Tucson, you've probably noticed we're a little bit blessed when it comes to game stores. Pretty much anywhere in town, you're just a few minutes away from picking up a game of Catan or some Magic the Gathering cards. 

Support your favorite local game stores in Best of Tucson's Best Game Store category—but also support them in real life because we've seen too many (Hat's, A2Z, Game Daze) call it quits over the last few years. 

Whether you're a fan of cats or a general fan of adorable animations, I have a game for you.

Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector is a Japanese cat game that has been sweeping through our iPhones in the cutest and most relaxing way. The app, rated number 104 on the Apple App Store free top charts, has become a main focus for many blogs, as well as my own daily life.

Think you might enjoy putting out virtual food and toys and waiting for virtual cats to arrive in your virtual yard? I definitely do.

First, you have to set up your yard. Then tiny cats, all with a different preset names, interests, and personalities will begin to visit, leaving fish treats as a reward for your kindness. You can then use those fish treats to buy more goodies for them. If you are lucky (and generous), a rare and limited-edition cat may visit you.

I am not too embarrassed to say that I've spent days saving up for the highest quality animated food and cat accouterments. Only the best for my (digital) kitty cats!

But be warned: this could happen to you. If you need help succeeding in this a cat-eat-cat world, visit gameskinny.com.

Holiday shopping is inherently bad for savings accounts. Sometimes it seems like you're blowing through your budget and basically getting nothing in return. Sometimes you're depleting your budget and actually getting nothing.  

Remember last Black Friday when 30,000 people bought actual poop from Cards Against Humanity for $6 a pop? This year, the card game team wasn't looking to sell anything—They were more excited about the idea of buying some things for themselves.

They say:

This year we offered our customers the ultimate Black Friday experience - the ability to buy nothing from us for $5. We took our entire store offline, and put up a simple payment form where people could give us $5.

11,248 people gave us $5, and 1,199 people gave us more than $5 by filling out the form more than once. One enthusiastic fan gave us $100. In the end, we made a windfall profit of $71,145.

Cards Against Humanity is known for our charitable fundraising - since 2012 we've raised nearly $4 million for organizations we love like Worldbuilders, the Sunlight Foundation, the EFF, DonorsChoose.org, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Chicago Design Museum. We even started a $500,000 full-ride scholarship for women getting degrees in science.

There's been a lot of speculation about how we would spend the money from Black Friday, and we're happy to announce that this time, we kept it all.

 There's a (long) illustrated list of how the team spent the cash on their blog. 

Alright game geeks—and I know there's a lot of you, I used to work at a local game shop—have I got some news for you.

ICv2 says:

In June, Mayfair will release Catan, Traveler Edition, a new geomorphic edition that folds to fit in a lockable, trapezoidal box with a carrying handle. The game board includes collapsing trays for peg storage, and features double-sided tiles (which means that there are only hundreds of board permutations, instead of thousands). 

MSRP will be $45—so, really not much lower than the original game. But, still, I don't see how making Catan more portable can be a bad thing. 

ICv2 goes on to discus the theory behind the Catan expansions and upcoming improvements to their website, if you're into that kind of thing.

Conan O'Brien, A.K.A. Coco, is doing his best to stay relevant with the gamers, so he's reviewing Super Smash Bros. for the WiiU. The video game doesn't his stands until holidays — just in time for Christmas. Honestly, I would love to play video games with Conan any day, but I would hate to discuss U.S. history with the guy.

The highly addictive Nintendo racing game Mario Kart is back for the Wii U. The eight installment of the semi-simplistic go-kart franchise will be available wherever video games are sold on Friday, May 30. All your favorite characters are back with some new faces and courses.

Click here to pre-order your copy.

Holy special effects, Batman! The final Batman 'Arkham' game trailer debuted today, and it doesn't disappoint. The caped crusader will have to go toe-to-toe with The Scarecrow, Two-Face, Harley Quinn and Penguin for what's left of Gotham City after all hell has broke loose. The Batmobile gameplay makes up for the fact that Kevin Conroy wasn't casted to portray Bruce Wayne/Batman, again.

The game is set to released in 2014 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

(via: Mashable)

Remember the good old Atari days? Do you miss smacking the small white dot from the left to the right side of your tube television. Do you miss games like Flappy Bird? The world is moving from big screen television sets to smart phones and tablets, but some are going back to the arcades.

Christopher and Michelle Hall decided to leave the medical field to pursue their passions: video games, clothing and jewelry.

The 33-year-old couple will celebrate the grand opening of their new business venture this Saturday, March 1. "We have a huge library of games," Christopher said. "These are the classics people don't usually have anymore." Christopher says gamers will be able to play their old favorite Atari, NES, SNES, N64, Playstation, PS2 and Xbox games on the televisions from the era the console was popular. There's a gaming room for large parties and gatherings, and a full snack bar.

It's a good week to be a professional poker player with connections to Tucson.

Two of the region's most successful players, both of whom have moved on to greener (get it?) pastures, are making headlines for their feats in parts abroad.

Late Sunday night saw the biggest online poker tournament of the weekend go to Sean Getzwiller, who topped a field of more than 7,700 people in Poker Stars' Sunday Million event. The victory earned Getzwiller, who spends part of the year outside of the country (thus being able to play online poker under the moniker "wormnorton"), earned $232,000 for his troubles.

The haul actually isn't even close to the biggest win for Getzwiller, 36, who in 2011 bested a field of nearly 4,200 players to win a $1,000 buy-in World Series of Poker event for $611,000.

While Getzwiller is taking it down at the tables, another player with local ties is trying to win big in a completely different arena: the reality television world.

Garrett Adelstein, a Mountain View High School graduate who splits his time between Scottsdale and Los Angeles cash games, is one of 18 contestants on the 28th (!!!) edition of Survivor. Set in Cagayan, Phillipines, the 27-year-old will attempt to overcome a field that includes lots of muscly and buxom competitors — as well as former NBA player Cliff Robinson — for whatever prize the show gives out. I don't know, if it's not King of the Nerds it's not something I pay attention to.

Adelstein hasn't made any big splashes in the poker world, but he's had some close calls. The most notable was in 2010 when he was among the chip leaders late in the WSOP Main Event, only to see him overplay some hands and finish 222nd to win about $48,000.

Maker House and Generation Cool are teaming up to bring an exciting Arcade Showdown from 5 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, Feb. 27, at the Maker House mansion, 283 N. Stone Ave. 20 contestants will battle it out on 10 separate gaming cabinets. The winner will take home an arcade machine, and runner-ups will get gift certificates and schwag. This event feels like the the sequel to a campy post-'80s indie film starring Fred Savage.

Maker House will teach you how to be the poor man's Neo and show you how to hack your Wii console at 5 p.m. There will also be a Gamer Swap Meet:

Swap video games, card games, board games, miniatures, comic books, or anything else game related! Swappers can get a 6×6 foot table space for $5, table not included. Space is limited and is first come, first served.

Click here to sign up for vendor space.