significant red flag as most games of a gambling nature (i.e. Texas Hold’Em Poker) will grant a daily set of coins as soon as you log in the first time. This allows players to always have a safety net if they lose everything. They can always “come back tomorrow” and try again. Of course, it’s more than just a player safety net when it does indeed get them to actually “come back tomorrow” as, usually, most developers want that anyway. If this exists for Bingo Derby, it certainly wasn’t noticeable.

On the upside, this is hardly a difficult issue to deal with, and is likely one of many additions the game will see. Already, C.A. Mobile and ODD1 have stated that they a “long-term exploitation plan for Bingo Derby,” and that “numerous updates are already planned.”

When we first came across an app called Absolute Solitaire, it didn’t strike much of a chord. After all, it’s just solitaire, right? Well, apparently, the Windows version of this classic PC game has been holding back as the bilingual Facebook game from Café.com has proven, once again, just how much better a little style can make a simple game.

Last time we looked at a title from the company, it had created a perfect zen-like atmosphere on Facebook with Temple of Mahjong 2, and it seems that that level of serenity hasn’t lost any of its potency.

Available in both French and English, Absolute Solitaire plays like any other solitaire game: Users attempt to sort a shuffled deck of cards, using basic solitaire rules, so that the four empty cells in the upper right contain all 13 cards from each suite. Standard. However, like in Temple of Mahjong 2, this version has a handful of special tools to help users should they get stuck. This includes an auto feature that automatically places cards into the top four cells, an inverse tool that will flip two cards, changing which one is on top (and in turn, which one can be moved), a free cell tool that gives you an empty spot to place any card, and a magic tool that reveals three cards.

Now before anyone gets up in arms about how this defeats the purpose of solitaire, yes, it does make it much easier. Truth be told, however, it was never a really difficult game to begin with, and these features help to mitigate unwinnable situations that do come off as frustrating from time to time in the classic Windows rendition. Furthermore, the alleviation of frustration seems to be the whole point. This game isn’t about challenge. It’s about relaxation.

Every element of Absolute Solitaire is intended to be serene; be it the gentle way the cards animate, t0 the zen backgrounds that range from ladybug close-ups to tropical waterfalls, to the gentle (and beautiful) ambient music playing in the background. This is a game designed to just help people unwind after a long day.

Of course, being a Facebook app, this title has far more to it than mere presentation. Each game is actually timed, and for every move you make, points are earned, and for every time you recycle the deck in the upper left, points are lost. This scoring system obviously leads to the game’s leaderboard and Challenge systems. As with most Facebook titles, the former consists of both friends and global boards while the latter merely coaxes Facebook buddies to beat your high score via a posting on your profile’s wall.

On another note, for each game one plays, they earn experience towards a new level, which is represented by an odd looking card avatar. A minor addition, yes, but like in Temple of Mahjong 2, this critter, with faces ranging from kings to Elvis, is a more than welcome addition, giving players a small means to visibly display their solitaire prowess to friends.

In the end, Absolute Solitaire isn’t anything to write home about in the game play department. However, it is a fantastic example of how even a game that we all take for granted – a game most could play in their sleep – is made ten times better with a quality presentation. Okay, so it’s not FarmVille, but it currently earns over 165,000 monthly active users, and if you’re bored and just looking to zone out without thinking too hard, then this is a game for you. If nothing else, you’ll probably just let the music play… ah, soothing….

While many iPhone games come with social features like leaderboards, achievements, and occasional challenges help, via third-parties, the games quite often aren’t social in their own right. A creative take on pictionary, by the name of Charadium, from On5, challenges that generalization.

The game uses ngmoco’s Plus+ platform, but while that feature plays a strong role in the game’s social prowess, it is hardly the focal point. Best described as an online, multiplayer marriage of charades and pictionary, Charadium is a social app all on its own.

Using either WiFi or 3G, players connect with other app users (this can also be limited to just friends) and play against one another in full games of 15 rounds (don’t worry, there is an option for quick games too). One person will draw, and the others guess. If you’re on the guessing end, the makeshift artist will begin to draw something, pictionary-style, based on a mystery word that only they know. Given the standard iPhone keyboard, players will type their guesses until someone gets it right, earning them points.

Obviously, ease of guessing the right word often depends on the artistic prowess of the person drawing, so the game does try to help out as needed, eventually displaying how many letters are in the word, filling in letters, and auto-correcting misspelled words.

