Note: You’ll see that I tried my best to limit this list to characters whose names start with ‘L’…

Lemmings – Lemmings

Oh, Lemmings: I spent so many hours in the early 1990s guiding these guys around obstacles and toward safety. They were amazing little pixel people, and I like to think that they were a wonderful representation of the poor, weak, and downtrodden of the world—but, you know, a much more fun version. If you never met a Lemming—one from this game, that is—do yourself a favor and figure out a way to play the game. It will do good things for your soul.

Lex – Bookworm

The first time I played Bookworm, I liked it. The first time I played Bookworm Adventures, I LOVED it. I was fortunate enough to play early versions and see how the team built up the game and created all the “mythology” within it.

Really, if you’ve never paid much attention to this game, you should—and you should read every word, because it’s hilarious. And Lex represents all that is good and hilarious and fun about Bookworm Adventures. Because, well, he’s the Bookworm.

Link – The Legend of Zelda

Link was — especially in the early incarnations — just a regular kid in a fantasy world. But it was up to him to battle the evil forces throughout Hyrule to save Princess Zelda. He didn’t have clever dialogue or anything, so it had to be that I just connected with him on a basic level: sure, he gained powers as you progressed in the game, but in the beginning he was basically just a normal kid. For me, pretending I was Link was a much easier thing to do than pretend I was an Italian plumber… and probably because it seemed to me so much easier to screw things up in Zelda… so I was always connected to Zelda’s save-the-princess game more than Mario.

Left Paddle – Pong

Am I stretching the truth a bit? Why would I do that?

I don’t think this needs much explanation. Simply put: I was awesome from the left, and only mediocre from the right. And, also, thanks to A.J. for reminding me of this.

Listen: I care what you think about almost everything. But not this. You can argue for either paddle, if you like. But, as all the Democrats say: The left side is the best side. (Granted, they say that about things much less important than Pong.)

Awkward Transition:

The L train stops here. And, can you blame me? Well, probably…

Soda Popinski – Punch Out!!

I’m not proud of this. There’s no good way to justify loving a character that is so clearly playing up racial stereotypes — possibly one of the worst of all the characters in a game 1Up.com called the fourth most racist video game ever. I mean, it’s like Nintendo created Popinski based on an early draft of Drago from Rocky IV — the one they scrapped because he was too offensive, even during the Cold War.

But the truth is: everybody loves a villain. During the Cold War — even right up to the end when Punch-Out!! arrived — America especially loved a Russian villain.

Soda Popinski was magical to me. I thought he was the toughest character to defeat in the original Punch-Out!! I thought the way he did the Kozachok dance mid-fight and guzzled soda (was it soda, or something more distinctly Russian? His name was originally supposed to be Vodka Drunkenski) between rounds was hilarious. And each time I played through the game, my goal was always to reach him — then get really angry when he pummeled Mac.

• Michael Jordan shows us he has skills on and off the basketball court with his new title of ‘Bejeweled Demigod’. Both Business Insider and ESPN say that Jordan has reached level 100 in the game and uses it as a competitive outlet, now that he’s not spending so much time on the court. Not only does he play the game, but his longtime friend and driver George Koehler plays the game as well, and it seems to be a staple in the Jordan household.
• On the other hand, Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead, is forced to channel his characters zombie-fighting skills in order to beat the zombies in one of the few games he plays on his iPad, Plants vs. Zombies. According to Adweek, Lincoln says that when he plays as himself, he is eaten in seconds.

USAopoly has announced that Plants vs. Zombies Risk: Collector’s Edition will launch in Fall of this year. Check out a picture of the game as well as some details on EGM Now.

As you all know, (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for?!) the new PopCap game Hidden Agenda is in open beta. AOL Games Blog has created a cheat sheet for the game, so check it out!

Game Informer Magazine put together their list of Top Ten Tower Defense Games. At #1 is none other than… Plants vs. Zombies! GI says that with its “adorable presentation” and variety, PvZ is able to give players endless ways to defend their home. Listing variety as one of the hardest achievements for tower defense games, we are thrilled to be at #1!

