Finally found a Facebook game worth writing about

Well, folks. The About section of this website says it will discuss Facebook games. I am shocked to say that my first post about a Facebook game is not one savaging it for being a boring, mindless click-fest. (I am sure I will post one of those eventually.)

I will start out by saying that I thought it would be novel to write about Facebook games because I hadn't seen anyone else giving good write-ups on any of them. Then I did a Google search. Yeah, there are tons of sites reviewing these games.

It might not be original, but
it looks like fun and it is!

Anyway, trudging forward. The game I would like to discuss is Wild Ones. What is Wild Ones? Well, you get to pick a "pet" to fight with. The pets to choose from are a Rabbit, Dog, Monkey, and Panda, but you can only create a dog when you first start.
Once you have created your pet and are playing, you will find yourself in a 2D world with a destructible map. You will take turns moving on that map and shooting each other with rockets, throwing grenades at each other, and the like. The point of the game is simple. Blow up the other players until they have no health left and be the last one standing.
If you've played computer games (or xbox live arcade games) much at all, this gameplay probably sounds familiar. It should. The game is Worms. The only real difference is your characters are pets instead of worms. Nevertheless, Worms is a classic because it is so fun. So, what is the one key that the developer, Playdom, had to get right to make it a Facebook game that this blog actually praises? The interface and the controls.

Thankfully, they nailed it on the interface and movement. It is very simple to move, choose your weapons, and fire them. Of course, don't give them too much credit. As I said before, Worms was a computer game, and you used the mouse and keyboard to play it just as you do on Facebook. So, Playdom already had a solid guide. I will give them credit for not screwing it up, though.

There is one other key element with Facebook games (at least for me to play them). They need to be able to be played in small chunks of time like about 5 minutes. I can maybe put up with 15 minutes at most. Thankfully, Wild Ones games have options to make the water rise after 1 or 4 minutes. (The rising water will drown players, helping to bring the game to a close by eliminating players.) So, my typical game of Wild ones takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

Finally, Facebook games need to be "social." Meaning that you need to be able to play with your friends. Wild Ones offers that. I was able to create a room, my friend joined it, and we were blowing each other up in no time.

There are only two critiques I would have of Wild Ones:

1. It is not original. Of course, that is also its strength since they copied a classic.
2. The prompts to invite your friends, send them gifts, or "visit" them are incessant and, thus, obnoxious. Of course, this is true of every Facebook game. The more friends you get to play it, the more money they can make. Nevertheless, these games really need to find ways to make it less frontal and click heavy. That is another post topic for another day, though. So, I will leave it at that.

You can check out the YouTube videos to the left of this post. Some of those should be good film of Wild Ones gameplay. I suggest checking it out. It is a diversion worth the time it takes.

If you do play Wild Ones, watch out for Ruh Ro Raggy.
That orange dog knows how to handle a grenade.