• Last week, we launched the open beta of our first SOCIAL hidden object game! In case you’re crazy and have not played it yet, it’s called Hidden Agenda. Read more about the game, as well as an interview with the executive producer for hidden object games at PopCap, on AOL Games Blog and Capsule Computers! Click HERE to play the game on Facebook.

•Two PopCap games made AOL Games Blog’s list of the 10 match-3 games you have to play. Both Bejeweled 2 and Zuma’s Revenge! made the cut.

• If you’re thinking about getting the new BlackBerry 10, do not panic… you can still play some amazing PopCap games on your phone. See which of our games you can expect on the BlackBerry 10 from Pocket Gamer and The Game Fanatics.

*MC stands for “Marketing Coordinator” but we have to call her MC Rachel. It’s in her contract. And who are we to crush her dreams of hip-hop glory?

It’s a new year and we have some great PopCap news to start off 2013. From having some of the best games to put on your newly gifted smartphone or tablet, to being ranked among the top 50 iOS games of the year, we’re starting the year off right!

• The Salt Lake City Tribune, Idaho Statesman and Daily Record have all listed Plants vs. Zombies as a must-have for the new tablets in your life. So, what are you waiting for?

• Slide to Play has created their top 50 iOS games for 2012 . . .  Zuma’s Revenge HD has made the list at number 21!

• Even though the December holidays have passed, there are plenty more opportunities throughout the year to be bombarded by family members. MacLife created a list of apps to help you survive. Plants vs. Zombies made the list as the only game to keep you sane!

• Last week, iTunes came out with a “cheat sheet” on how to become a hardcore gamer. Their “Gaming 101” list puts Bejeweled Blitz at #2 on the list of games you need to play! See more on Kotaku.

Let's all join in now for a collective Awww!!

If you’ve played the game (which, if you haven’t, get on that! Go get an Xbox if you don’t have one, because you’ve got some frogtastic revenging to get to!), then you may have already guessed where the little guy above comes from; he is one of the early versions of the Spirit Cheetah. And if you’re wondering why a face this adorable didn’t wind up in the game, well, think of it this way: you’re supposed to want to level up your Spirit Animals… not to be sad when they grow up because they were just so darned cute.  Check out more of the evolution:

A young adult kitty, really growing into his proud kitty face. (Okay, I'm a cat lady. There are worse things to be.)

He starts to look a bit more regal here, though still clearly the grown-up version of a sweet kitty who will protect you in the jungle.

You can see the new direction he starts to move in here... a little fiercer, a little less furry.

Fur is left behind entirely as other materials are explored.

I find the fiery lion to be a handsome beast. I think I’d still be sad that little kitten ever grew up, though. Probably better that they changed direction again…

With the move toward blue, the Spirit Cheetah as you now know him started to emerge.

Now get back to your own Spirit Cheetah! Level him up, watch him roar, and thank him for the gift of Shot Speed that he shares with you as he grows.

We took the hit PC/Mac game and transformed it into an un-frogging-believable game for Xbox LIVE. You’ll find new game modes like Boss Rush and Weekly Challenge, and a fun new way to advance and power up with the help of Spirit Animal companions. And more!

Here’s a video:

So, what does all this ball-blasting mean? Well, it’s hard to explain. So, while I was at lunch, I drew a graph:

Should I have asked a designer to help?

So there. Totally way more ball-blastic action. And definitely worth playing right now. Go get it!

It’s all true — and here’s what else is true: this weekend only, you can save up to 60% on Zuma’s Revenge! for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad!

You can save 50% on the iPhone or iPod touch game — it’s just 99 cents. And you can get the iPad game for just $1.99 — that’s 60% off. Plus, with the iPad game, you’ll actually get a version you can play on iPhone or iPod touch, too.

The sale ends Sunday, April 15, so hop over to the iTunes App Store and pick up this awesome game today!

Here are some of the features included in the Zuma’s Revenge! Xbox 360 game:

• New and exclusive game modes such as Boss Rush and Weekly Challenge
• Four all-new Spirit Animal companions
• Earn Spirit Badges on every level and use them to power up your Spirit Animals
• Dominate your friends on 74 leaderboards
• Remastered HD graphics
• 20 Xbox LIVE achievements
• 2 tiki-themed awards for your Xbox LIVE avatar

Are you excited about this release? Let us know in the comments!

The graphics are gorgeous, and as a Zuma fanatic, I am thrilled with this new way to carry the game with me everywhere I go. I even feel a little bit extra skilled on the iOS version of the game, because I can play with both hands interchangeably! (Not so ambidextrous with a mouse.)

As of this morning, you can all head over to iTunes and get busy blasting on iPhone/iPod touch and iPad! Check out the trailer on the way!