You can call it jumping on the bandwagon if you like, because that’s pretty much what we’ve done here, but we have now launched a channel on Twitch TV, which has become the de facto Internet standard for livestreaming in the gaming world. We’re thrilled to join Twitch, and are working now on programming ideas (so please let us know what you’d like to see!). In the meantime, as pretty much just a “test,” I recorded myself playing the first few levels of Insaniquarium, with commentary, just to make sure it all works, and to experiment with the idea of doing video versions of my periodic “From the PopCap Vault” blog pieces, in which I go through our back catalog to talk about old games. Dumb idea? Fun idea? Get a real job? Let me know what you think. Oh, and buy Insaniquarium! One of our best games ever!

Watch live video from PopCap on Twitch

We’re wondering: what’s your favorite vault game from PopCap? Take the poll below and come back to see where your favorite ranks. If you don’t see your favorite vault game (check here to see the full list), post your choice in the comments.

In the olden times, according to a history book I once skimmed on my way to the anime section, people would communicate by grunting at each other, or by hitting each other with rocks and sticks. Now, in the so-called “modern world,” we don’t have it so easy. With the proliferation of such complex concepts as words and sentences, a whole new set of skills has to be learned. Talking is one, as is writing. But the most important skill, vis a vis modern challenges like getting a middle-management job or searching for stuff on Google, is learning to type.

There are lots of ways to learn to improve your typing skills, but almost none of them are any fun. Fortunately, back in 2002, PopCap decided to do something about this, in the form of a nifty little game called Typer Shark! (The exclamation point is actually part of the title. Not that I wasn’t excited to tell you.) In Typer Shark! you must help defend a poor deep sea diver from increasingly difficult waves of sharks and other types of creatures by typing to eliminate the threat. Each creature has a letter or word on it, which you must type to kill the creature. Now, in terms of realism, this admittedly was not PopCap’s finest hour. I mean, it’s not like bringing a typewriter underwater with you would help you with much of anything, especially if it was electric. And how typing is supposed to defeat these creatures does not hold up to close scrutiny. My suspicion is that once you started typing the shark would probably just eat you too, thus rendering your rescue attempt a dismal failure. Even if you did survive, I’m sure the authorities, when they arrived, would have some pretty serious questions for you as they fished out the diver’s mangled corpse. Like, “Why didn’t you use a harpoon or gun instead of a typewriter?” Or,  “Is that a Smith-Corona?”

So, unfortunately, we’ll subtract 1/2 star for believability problems. If you can let that go, however, what you’re left with is a pretty fun little game. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with being able to win by typing fast, especially if you are an English major with no other marketable skills. Beating the hardest levels of this game is like a total in-your-face moment to your parents or other know-it-alls who told you that you were wasting your time and would amount to nothing if you pursued a liberal arts degree. The first time I beat the game, I took a screen capture of the final level and sent it to my mom with the message, “Who’s a loser NOW, Mom?” The fact that she never wrote back and changed her phone number just proves how much the truth hurts.

Typer Shark! is totally empowering that way, and thus is practically guaranteed to change your life, especially if you’re good at typing. And if you’re not good at typing, well, here’s your chance! What are you waiting for? An invitation to typing school? Guess what — they don’t have those, so you’d basically be waiting forever, like Linus in the pumpkin patch. I can just see it. “Oh, come on Sally! Let’s go check my mail again to see if I’ve received an invitation to typing school! Oh no! Nothing again!” Meanwhile, all your smarter friends are already expert typists because, unlike you, they went out and played Typer Shark! instead of waiting around for some mythical invitation that is never going to come, like ever.

That’s about all I have to say on the subject of Typer Shark! Truly one of the shining gems of PopCap’s back catalog. And if you don’t play it, and end up flunking out of school or getting a really terrible job or generally just living in the dim shadow of your parents’ disappointment, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Happy gaming!

–Jeff

Typer Shark! is available to play on your PC (sorry Mac fans–you’ll never learn to type fast, I guess!) right here.

• Plants vs. Zombies made it into a music video! Indie band, Hey Geronimo, recreated several video games to make their latest video for “Why Don’t We Do Something.”

• Co-founder Jason Kapalka talks to the Edmonton Journal about creating casual and social video games before they became popular.

• Gamepro reviews Bejeweled 3 DS and gives it a solid 4 stars — a perfect gift for the holidays!

• PopCap CEO, Dave Roberts, recently spoke at Northwest Entrepreneur Network’s Entrepreneur University and shared his startup secrets with the crowd.