Jenkat Games or Jencat Games, call us whatever makes you feel good!

Since the last episode of Extras aired on HBO (and for the second viewing on my DVD player), I have been pining away for anything from my personal king of comedy, Ricky Gervais.  If you have never seen an episode of the original BBC version of The Office or Extras – I suggest you get these series added to your Netflix queue posthaste! 

Anyway, I am happy to report that Ricky is starring in a movie (finally!!) called Ghost Town, and it will arrive in theaters on September 19th.  I never have the patience to see movies on opening day anymore, but I adore Ricky so much, I am not sure I will be able to wait for this one.

The trailer is out now – and I found it amusing, with limitless comedic potential.  Okay, maybe I am getting carried away, but I love Ricky.  Take it.    Check out the trailer, and tell me if you agree:

Given my love of all things coffee and chocolatey, I could not resist downloading Yummy Drink Factory.  The description of the game sounded a little reminiscent of the famous Diner Dash time management games, and the look of the game art appealed to me.

First, the not-so-good:  The characters in the story are rather obnoxious.  How can I feel motivated to play well and cheer myself on, if I am playing in the position of the main character — who happens to be very cold-hearted and rude?  I also am not a fan of having to click “Next” to read sentence after sentence of rather drab dialogue between the characters.  I prefer to get the gist of the story all at once.  I am a working woman, after all. 

On the other hand:  The game art is very pleasing to the eye — wonderful, vibrant colors and scenery.  Since I am pretty awful at time management games, the tutorials were appreciated, and I was glad that the recipes were so simple from the start.  The difficulty seems to increase very gradually, so I was able to keep up.  I also appreciated the option to end the level once the daily goal is reached, as some levels (as true with any game) aren’t as fun as others.  Best of all, I loved the “coffee shop” setting of the game with a fantasy twist — and the perspective of the camera viewing only the counter, materials and customers is refreshing when compared to the old model of actually showing the main character move about the scene.

Overall I would recommend giving this game a play, especially if you are a fan of time management-meets-memory games.  Official Jovi scale — I’d give it a 7 out of 10.

If you would like to try the game for free, CLICK HERE. 

To to anyone still reading this blog… Hello…ello…ello…  In case you are wondering why this space has been rather inactive as of late, hopefully I can briefly explain without boring you to tears…

First, Jenkat Games recently relocated its “Games Hub of Love” to lush and lovely Minnesota!  Moving a business — even a small one — isn’t ever as easy as you hope it will be.  Also, you may have noticed that we launched Jenkat Games 2.0 over the summer.  We realize there are a few bugs to deal with, and we appreciate your patience as we work out the kinks.  We’d love it if you would take some time to send us along any comments or suggestions you have about the site, as we do want to make this site as fun as possible for our loyal players.

We have also been hard at work on a new download game, that should be available this fall.  Does anyone here enjoy hidden object games?    We also have two new online games in production that are just about finished, and our goal is to launch them on the site in the next couple of months.  Hopefully the new games will be a fair reward for your continued loyalty!

Anyway, we are settled into our new digs, and I should now have more time for bloggin’.  I hope you will read, and more importantly, I hope you will comment on my silly ramblings.  I am looking for friends to add to my new profile, so help me out by chatting me up here, will ya?

It’s good to be back in the saddle!

After several delays we now have much of the new site in place. We’ll have more info on everything that was added later today, but for now, here’s a quick overview:

- A new user Profile Page named “My Profile”
- A new header, showing you your wink total and how many friends are online
- The ability to add friends and track their high scores and winks
- The ability to see your high scores, your friends’ high scores, and much more
- The ability to message your friends and challenge them
- Your favorite games and your most recently played games

Also coming soon is a new JenkatGames.com Store, which will feature merchandise with characters from your favorite Jenkat games! Again, more to come later today, but for now, if you find any issues with any of the new functionality, please either post them in the comments below, or submit them via our support page. Thanks!

Dr. Jones?  Famous exlporer?  I think George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford gonna sue somebody!  

So our friends at NevoSoft have released their new game and Jenkat is one of the first to feature it.  Laura Jones and the Gates of Good & Evil kind of feels a little like Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider (Lara Craft).  In fact, if you combine Lara Croft and Indiana Jones, you might get La(u)ra Jones.  Interesting.

Would you have guessed that Laura Jones would be anything but a hidden-object game, plus it has a cool name like “the Gates of Good & Evil” - Snazzy.

Laura Jones and the Gates of Good & Evil Game
http://www.jenkatgames.com/download/Laura-Jones-and-the-Gates-of-Good-and-Evil/

Oh boy, Jovi will like this news - She’s a big fan of Heart (aka Ann & Nancy Wilson). 

Heart: In the Studio, written by biographer Jake Brown, with exclusive interview contributions from Heart principles Ann and Nancy Wilson, fellow band members, as well as all of the groups producers, chronicles the behind-the-scenes story of the hit-making process.  Included are the stories behind such classic-and-pop-rock staples as ˜Magic Man, ˜Crazy On You, ˜Barracuda, ˜Straight On, ˜These Dreams, ˜Alone, ˜All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love to You), and countless others over 3 decades and 30 million+ albums sold. Heart is still beloved by rock fans worldwide, and this summer is co-headlining a tour with fellow classic-rock legend Journey, as well as working on material for a new studio album, due in 2009, in time with the bands rumored pending-induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

James Patterson is a busy guy these days.  Not only is he the creator of Women’s Murder Club on ABC, he has also dipped his name into the casual gaming world with the new Women’s Murder Club - Death In Scarlet.

I personally don’t know too much about James Patterson, just that he’s been around forever, so he must be a popular writer.  I’ve seen parts of Kiss The Girls, one of his books that became a movie and starred Morgan Freeman. 

Working the causual games industry, I know a lot of companies have been shy about putting the word “murder” into the title of their game name.  Looks like we’ve broken through that barrier. 

Give Women’s Murder Club a try - It looks like its very popular with other Jenkat’r’s!

Women’s Murder Club - Death In Scarlet Download
http://www.jenkatgames.com/download/Womens-Murder-Club-Death-in-Scarlet/

Who would have thought that President Bush is actually the Great Communicator…

Hey Barack, you better stick to the teleprompter. 

Our friends at Grubby Games, famous for developing games that your kids and grandkids will love, have just released a brand new game called The Amazing Brain Train.  The good thing about the casual games sector is that most of the games are rated PG when it comes to content.   Making a game that’s not only G rated, but also appealing to kids and adults is very hard, but some companies have pulled that off.  I like to think we did that with Finders Keepers, but I digress.

As for The Amazing Brain Train, it’s definitely a game that you can play with your kids.  I played the game with my eight-year-old niece and she loved it.  Check it out when you want to spend some quality time with the kids - not only will they love the game, they’ll love that you’re playing it with them.

The Amazing Brain Train Download
http://www.jenkatgames.com/download/The-Amazing-Brain-Train/

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that the new AC/DC album, their first since 200o’s Stiff Upper Lip, will be an exclusive to Wal-Mart when it arrives this fall.  The band is currently in Vancouver recording the album with producer Brendon O’Brien (Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam).

AC/DC will follow The Eagles, Bryan Adams and most recently Journey as artists who’ve made their albums exclusively available for the retail giant.  The Eagles reportedly sold amost three million albums via Wal-Mart and the new Journey album is on its way to 100,000 already, after only week.  Impressive for Journey, considering that their previous album didn’t sell that many copies and has been out several years.

I’m looking forward to the AC/DC record and maybe seeing them on tour.  Or a live DVD.