coming soon/rumors

The name “Plate Spinner” did seem a little weird, we’ll admit. The latest word on the street is that Pogo will be changing the new game’s name to something else before release, but they haven’t decided what it’ll be yet. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear word of its new name.

Start your engines folks, Pogo wasn’t kidding when they said there were tons of mini items coming soon. There will be tons of animated mini backgrounds and two new “wheelchair outfits” in the mini mall in the coming months. There’s a pimped-out “Motor Wheels” outfit (think of an offroad wheelchair) and the backgrounds all feature different types of racing: a photo finish in Nascar, dune buggies, and and “Monster Truck Mania”. There are some related goodies as well.

This is probably unrelated, but Pogo has also created some outfits for men and women. We’ve seen two short-sleeved tops for the ladies: one patterned yellow and grey and the other is white with large grey polka dots. A coordinating pair of wide-legged trousers has been created as well. The men will get a striped grey polo as well as a pair of white pants.

From the mini backgrounds and goodies we’ve seen (and knowing that Hasbro and Pogo have aligned to bring Hasbro favorites to Pogo), we can tell you that Scrabble is coming to (Club?) Pogo soon!

In addition, we can confirm this news with this Electronic Arts job listing (and a couple others) that mentions Scrabble as coming to Pogo as a result of the Hasbro deal. “Join one of Electronic Art’s fastest growing divisions - Pogo.com! Pogo has rapid expansion plans for the coming year. As a result of a multi year deal with Hasbro, Pogo will be adding branded games such as Monopoly and Scrabble.”

The most interesting part of this scoop is that in January 2008, Hasbro had started the process of shutting down Scrabulous, a site where you can play Scrabble online. Scrabulous has since removed all mention of the word “Scrabble” from their site, however the game remains the same, more or less a direct copy/clone of Scrabble. Scrabulous got a lot of their notoriety through their Facebook application and when Hasbro came after Scrabulous, Facebook users created a group called “Save Scrabulous!” (You can find more information on the Scrabulous Wikipedia page).

Lately, Pogo has been positioning itself on Facebook. And now that Pogo and Hasbro are creating a version of Scrabble for online play, could this be the death knell for Scrabulous? Only time will tell…

After seeing the latest work of Pogo’s graphic designers, we can report that they have been BUSY BUSY BUSY. There are tons of new things in the works for minis, some of which will make Canadians very happy for Canada Day. There will be a few new items for the United States’ Independence Day, too.

The Mix-n-Match badges have been created for May and include badges/challenges for Mahjong Garden, Golf Solitaire (!!!), Poppit, Pogo Addiction Solitaire, and Mahjong Safari.

EDIT: Moving the Scrabble information to a post of its own.

It’s been almost a year since Pogo has had a special weekend challenge (the last one was — if we recall correctly — mid-April last year, for Mahjong Garden using the then-new tileset), so when we caught wind of a Special Edition badge for KenoPop!, we were all atwitter wondering whether or not it’d be for a special weekend challenge. Either way, a Special Edition badge for KenoPop! is coming soon; it features the same graphics as in the game.

Pogo may be testing out a new Canasta game option for players who want to further customize their gameplay. “Players cannot ever pick up the discard pile” will default to off, but can be checkmarked to prevent players from picking up cards from the discard pile. The option/rule would read as follows:

“Normally, players can pick up the discard pile if they have the required cards in their hand. If you would prefer to play a special game where the discard pile is permanently frozen and neither player can EVER pick cards from the discard pile, select this option.”

EDIT: This has been confirmed as an upcoming addition to Canasta, from today’s Letters to the Editor.

“GOOD NEWS FOR CANASTA PLAYERS! Soon, we will be releasing a “Frozen Pile” option in Canasta for those who enjoy the “no pile” version of Canasta. So– players can choose the “Frozen Pile” option in a game room (don’t click “Play Now”– choose a room to set up the options), and play the game so that nobody can pick up the pile (the game will not let you).”

A mini update for those of you who have been begging for more mini items, more frequently!

We know there are lots of mini items (specifically Pogo-related outfits and backgrounds, vacation backgrounds, and another Dr. Kathleen relaxation set) coming, but we’ve all been disappointed that Pogo stopped releasing mini items every other week. However, at Thursday’s Amazing Minis! social, the judge let everyone know that Pogo would be returning to their bi-weekly release schedule starting in May.

We got a peek at Plate Spinner yesterday and those of you who love time-management games will be delighted! Time management games, for those of you not familiar with them, are like Pogo’s Makeover Madness (although most time management games make Makeover Madness look like child’s play). The most popular games of this genre are Diner Dash and Cake Mania (and have spawned many other titles, like Burger Island, Wedding Dash, Nanny Mania, Doggie Dash, Pizza Chef, and so many more). They all involve juggling a number of different tasks in order to make your customers happy.

Plate Spinner is a “Fairytale Bake Sale” where you cook up fruit-flavored pastries and serve them to customers. You’ll be able to earn combos by fulfilling successive orders for goodies of the same flavor or type. From happy customers, you’ll earn either powerups or tips. Different customers will have different attitude (for example, elves are very impatient and should be served first). Each round has a goal (like a certain amount of tips) and upon completion of that goal you’ll get a medallion. Five medallions will earn you a jackpot spin.

For a more in-depth look, check out the Plate Spinner Tutorial we have posted.

And if you’re as excited as we are and can’t wait for Plate Spinner to come out on Pogo, check out some great downloadable time management games to pass the time. All of these games have an hour free trial and you can get two for less than $10 each.

Those of you who have reported the disappearance of the “Winter Thaw” mini background, fear not! Pogo’s editor has stated that due to a technical error the background was removed from the closets of the people who owned it, but it’ll be coming back “fairly soon”.

Winter Thaw

Usually when this kind of error happens, it means someone was monkeying around with that particular item in the database. We are guessing that “Winter Thaw” may be available for purchase once again in the mini mall “fairly soon” as well. Fingers crossed!