At the end of a round, a new artist is selected. In this case, the mystery word is presented to them and could be something as simple as “tea,” or more ambiguous like “emptiness.” From here, the player uses the touch screen to draw and a basic palette to change their pen color. Granted, it’s not Photoshop, but it’s enough to get the job done. Moreover, points are awarded to the person drawing based on how quickly their work is deciphered.

The Plus+ integration include in-game achievements to add further longevity (though since its multiplayer, it already has a hefty lifespan), as well as leaderboards. The game’s results can be shared with others via email, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also view game log results and your drawings at Charadium.com using a “room code” granted at the end of each game.

Frankly, the game is a ton of fun and a great adaptation on classic analog games. In fact, the only complaint to be had doesn’t even come from the design side at all. As with most online games that give any sort of user control (even something as simple as chat), there are the random, immature morons that have to come in and draw offensive and obscene content. Thankfully, you can boot them out of games, but it is still very obnoxious.

Iif you’re looking for a simple, yet extremely fun and addictive game, Charadium comes highly recommended at $0.99.

About mid-year, last year, German developer wooga (world of gaming) created an entertaining quiz-like game by the name of Brain Buddies. Since then, the game has done fairly well, currently earning around 3.2 million monthly active users. However, the European company has also been hard at work on a new Facebook game, Bubble Island.

The game is a remake of a classic arcade type of game where the player shoots multicolored bubbles toward a collection of other bubbles hanging from a ceiling. The object is to match three or more of the same color to remove them. However, every couple of shots, the ceiling lowers, and should any of these soapy orbs cross the red line located near the bottom of the screen, the game is over. Of course, if you remove them all, you win.

Like the arcade rendition – and the myriad of casual Flash versions – of this game, bubbles can be bounced off of walls, and in the case of Bubble Island, the ceiling. Furthermore, all bubbles hanging from the ceiling must be connected to the ones above them to avoid falling, so the player is capable of shooting connecting ones to remove all those below.

Like with wooga’s last title, the presentation value for Bubble Island is fantastic. Players play as a backpacking raccoon and move about a tropical island setting. Each section of the island is a new level that has three to four stages that must be cleared in order to move forward. Furthermore, each one has a very nice visual display and music that, for the most part (there are a few stages where the music skips), fits perfectly.

Beyond aesthetics, each level changes the board slightly too. Some boards seem to be taller, others wider, thus adding a nice change in game play pace. Frankly, even more dynamic and oddly shaped levels might be prudent in adding a little new flavor to such an old game concept.

Nevertheless, what Bubble Island does bring to the table — that is very new — is its social elements. Yes, it has the basics of inviting friends and competing for high scores on each level, via leaderboards. But there’s more. Players have lives in Bubble Island. Should they fail to remove all the bubbles before they reach the bottom, they lose one. However, the more they play, and the more their Facebook friends play, the more lives they earn.

Beyond the above, this app also has other social standards such using the social graph through feed postings and earnable trophies (achievements). To the untrained eye, it may not seem like terribly much, but for many players the earning of achievements is narcotic, and adds a great deal of longevity to even the simplest of games.

The only real complaints to be had are minor, at best. It feels like the bubbles shoot a bit too fast. They literally are in place in less than half a second, and there was always something gratifying about watching them bounce into place. Ironically, the second issue is the reverse. When one completes a level, it often takes a exorbitant amount of time to load the scoring screen, leading one to the assumption that the game might have crashed.

It is also worth mentioning that, yes, a more original game concept would be much better, but, this type of game is still very entertaining, and new iteratoins on old ideas are loved by many social game players.

Currently, wooga’s Bubble Island is still in beta, and it doesn’t have a tremendous amount of users yet. Our AppData is tracking around 19,300 monthly active users. However, unlike most Facebook games that say “beta” (Pet Society still has a beta tag, and that came out ages ago) wooga’s seems more like a real one. It prompts users to input an email and wait a bit for access. That in mind, this app isn’t exactly doing too bad. We look forward to seeing how it does when fully released.

Having originated in ancient China, it’s probably safe to say that the game of Mahjong has changed quite a bit in the Western world. In fact, most people probably recognize it more as “that game on Yahoo” (or something along those lines). Now, Café.com has brought to Facebook the app Temple of Mahjong 2.

Recently #2 on last week’s emerging games list, this zen-like title hovers just above 420,000 monthly active users. However, this is a game that certainly warrants more users, as its peaceful escape and polished features made it a bit difficult to turn off.

