It takes one minute to know why Wik & The Fable of Souls is an award winning game. It takes ten minutes to know you want this game. What you might not know is "Wik" has a large following. There is a game home page and a forum with tips and answers to any questions you might come up with. You can download the wonderful music to play independently of the game to add to your music library. There is even a "unsupported level editor" so you can add to your game. Not only that, there are others who have already played the game and you can download the master pack that allows you to extend your play. But, those are things that you might wait to do.

Venture Africa is a Hoot. Also a Roar and a Neigh.

Yes, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa is a "tycoon" game--but quite different from others of the genre. The objective isn't to build a business, but a balanced ecosystem. For example, one level's objective is to have some number of lions in play--but to get that many, you have to build up your zebra population so there's enough prey to support your lions. And to support that many zebra, you need to plant enough bushes to sustain them.

Yet it also isn't a hard-core simulation in the style of Sim Life (and thank goodness); it's a simple, straightforward game with pleasantly animated African wildlife, and a tutorial system that anyone who can read (and this is a good game for kids) will find good and sufficient. Contrariwise, it's a tougher game to win, even on "Easy" setting, than most casual games (many of which can be won by a monkey clicking randomly).