Happy Island parodies The Last Airbender as The First Windbreaker

Happy Island The Last Windbreaker or Airbender
Happy Island Fiery Shrine, Frozen Shrine, Geo Shrine, and Breezy ShrineThe last time Happy Island did a great parody items set (which is still available!) was for the TV series "Lost", which they called "Found". But while that was a cute homage, this latest poke by the game at "The Last Airbender" is worthy of guffaws.

By collecting all four elemental temples of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire -- no Heart though, cause Captain Planet, this ain't -- you can unlock The First Windbreaker! While we can't tell what Aang... er, I mean the Windbreaker looks like, he does sport a glowy blue tattoo on top of a bald head and spins a glider staff.

The temples have been renamed as the Fiery, Frozen, Geo, and Breezy shrines. Each one costs 45 Facebook Credits ($4.50 USD), and collecting them all would set you back about $18 USD. Is "The Last Windbreaker" worth $18 USD? Hell, a better question would be if M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" was worth paying for at all (especially the retro-fitted 3D)?

As a fan of The Last Airbender TV series, I find this whole set hilarious, but then again, I've yet to see the movie, which has lots of fans feeling sensitive right now. There's very vocal outrage over Shyamalan's mishandling of the source material, on top of the pre-production casting controversy over racial under-representation. Rumor has it that Shyamalan's daughter (who's a fan of the series and the director's reason for taking on the project) had panned the film, "If I was older than my daddy, I would ground him for a very long time."

Maybe Crowdstar thought some casual Facebook fun can help lighten the mood.

Happy Pets: Shy Basket returns with new Shadow Pets and Hell Mythic Dragon

The Shy Pets Basket has reappeared in Happy Pets, and this time, it's giving you the chance to win one of the following six Shadow Pets: Shadow Turtle (common), Shadow Pig (common), Shadow Dog (common), Shadow Cat (uncommon), Shadow Iguana (rare), and lastly, the Hell Mythic Dragon (Mythic).
Happy Pets Black Mythic Dragon
The Hell Mythic Dragon is very similar in appearance to the Black Mythic Dragon, but has red instead of black horns and wings. With the exception of the debut fire sale, dragons remain at 66 Facebook Credits (or $6.60 USD) each, but you've a tiny chance of netting the Hell Mythic for free if you can get seven friends to click on your Shy Pets Basket.
Happy Pets Shy Pets Basket
Another option is to pay the 298 Facebook Credits (or $29.80 USD) for an instant unlock, but be warned, even if you do that, there's no guarantee you'll end up with the dragon. Most of you are going to end up with the Shadow Turtle, Pig, or Dog.

CrowdStar, others dock in Sibblingz Spaceport for mobile social games

If we haven't driven home yet that mobile will be massive in the future of social games, we clearly haven't done our job. Luckily, news like the fact that Sibblingz has signed on It Girl creator CrowdStar and a number of other developers to use its Spaceport service helps us make good on that.

TechCrunch reports that--in addition to CrowdStar--BitRhymes, IKIGames, LuckyLabs, Fortune Planet and DeezGames have signed on to use Spaceport to create mobile versions of their Facebook games. Spaceport is Sibblingz's cloud-based game development platform that allows developers like CrowdStar to create mobile games that work on both iOS and Android devices.

Essentially, it allows developers to create a mobile game once and have it run on multiple mobile devices. The platform makes use of coding languages like Javascript and HTML5, but neither of which are known for making robust or fully-featured games on iPhones or Android phones. However, Sibblingz claims that games built on Spaceport feature an app-like experience.

What Sibblingz means is that, while these games are built using simpler code languages, they will perform like, say CityVille Hometown by Zynga. That game was built using tools specifically for iOS devices and is thus more visually impressive and feature-rich than mobile browser games. However, according to TechCrunch, developers can even create games specifically for iPhones and iPads through Spaceport.

Sibblingz also says that developers can make games for Facebook's worst-kept secret, Project Spartan--an initiative to bring Facebook to mobile devices through browsers using HTML5 complete with full-featured apps and games--through Spaceport. Jeez, on paper it sounds like Spaceport can do anything but make the cash flow.

Regardless, what's important to take away here is that social game developers realize that mobile is where it's at. Frankly, it's one area where clear winners have yet to be defined, much unlike Facebook (ahem, Zynga and EA). At this point, anyone could come out a winner on mobile, and perhaps the companies that embrace cross-platform game creation like CrowdStar will have the upper hand.

Do you think these developers have a chance at winning the mobile race these social game creators are running with Spaceport? Who do you think will ultimately win the mobile social gaming war?