coming soon/rumors

Here is pretty solid confirmation that Pogo has been secretly working on a downloadable, deluxe version of Pogo Bowl! Someone at Pogo let the cat out of the bag today by accidentally releasing a bowling ball mini goodie item to the mini mall. (It’s the fourth one featured below, and it shows up in the ‘goodies’ section of your closet in the mini mall.)

Here are the six bowling ball goodies you’ll be able to win for your mini when and if the game is released:

There are also full outfits (hairstyles and bowling league uniforms) for males and females:

Remember these mysterious, unreleased animal-themed badges? They have resurfaced as badges for the new ranks that will be added to Tri-Peaks Solitaire. Pogo will be adding 70 more ranks to Tri-Peaks Solitaire, bringing the total number of ranks to 100. The new badges are as follows:

Salamander Badge

Collect 2176 artifacts to achieve Salmander Rank (Rank 40) and earn this badge

Firemouth Badge

Collect 2492 artifacts to achieve Firemouth Rank (Rank 60) and earn this badge

Booby Badge

Collect 2957 artifacts to achieve Booby Rank (Rank 80) and earn this badge

Tarantula Badge

Collect 3562 artifacts to achieve Tarantula Rank (Rank 100) and earn this badge

Coming soon for our minis will be fun alien-themed items. There are some static backgrounds with soft scenes of aliens and alien terrain. There’s also a ray gun and an alien robot that will be available as goodies. You’ll also be able to dress your mini in a full-body costume as an astronaut. Keep your eyes out for these fun items in an upcoming mini release.

Also, changes are in the works to the way that goodies and pets currently work — soon you’ll be able to choose which side of your mini (right or left) displays your goodie. That way you can always have a goodie and a pet in your current mini shots!

Remember Team Bingo? It seemed to have fallen off the radar among protestations and yawns screaming “not another bingo game?!?” But just recently, Pogo’s artists created a badge that appears to be a weekly challenge badge for Team Bingo, depicting a squirrel tightly holding a gigantic acorn.

Could it be the same acorn featured on Everyone Wins Bingo’s badges and game board? Time will tell!

Propping up our theory is the fact that the game has resurfaced in beta testing under the new name “Everyone Wins” Bingo. According to our (somewhat speculative) calculations, that particular badge should be used for one of the weekly challenges the week of September 24-30th. This would mean the game would have to be released sometime in September at the latest, given that it’d need a week or two of Pogo’s “sneak peek” status to work out the kinks prior to the challenge.

Monopoly isn’t anywhere near completion (or release) as far as we know, but Pogo’s created the in-game badges for the upcoming Hasbro release. They all depict Rich Uncle Pennybags and we think they show him working his way up the corporate ladder, from a hotel bellboy carrying piles of luggage all the way up to heaven where his angel-self floats along throwing out golden bills of money. There are five in total, so far with no signs of special/secret badges like Scrabble had.

Pogo’s graphic artists have been busy creating an animated daschund, poodle, boxer, shih-tzu, and schnauzer; as well as a static basket of puppies for dog loving minis! For the cat lovers, there will be animations: stretching siamese, a tuxedo cat playing with a butterfly, and a persian and her mousie toy; and there will be a static basket of kittens as well. There will also be a cockatiel, a canary, and a couple fishtanks. And to round out the collection, there will be a background image featuring dogs and their owners playing in the front lawn of the Pogo Pet Adoption Center at the corner of Pogo Way. How idyllic!

In the works at Pogo is a new Premium Badge Album called “Scrabble Secrets”. There are 8 animated badges in total and each one depicts a scene that ‘discovers’ a letter in the word SCRABBLE. So far, all are complete — including the completion ‘book’ badge — except the R and one of the B’s. We’re not sure what games you’ll need to play to complete each badge, but it appears they will not be all Scrabble.

Starting July 16, Pogo UK is offering their first Playfest! This one is the Summer Sizzler. For those of you who don’t know what a Playfest is: “It’s a chance for you and your Pogo friends to play together in a UK side-wide event, all working to complete the same Playfest game goal. Each time you complete a Playfest goal in the featured game, you’ll be entered for a chance to win great prizes. Playfest goals are announced at the start of each event.” Although non-UK players will not be able to win prizes, we’ll probably be able to earn 5,000 tokens for completing a game goal.

The Playfest will be celebrating the Hasbro games coming to Pogo UK. There’s a note in the article about why non-US/Canada players won’t be able to play Scrabble, as well. “Specific to Scrabble, Hasbro holds the rights to Scrabble in the US and Canada only, so we will not be able to make the game available to players outside these countries.” However Monopoly, Yahtzee, and others will be available to the non-US/Canada Pogo players soon.

There are a variety of amusement park/theme park/carnival mini items coming soon. The new backgrounds feature a “water tubes” ride, a dad and his son at a Pogo-themed amusement park, a host of a balloon-popping carnival game, and the park’s main street at night. Goodies you can get for your minis include a Word Whomp gopher toy, a Club Pogo photo prop (where you stick your face in and become Spike the cactus), cotton candy, a Spike toy, and a stuffed panda bear. And last but not least, there are some outfits too: a couple casual summer-type outfits for both men and ladies.