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.

 

Aside from its previously announced release for the Xbox 360, PC, PSP, Wii and DS, D3 Publisher's Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is being prepped for other consoles. According to the ESRB's official site, Puzzle Quest (rated E10+ by the way) will also be heading for the PlayStation 3 and Mac systems.

Given that its Xbox 360 releases is a downloadable on Xbox Live Arcade, the safe bet is that Sony will probably be making similar arrangements for PlayStation Network. Information we lack at the moment are details on what sort of unique features these other ports will carry. That's all the detail we have for the moment - stick around in case we pick up more information.

It should be remembered that LucasArts sealed the fate of rhythm-based video game title Traxion earlier this year when it announced that it will no longer be publishing the title. It felt like the decision was not appreciated by Kuju Entertainment (who's now changed their name to Zoe Mode) as the developer severed its publishing agreement with LucasArts.

Today, Zoe Mode head Ed Daly mentioned that they are still considering pushing through with the project and that they may even market Traxion as a PSP and an iPod game. Daly commented,

The terms of the deal with LucasArts are still confidential, so I can't comment on the details - but we have retained the rights to the IP and we're now looking at what we can do with the IP and the technology and what it's potential is. There's a long history of games that have been canned and came back as great proposition.

However, Ed Daly also shared that their studio is busy at the moment with other projects such as SingStar and EyeToy titles for Sony as well as unannounced next-gen titles. He added that when they find the time and the manpower, Traxion might even go next-gen,

When the teams free up the idea might find place on next-gen formats, or mobile phones or even iPods - there's plenty of use for the tech, but we just need to figure out what that will be and then build the resource so we can take the next step with it.

On a related matter, Ed Daly also revealed that Zoe Mode will be coming up with another music-puzzle game that will be released on the PlayStation Network (PSN) and/or Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA). The concept is different in such a way that the game will be controlling the music instead of the other way around. He shared then,

It's interesting as there is no longer that one straightforward route to market and we're able to think that maybe we are better off investing a bit more in the self-publishing route. There are only a finite number of companies or publishers willing to invest so certain games we aren't always going to chase a traditional publishing deal for them.

What we like about N'gai Croal is how he's able to pull off asking some of the tough questions that would get other games and tech reporters shot (by French ninjas, no less). He let us know of a funny new post to his tech blog where he discusses, in an iTunes playlist style, who should be watching out for themselves in a future filled with Apple's iPhone. Some of them you might know because you own these pieces of tech now: the PSP and DS.

On the PSP side, which is at number seven, he notes how the development of the iPhone could eat into the mobile media industry that Sony's trying to get a handle on. He writes,

After all, the iPod has iTunes (with music, movies, TV and games); while the PSP has the PlayStation Network (for PS2 games that can run on the PSP's emulator and...nothing else right now - more than two years after its launch.)

Suffice it to say that with the advent of even more tech that's touch-screen enabled, Sony really ought to think about following suit, possibly integrating it with their now-famous XMB interface.

Nintendo's dual-screen handheld doesn't really have a lot to fear from the iPhone, at least when it comes to getting sold. The problem will lie in sustaining the interests of casual owners. Croal asks: "How long will it take publishers to bring knockoffs to the touch-enabled iPhone, along with other games that take advantage of the iPhone's audio, video and communications capabilities?"

While we could talk about how Apple should be afraid of its own iPhone announcement (it's at number two, by the way), one of them will really hit us hard. That's the one in which Croal talks about us, as Time's People of the Year. Do we really want to spend a couple of hundred dollars for a phone/medium-range PC/ portable movie theater? Personally, if my iPhone doesn't make my coffee in the morning, I'll stick to my bulky, but lovable, Hello Kitty custom-case home computer, thank you very much.