It’s a CEREAL BOOM! « Non-Sport & Entertainment Trading Card News from Non-Sport Update

Well, here’s a first. Non-sport cards have spawned movies (see Mars Attacks; don’t see the The Garbage Pail Kids Movie). Now non-sport cards have spawned an app. Wax Eye has brought some of the characters form its Cereal Killers trading cards to a fast-paced iOS game called Cereal Boom.

The object of Cereal Boom is to feed Zomba Crunch, Apple Drac, and Eye Pop enough “nutritious” food to create a Cereal Boom before time runs out. When you complete your goal, you are rewarded with explosive animations and collectible, digital trading cards. Though the game is kid-centric, it will appeal to game-players of all ages, even me! It’s a pretty fun diversion and quite easy to pick-up and start playing. And it’s free! (though if you want the Apple Drac or Eye Pop characters, you’ll need to pony up $1.99).

Wax Eye, who recently set up at the Philly Non-Sports Card Show and handed out a surprise promotional card for Cereal Boom, is the brainchild of creative couple, artist Joe Simko and June Gonzales. Simko has contributed art to Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, and Mars Attacks and has also created art for rock bands Misfits and GWAR. His illustrations have been featured in many magazines including Spin and Fangoria.

One feature of Cereal Boom of particular interest to card collectors is the card collecting aspect of the game. As you advance in the game, players collect more cards. What to collect them all? You’ll need to play all three characters to unlock/win various Cereal Killers trading cards according to Wax Eye.

We asked Wax Eye why the company decided to branch out into mobile gaming. Simko says “It’s always been our mission at Wax Eye is to share the love of trading card art with a younger generation.I grew up in the 80s and my console of choice was an Atari 5200. This digital generation has the apple iPad/iPhone. We know that all kids and parents only download free apps. It’s just what people’s expectations areâ€"to get entertainment for very cheap or free. So we created a format that a kid could play a game, see a jokey cartoon and win digital trading card artâ€"all for free.”

We wondered what were some of Gonzales’s and Simko’s favorite games are. “When I was little, I liked Goonies, BurgerTime, Gauntlet, and Zorro” says Gonzales. She continues “Lately, I like Ridiculous Fishing, puzzle games, and Ferry Halim’s Orsinal. It was always about the interesting characters for me. Joe grew up on Mario, Q*Bert, and Dragon’s Lair.”

Cereal Boom launches in the iTunes Store [1] today. Currently, Cereal Boom is only available for iOS but Simko says if the games proves popular enough, they’ll bring it to the Android platform as well.

As for the future, Simko says “possible plans include another traditional card set. And we are thinking to expand our mobile game collection.”

If you own an iOS device and are a trading card collector, give Cereal Boom a shot. Zomba Crunch will thank you!

Links

1. ^{^} iTunes Store (itunes.apple.com)

source: www.nsu-magazine.com