coming soon/rumors

Here are some screenshots of Pictureka Museum Mayhem to whet your appetite and (maybe) tide you over until the game is released:

Get ready to spend some gems and tokens on the upcoming Christmas/Holiday mini release(s). Pogo’s got some great new stuff this year — gorgeous backgrounds (including ones with pets), cold weather clothes, a nutcracker, santa hats for our favorite pets, piles of presents, and a partridge in a pear tree (or two)!

We expect these items to be released shortly after Thanksgiving (but we’re all hoping they’ll be released the week before, right?). And like Pogo always does for major holidays, they’ll be bringing back a few of your favorite holiday favorites from years past.

We’re back! On the very first day of our vacation, our darling Badge Fairy Lura came down with an awful sore throat and fever that’s making her cranky and sleepy and generally difficult. Please bear with us as she convalesces.

In other news, while we were gone:

Casual President resigns, EA cuts their Casual Division
President of the EA Casual Division Kathy Vrabeck resigned and shortly thereafter EA announced a reorganization that basically merges the Casual division with the Sims division, as well as merges in their Hasbro partnership. The most interesting thing (for us) about this is that EA is seemingly saying that “casual gamers” don’t exist, that the term “casual gamer” in fact applies to a much more diverse set of gamers, hardcore and non-hardcore alike.

New mini items in the Mini Mall
Pogo has given us another great release of mini items in the Mini Mall, including exotic pets (isn’t that peacock gorgeous?) and Yahtzee items. In addition to some other Autumnal items, there are a few new pieces of clothing to keep your Mini warm as the weather begins to turn to downright chilly in most of the nation.

Pictureka can be added to favorites
You can add Pictureka to your favorites, but you can’t yet download and/or play it. You know where to look for the latest news, of course…right here at BadgeHungry. We wouldn’t keep any secrets from you.

We only posted US answers
You’d think the world was coming to a nuclear end with the amount of email we received about the answers we had (or hadn’t) pre-posted for Trivial Pursuit Daily 20. For the three days we were gone, we got the US answers in advance, but not the UK answers. We decided to post the US answers and list that the UK answers would be posted soon — better half than none at all, right? Well, we received so much email protesting the missing answers we probably can’t respond to all of you, but the UK answers have been back-posted now. You may now remove your foil-lined helmets and come out from your bomb shelters — everything is right with the world (except maybe Badge Fairy’s darned sore throat)!

Dream Vacation Sweepstakes
Play Monopoly from November 7-13 for a chance to win some great prizes. One winner will win the “Dream Vacation”, consisting of two $500 Hyatt gift cards and one $1500 American Airlines Gift Card. Three winners will receive $300 and the Monopoly Here & Now board game. Each time you load the game you’ll be entered to win, so get playing (or, um, loading).

Pogo Bowl is now Turkey Bowl!
Every year, Pogo replaces the pins in Pogo Bowl with gobbling turkeys. It’s quite a sight to see, so go check it out!

We know from various press releases and internet sales sites that Pictureka Museum Mayhem is scheduled to be released on November 19th (which means a Pogo release of November 18th and a day for chaos to ensue and be resolved). In the meantime, here’s a page from Pogo to tide you over; it announces Pictureka is coming soon and shows us some more details.

Pogo’s created a page to celebrate Yahtzee Party, coming soon. The page doesn’t contain anything we didn’t already know, but it’s got a few screenshots for anyone who hasn’t gotten a glimpse at what the game will look like. Considering how much of a hit Dice City Roller has always been, we suspect this game will be even more popular when it’s out.

Here are the details of the upcoming Playful Pets Premium Badge Album badges and challenges. In total, there are twelve badges and you will earn a bonus badge for completing the challenges in Poppit!, Mahjong Safari, Word Whomp, Tumble Bees, Jigsaw Treasure Hunter, Hog Heaven Slots, Sweet Tooth 2, Turbo 21, Phlinx, Stack ‘em, Squelchies, and Mahjong Garden. It will sell for $5.99. At release, this game has gone up in price from $5.99 to $6.99.

Poppit! - Puggles Badge
Win 800 tokens in 1 day!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Mahjong Safari - Bird Safari Badge
Win 1,200 tokens in 2 days!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Word Whomp - Word Dog Badge
Win 1,600 tokens in 3 days!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Tumble Bees - Cat Hive Badge
Win 2,000 tokens in 4 days!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Jigsaw Treasure Hunter - Puzzle it Out Badge
Win 2,400 tokens in 5 days!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Hog Heaven Slots - Tokens from Heaven Badge
Win 2,800 tokens in 6 days!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Sweet Tooth 2 - Cat Tooth Badge
Win 3,200 tokens in 7 days!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Turbo 21 - Turbo Cat Badge
Win 3,600 tokens in 8 days!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Phlinx - Royal Feline Badge
Win 4,000 tokens in 9 days!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Stack ‘em - Stack ‘em Five Badge
Win 4,400 tokens in 10 days!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Squelchies - Squelchies Revenge Badge
Win 4,800 tokens in 11 days!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Mahjong Garden - Garden Chase Badge
Win 5,200 tokens in 12 days!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

All of the challenges in this upcoming Premium Badge Album require you to play Monopoly. If you complete all 8 challenges you will receive a bonus Monopoly World Super Badge. This album will sell for $5.99. Here are the details of the eight badges and their token rewards:

Doin’ Time Badge
Go to Jail 10 times in 3 days!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Lady Lux Badge
Pass “Go” 20 times in 1 day!
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Purchasing Power Badge
Have a player pay you rent 8 times in 20 minutes! (Play with Speedy Rules only!)
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Go Take a Chance Badge
Draw 75 Community Chest or Chance cards in 3 weeks! (Play with Pogo House Rules only!)
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Railroaded Badge
Land on a Transport Space 40 times in 4 weeks!
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

Aerial Advance Badge
Draw 10 Community Chest or Chance cards in 1 hour! (Play with Official Rules only!)
Win this badge plus 1500 tokens!

Board Hop Badge
Roll doubles 100 times in 5 weeks!
Win this badge plus 3000 tokens!

Pocket Money Badge
Land on Free Parking 3 times in 1 day! (Play with Family rules only!)
Win this badge plus 2000 tokens!

It’s days like these that we wish we had the ability to withhold the free donuts from Pogo employees when they screw up things this badly.

Pogo (and Oberon Media) sent out an email this morning to ALL Club Pogo members about Diner Dash Family Style, and how it was available for download from this page. However, we’ve checked it out and the version available for download doesn’t work…yet. (The file size is only 11bytes and if you try to run it, you’ll just get a black terminal window that hangs and hangs and hangs…)

Come on Pogo, we beg you… get your act together!

We expect someone at Pogo will figure this out soon, so don’t buy the game until your trial version WORKS. And certainly, don’t fret if your download doesn’t install properly; it’s happening to all of us.

Update 3:15pm EST Michelle wrote in to tell us it’s working just fine for her, and we just took the game for a test drive, and we’re pleased to finally say that Diner Dash Family Style seems to be available! We still aren’t taking back what we said up there about taking away their donuts, by the way.

Update 10/29/08 If you’re having problems with Diner Dash, note the following two things: one, you aren’t alone and two, you need to contact customer support for Pogo (not us — we can’t help you).

If you’re like us and just can’t wait to play Pictureka, here’s a sneak peek at the How to Play for the game. In addition, Hasbro has had a demo of the game on their web site for a while; it will give you a rough idea of how the game will be played.

Of course, Pogo’s version is going to far surpass this one with its badges, ranks, team play, and super-cool mini items!