Slingo for kids gets prepped for play on TV

Internet gambling specialist Zone4Play has signed an exclusive deal with popular web gaming site Slingo.com to develop a TV showcase for some of Slingo’s top-performing kids games. The goal will be to find U.S. and international berths on digital cable and satellite platforms for two interactive TV channels – one for families and one purely for kids. The nets will offer five games each, and two titles that will likely play into the schedules are Bumper Kids (bumper cars) and Match’em 4 Kids (a memory game).

Slingo.com pioneered the Bingo-cum-slot-machine game genre in 1996, and it was rated the ‘stickiest’ game site on the Internet in June by Nielsen//NetRatings. Visitors spend an average four hours and nine minutes playing Slingo’s games, almost twice the playtime logged by runner-up EA Online.

The Sims touch down on Nintendo’s DS

EA has chosen its popular Sims franchise as the jumping-off point for developing content to play on Nintendo’s newest platform, and the first game, The Urbz: Sims in the City, will be unlike any of its predecessors. The DS’s touch-sensitive lower screen controls gameplay on the top half, allowing for innovative in-game features like a touch-screen menu system and seven characters and eight pet species that players can create with the in-game ‘gene manipulator.’ The game will also take advantage of the system’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities with a wireless multi-player mode. The Urbz is being developed in conjunction with Griptonite Games and will ship in November.