Yes, PopCap’s beloved match-3 game is finally available on the Nintendo handheld, meaning now you can play Zuma’s Revenge wherever you are, like at the movies, or in class, or on a first date! Okay, actually, those are all bad examples. Please don’t play Zuma’s Revenge on any of those occasions. That would be bad. But any other time is totally okay! The point is that it’s portable now, so you never need to be without Zuma’s Revenge, ever!

So, what do you get in the Zuma’s Revenge DS version? I am glad you asked. Because there is some cool, brand-new stuff for Zuma fans. Here’s what’s inside:

• The complete, original 60-level Adventure mode, in which you must make your way through six island zones, battling ever-tougher tiki bosses along the way.
• Challenge mode: 70 really tough levels guaranteed to make you cry and/or smash your DS with a hammer.
• Iron Frog mode: Beat 10 levels with just one life.
• Daily Dungeon: Exclusive to the DS, spin the Dungeon Slot once every 24 hours to receive a new, random level along with three mini-games. Astro challenges you to survive 10 waves of balls; Blitz (familiar to anyone who’s played Zuma Blitz on Facebook) gives you one minute to get your highest score; and Boss pits you against a random tiki boss.
• Versus mode: Also new for the DS, there are three ways to play against a friend over a wireless network, just like people in the future do! In VS Battle, each player tries to add balls to the other’s chain while trying to eliminate their own. Score Attack is essentially 2-player Zuma Blitz, with each player playing the same level for one minute, with the high score winning. Survival pits the two players on the same level, with the person who lasts the longest winning.

Seriously, this is a great version of Zuma’s Revenge. I’ve played this game on every other platform more than once,  and I’m still happy with this one. And I’d be saying that even if I didn’t work here. I’m just saying it with more words because I do. Go get it! And if you don’t have a Nintendo DS, get one of those too, and then get Zuma’s Revenge! Tell them Jeff sent you! You won’t get a discount, and, in fact, they won’t have any clue who I am or what you’re talking about, but it’ll make me feel important! And that’s what counts!

TL; DR version: Zuma’s Revenge for DS! Out today! Huzzah!

Yep, you’ll soon be able to blast Zuma balls on your portable device. We’re secretly hoping the touch-screen mechanic (or tapping with the stylus on the DS) will help boost our scores! Watch the trailer below for a sneak peek at the Nintendo DS version:

“Oh, you mean Zuma’s Revenge,” I said, and I realized there was a perfectly fine excuse to write another column about my obsession. And to show off my Peacock’s Provocation (not yet fully Aced but all conquered with honors!).

I nearly sat here and spent the morning completing these levels just for a more impressive screenshot. But I probably have other things I should be doing.

So as the name implies, Iron Frog is a very difficult game mode. For one thing, you only get one life to complete all ten levels, and you can’t save your game and come back to it later! You know, like the olden days when you plunked in a quarter and never got past level 1 but kept playing over and over. It’s old-school unforgiving arcade-style goodness, and I love it.

It took me a while to get all the way through this mode, and even though I know now I can beat it, I still feel challenged every time (and I still often burn out on Level 6… it’s a tough one!). So I’ve put some thought into the tips I would offer a dedicated player who is stuck on any particular level in Iron Frog.

Level 1: Ok, I really don’t have much for you. This one’s pretty straightforward. A slog, to be sure, but just do your Zuma thing and save your energy to worry about what’s to come!

Level 2: This may be my personal favorite place for the Lightning power-up, because that curve is long, and it’s just so satisfying to see a huge number of balls clear from all over it all at once. Cannon’s also great, aimed up to the right to cut across all the layers of balls rolling in.  On this level, the number of times the balls curve makes for a daunting obstacle but also a great opportunity for gap shots!

Try to allow your eye to take in the board as a whole (I find this much easier if I play in a smaller window rather than full-screen mode) so you can plan a shot that clears a gap and sets up a subsequent gap shot whenever possible! This is the beauty of the “preview” ball on the frog’s back as well as the option to swap between them if necessary. At the same time, those many layers of curve do mean you won’t have the chance to pick off any combos you set up for long, so immediate rather than long-term planning is the best strategy here. By the time you see the pairs you created coming around again, it may be because they’re heading into the final turn!

Level 3: Try not to let the balls encircle the second lily pad, but if they wind up over there, jump between lily pads as often as needed to take advantage of the biggest combo available at any moment so the balls will suck back together and close big distances. And of course, there’s the exception to that rule, which is if you have a Lightning power-up you can use, let the balls roll out as long as you feel comfortable letting them go so that when you choose your color to detonate it takes out the biggest possible number.

Once the end is nigh, try to remain on the first lily pad until there are no longer any balls on that side, because from that vantage point, you can shoot through the nearer balls to create, yes, gap shots! Gap shot bonuses are a very worthy goal!

With a Lightning power-up in hand (or mouth, I suppose), I allowed the balls to run nearly the full length of the curve just so I could enjoy the blast!

