An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Forget it. Play a round of Bejeweled instead. According to a new study, casual games are proven to be beneficial for your health. Details in the full article.

 The video game industry is undoubtedly dominated by males, but we do know that gaming is not just a big frat house. Female gamers do exist, and like the opposite gender, they come in different shapes, sizes and forms. If you do your homework, you'll also notice that girl gamers have distinct traits which allow us to divide them into several types (just like guys). In this QuickList, we'll give you a rundown on what these types are. Hit that jump!

 

Here's an interesting homebrew game created by DickyDick1969, in his quest of learning more about GUI-programming the PlayStation Portable. Introducing PHORV, the Puzzle with Horizontal and Vertical lines for Sony's PSP.

Basically, the goal of the game is to clear the field by selecting two equal-coloured tiles at a time to remove them. So obviously, the challenge is for you to clear the field in order for you to get to the next level. There are several categories for you to complete, and every time you finish one of them, you are rewarded with an unlocked new category that's sure to have more difficult levels.

Here are DickyDick1969's instructions on how to make a move:

• To make a move, you need to perform three actions.
• First you need to select a column by selecting one of the buttons in the horizontal button row.
• You also need to select a row by picking a spot in the vertical button row.
• Finally, after you have selected horizontal and vertical column, you can submit your move.
• If the move is valid the two selected tiles will be removed from the field, and you can make your next move. When all tiles are removed from the field, you have completed the level.

Anyhow, the game looks fun, and is actually reminiscent of Bejeweled and the likes of them other colorful puzzle games. To know more about the game, go check out the Read me. Enjoy!

Download: PHORV

  

Remember N64Francois' Pokemon-themed Zoo Keeper (or Bejeweled, whichever came first)-inspired homebrew Pokemon Keeper? Well, N64Francois is back to celebrate the holidays with the Santa-themed Xmas Keeper mod of Pokemon Keeper.

Of course, this holiday season, the phrase "Gotta catch them all!" refers perfectly to the mad scramble for the PS3... okay back to topic. Just like Pokemon Keeper, and Zoo Keeper (or Bejeweled, whichever came first), the objective remains the same: line up three n a row, take 'em off the board. Here's the log for the Xmas skin, via weblator:

15/11/2006

• Addition of 3 musics for Skin Xmas Keeper
• Operational Management of time (when you lose, your re-initialized score and you return on the 1st level)
• Light modification of scoring and the gameplay
• Put on line of one 4th demonstration which integrates the skin “Xmas” and all last updates

12/11/2006

• Addition of new a skin for the festivals of Christmas: Xmas Keeper
• Possibility of putting the play pauses about it while supporting on “Start”
• Normal Mode: management of the levels and the quotas
• Light modifications/improvements made to the gameplay

Download: [Xmas Keeper (a Pokemon Keeper skin mod)]

JustChris from our forums has just released his first homebrew game for the PSP called Pick-O-Mania. It may look a lot like Lumines to you, but the object of the game is slightly different from drop block and pop. I would liken it to games such as Bejeweled in nature rather than Lumines, with the player having to eliminate adjacent blocks to earn points. Your score will increase as you continue to get rid of more blocks.

This is the first beta release to the public, and is a thoroughbred homebrew game with no fancy menus, it's just the game, scoring and a few simple rules.

The game has been coded from the ground up and is the first playable version so there are still a few bugs that need to be sorted out before the release can be deemed "stable." JustChris has to fix the way blocks collapse into empty spaces when you remove them, but other than that no other bugs are known - so make sure you report any bugs you find back to JustChris so that he can fix them.

At the time of writing this, 3 users have posted in the forum release thread, all of which describe Pick-O-Mania as "Cool," so I suggest you take a look! A readme file has not been included but you can find a full list of controls over at the download page.

Download: [Pick-O-Mania v0.2 beta]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]