For those unfamiliar with Mahjong – or at least the web version of it – players are tasked with the removal of every single rectangular tile on the game field. The problem is, there are… a lot. The rules are fairly simple: Tiles are placed together in a pattern, with many stacking on top of each other in pyramid-like shapes that cannot be removed if one of the longer sides are not exposed to the outside of the pattern formed, nor if any part of a tile sits atop it. The general idea is to remove tiles that are at the top (they can be stacked two, three, four, and sometimes even five high) and most outward first, working your way inwards and down.

In Temple of Mahjong 2, this same basic play is obviously kept, but Café.com does make it a bit easier, granting the player both helpful tools and bonuses. Should the player get stuck, potential moves will sparkle and, if needed, they can use a one time hint button to do the same. Now, since the game ends when there are no more moves, the app also has two rearrange buttons (also one use each) that will shuffle all the tiles at random, as well as the ability to remove one tile from the pattern for later use.

Truth be told, these tools really took the challenge out of the whole puzzle aspect, but it didn’t make it any less fun. You see, for each tool to help when one is in trouble, there was something extra to also improve one’s score. For example, if one matched up a pair of flower tiles with a multiplier in the corner (i.e. x4), all tiles removed thereafter would earn the player extra points for a limited time.

Since Temple of Mahjong 2 is on Facebook, score actually becomes a big deal as the main social element consists of challenging and competing with Facebook buddies to see who is the best at the game. To add to that, each player is represented by an avatar that levels up as the user continues to play (i.e. Pilgrim Monk (lvl 1)). Granted, none of this is as in-depth as your average RPG or virtual world game, but the leaderboards and challenges still do add a small amount of longevity and gratification, with the avatar enhancing the latter.

Presentation-wise, this is an app that looks fantastic with beautiful visuals that fit well with the Chinese art-style it is going for. Furthermore, this is one of the few applications in which the music and sound actually didn’t get muted due to obnoxious loops.

Despite the praise to be had for Temple of Mahjong 2, it does have one very big complaint. There’s really only one level to play. In other Mahjong games, there are often multiple layouts in which the tiles can be placed, but thus far, we’ve only seen one. Different layouts mean different strategies, and makes the game a little less repetitive. Of course, the randomly placed tiles mitigates that some, but there could still be more. Frankly, this feels like a symptom a lot of casual to social translations suffer from.

Overall, the game is well-made and looks promising — especially if the developer continues to build out the levels and the social features.

In the last few months a number of casual gaming companies have created social games. Four of the titles, that we know of,  have broken 1 million monthly active users, including: 1) Bejeweled Blitz by Popcap Games at 9.83 million, 2) Bubble Popp by GameDuell with 3.11 million, 3) Jungle Jewels by GameDuell at 2.62 million and 4) Icy Tower  by Muskedunder Interactive at 1.12 million.

While the MAU for these games are nowhere close to those of dominant contenders coming from social game developers, they are still interesting case studies that demonstrate which aspects of a casual game development mentality work on Facebook and which don’t.

What works

Addicting Skill Based Gameplay: Thumbs Up

All four casual games ported to Facebook are skill-based games. Bejeweled Blitz and Jungle Jewels are puzzle games that reward users for aligning certain gem combinations quickly. Bubble Popp scores users for popping as many bubbles as possible in a limited number of shots and gives users bonus points for popping diamond bubbles. Icy Tower rewards user for reaching higher levels of the tower before time runs out.

Like casual games from time immemorial all of these games use scoring to capitalize on users’ competitive desires and thus engagement. They do this by providing scores and leveraging users’ social graph to popularize these scores between friends (and in some cases between other users of game who are not friends). Not all of them do this well.

Viral Distribution: Thumbs Down

With the exception of Bejeweled Blitz, all of these games miss many opportunities for integration of viral hooks. Jungle Jewels and Bubble Popp do not auto-prompt you to share score information at the end of each game with a popup Facebook message. Instead, the sharing option is blended in with other options on the results screen.

Another of these casual games, Icy Tower, has no scoring wall messaging at all. Users who beat a high score of one of their friends send their friend a Facebook notification, a viral element that does not leverage the social graph of either the person who beat the high score or the one who was beaten as these notifications are not visible to all of their friends.