Level 4: This is my favorite one for using a Cannon power-up (the three cannonballs that roll out at once). If I’m not in serious trouble, I’ll aim it straight up into the left corner where the balls are rolling in from, because the tracks are so closely wound at that point you’ll get rid of a huge section at once.

This is a level that starts out a little bit easy… deceptively so. It speeds up very quickly, so don’t let yourself rest even a moment! Once the balls pass beneath you, you will have little chance of beating the level without some seriously fancy frogwork.  But as I always say in Zuma, hope is not lost — remember that you can see power-up balls forming out of the corner of your eye, so you will always instantly know where there is about to be a shot you could use to regain some ground quickly. Cannons, Lightning, Reverse, and Bombs are always worth taking extra steps to trigger. (Accuracy is not helpful enough to risk letting balls get by on a level this nail-biting! And Slow-down is great if I can get to it easily enough, but I won’t sacrifice time or other moves to reach it.)

Level 5: This one’s almost a gimme, like a breather. Just try to keep making matches on both sides quickly enough that the lines of balls never even pass each other; it’s easier than it may sound. (I’ve always suspected this level was deliberately made a little easier to let you rest up for the onslaught that follows.)

Level 6: Try not to make any shots that aren’t matches if you can avoid it, unless you’re setting up combos. (That’s actually good advice in general, but I find levels 6 and 9 move especially fast, making it even more important. Level 9 has the additional nerve-wracking quality of taking the playable area out of range within seconds, barring gap shots.) On 6, the area right in front of you is ripe for matches, combo preparation, and setting up gaps to take advantage of. Most importantly, though, always try to be putting each ball you shoot next to another ball of the same color. Even if it’s not a match now, it’s a match later.

Level 7 is a deadly curve that feels almost easy... because the skull is so slyly hidden away down there. The end comes sooner than you know!

Level 7: This one’s great for gap shots, and all those places where the path of balls crosses over and under itself are perfect for Bomb power-ups, because you can take out more than one section of the curve simultaneously! Be very careful with your aim when you’re shooting into any of the areas where the path overlaps, though, because it’s way too easy to hit the path above or below. Better to just choose shots that avoid those intersections whenever possible. And this winding path is deceptive too — it can reach the end before you even notice, just because it’s so hard to see where it starts and where it will terminate!  Just try to keep on top of the curve.

Level 8: This is a marathon. Try to keep your eyes moving quickly between the two halves of the screen so you can aim in the direction where the matches/gap shots/power-ups are going to clear the biggest path at once, because if you can get one side pretty clear in a quick shot or two, that gives you a few seconds to focus on the bigger challenge on the other side. If you can keep that up as a kind of momentum, knocking down one side then picking at the other until it’s set up for a big blast, then taking that blast and switching your attention back to the first side again, you’ll get through this one.

Level 9: This one is a nightmare, no lie. Take a moment and pause the game as 8 is clearing, because your eyes are probably watering by now, and it’s a good idea to blink a few times before you try to tackle this monster. It’s going to be fast and furious. You’ve got mere moments before the balls are out of shooting range, so just keep plonking blues next to blues, whites next to whites, right-click if you have a shot at a match, but don’t take time to think, or you’re done!

See that? I misplaced a few shots and paused to consider a few others, so all the matches are out of reach, and nothing can save me now.

Once the line of balls stops rolling out, you may be tempted to relax before clearing the last of what’s already on the board, but don’t do it! This is the hardest level in the game, and it will whomp you if you don’t stay on point! Just plug at those last few matches as fast as you can. The only thing more important than speed here is accuracy. No, I got that backwards. No, I was right the first time… the point is, be fast as you can be; you cannot afford to pause for thought on this level! But at the same time, be very judicious with each shot, because you cannot afford more than a few false moves! And never be afraid to throw a ball or two away by shooting it off the bottom of the screen. You need to make each move count, so if there’s no good move to be made, toss away your hand and see what comes up on the next deal!

Then pause the game again before 10 loads, blink some more, take a breath, and settle in for the last trial of Iron Frog.

Level 10: Long and arduous, but not capriciously cruel. You can get this one, if you’ve made it this far. The curves are very tight, so if you are aiming into corners of the triangle path you are likely to miss and wind up breaking up a line of lovely matches waiting to be combo-blasted. For that reason, I recommend aiming into the straight sections of the triangle path. Triangle corners are great for setting up and taking advantage of gap shots, though, so that’s a strong edge you’ve got in this one.

I hope some of that was helpful; if nothing else, it may help to know you’re not alone in obsessing and going white-knuckle on your mouse over this one. Iron Frog is a big challenge, which makes defeating it a big achievement! Have fun, and if you have any tips of your own, share them in the comments below, or better yet, head over to the forums to discuss with other players!