Bejeweled Blitz, however, does a very good job with viral distribution. Like the other games Bejeweled Blitz is a classic casual game that has seen much success outside Facebook. However, the makers of the Facebook version of Bejeweled Blitz understood that the key to a successful social game is interaction with other Facebook friends. Because of this they have not only made high score posting to Facebook walls easy and obvious but have also added many other social features such as the “Jewel Jabber” which allows you to trash talk your friends who are playing the game on their walls. Also unlike the other games as well as many social games — where the copy for the message inviting friends to the game is often bland and uninspiring — the copy for Bejeweled Blitz taps into users’ competitive motivations.

Monetization: Thumbs Down

Being skill-based scoring games, they don’t lend themselves to virtual items. Because of this, three of the games Bejeweled Blitz, Bubble Popp, and Jungle Jewel have no real system for monetization except for what seems like incentivizing users to leave Facebook to go to their own game sites. According to PopCap’s director of online products, Jon David, the company has had success with this, although he declined to tell us how much. He also said that theyhave plans further to monetize Bejeweled Blitz.

One exception to this strategy is Icy Tower which uses pre-game and interstitial advertising to motivate users to purchase or fill out offers for its in-game currency. This currency can then be used for customize the Icy Tower avatar.

It is unclear how successful either of these strategies have been.

And the Final Score Is… One Thumb Up, Two Thumbs Down

This brings the total score of these four casual games ported to social networks to -1. As we can see from their successes viral distribution is possible for skill based games but the viral events and messaging must be carefully thought out. As for monetization, skill-based score casual properties have fewer monetization opportunities. However, there are many other casual game properties that are better suited for monetization. We look forward to seeing more of these on Facebook in the coming year.

Sana Choudary runs Traffichoney. It works with casual game companies who are having the challenge of understanding how to build social games, helping them understand how to use and optimize viral channels and social game design to build popular social games. To contact her or learn more about what Sana is up to please visit Sana’s blog at www.traffichoney.com

Compression, from Little White Bear Studios, is an iPhone title that combines game play elements from Bejeweled, Dr. Mario, and Tetris, with a few social features thrown in — and a new, free, Lite version. But just how did this game compare?

It works around the ever-common core mechanic of placing three or more objects of the same color in a vertical or horizontal line to remove them, albeit using iPhone’s touch feature to let you manipulate blocks. As you match blocks, you score points, with extra bonus for combos (removal of blocks caused by the prior removal of another set). Obviously, this is reminiscent of Tetris and Bejeweled, and thus, to be different, the developers had to add a few new ideas.

This is where the Dr. Mario and Tetris elements come into play. Blocks slowly fall toward a field of already placed hollow blocks (that become more abundant and intricate in harder levels). They can be moved via dragging, rotated by tapping, slowed by holding, or placed quickly by flicking. Frankly, such features worked well with the classic games, and they work more or less as well here. However, that still leaves some innovation to be desired.

In order to accomplish this goal, Compression does just what its title suggests. It compresses. If you’ll notice from the screenshots, there is are metal borders surrounding the playing field. Every few pieces that drop, the board will shrink slightly, based on the location of three white dots (i.e. if they are at the bottom, the bottom border will move up). This, of course, moves all of the blocks currently on the board, or even removes them if there is no room left for compression, and can drastically change any strategy the user previously had in mind.

As one might surmise, a level is won when all hollow blocks have been removed. Upon completion, the score is further enhanced by how many empty squares on the game board remain. Since the app is powered by OpenFeint, the scores are then uploaded to a trio of leaderboards (Highest Score, Blocks Destroyed in a Single Game, and Combos Made in a Single Game), adding a little extra competition to this puzzle title. Furthermore, for those that enjoy them, the OpenFeint integration also adds for seven or so achievements, plus the other social features that come with using the platform.

Despite the developer name of “Little White Bear,” this game is very dark looking. While all three of its benchmark titles (Bejeweled, Dr. Mario, and Tetris) are colorful – as are most other puzzle games – this application has a very mechanical and industrial feel to it. It doesn’t look bad, by any means, but begs the question as to whether or not it will discourage the more casual gamers from playing.

As far as real complaints go, though, the only significant one is the issue of originality. Frankly, the game does create an interesting hybrid of classic game features and the compression element is very nice, but it still just feels like a compilation of games that did these features before and did them better.

In the end, Compression isn’t a bad game, but it will likely be very hit or miss whether a new player likes it or not. The game itself costs a mere $0.99, but a recently added, free, Lite version now allows players to see for themselves whether or not Little White Bear’s industrial-looking title is right for them.