We've seen the release schedule for Wii and its accompanying WiiWare service, so now let's turn the spotlight on Nintendo's market-dominating handheld. Again, this is a pretty long one since these aren't just first-party games and includes third-party releases as well. Also included is a DSiWare release list. Let's get right to it.

Plants vs. Zombies, released for PC and Mac a couple of months ago, is a quirky little tower defense game from PopCap Games that has players using plants to defend their house against a zombie invasion. If that sounds right up your alley, then here's some good news.

We've got a big week to close out February. All the trailer-ogling and screen-scrutinizing is finally gonna pay off. For starters, the wait is soon to be over for the highly-anticipated Killzone 2. As if that's not big enough, Star Ocean: The Last Hope will also be hitting stores. Need I say more? Err...yes I do! Catch all the details on this week's edition of On Shelves This Week.

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.

 The video game industry is undoubtedly dominated by males, but we do know that gaming is not just a big frat house. Female gamers do exist, and like the opposite gender, they come in different shapes, sizes and forms. If you do your homework, you'll also notice that girl gamers have distinct traits which allow us to divide them into several types (just like guys). In this QuickList, we'll give you a rundown on what these types are. Hit that jump!

The Casual Games Association has announced that it will be hosting Casual Connect Europe. This event will run from February 6 to 8 in Amsterdam and is being held to gather industry leaders in the hope of promoting casual games as well as securing its future development.

Want to know more? Check out the full article via the "read more" link below.

A study, commissioned by PopCap Games, showed that women love a good game of Cake Mania, and they aren't shy about it. After media content providers were determined to deliver advertisements catering to the young male bracket on consoles, the study by Information Solutions Group (ISG) reveals that casual gamers are "predominantly female."

Looking for numbers? Try 76% casual gamers that are female against 24% male casual gamers. And even over at Yahoo! Games and Electronic Arts casual gaming bet Pogo, more casual gamers are female.

The non-gamer bracket that included your girlfriend and your grandmother is now blessed with a gamers' edge on Zuma, thanks to the simplistic, yet entertaining casual game. With Miyamoto's previous speech on catering the Nintendo Wii to women, it's now clear that introducing games to the female bracket shows just how big of a market the game industry can tap into.

The games women play may not be "hardcore," but it's a start for toning hand-eye coordination technique and basic game mechanics. Females are entering the mainstream gaming scene, and not as promo girls on the side (mind you).

Even if the hardcore gamers are predominantly male, it's no indication that it should stay that way. There are already girl gamers around in the professional gaming scene, and it won't be a surprise if that increased this year, too.

One such study back in 2006 highlighted that 42% of adult console gamers were female, and the rest were male. In a broader scale, PC and console games were played by more males than females: 62% against 38%. So in essence, the gaming demographics is becoming more evenly distributed as time rolls on.

And with the success of the Nintendo Wii and MMO games, this year could spell the game industry's renewed focus on delivering games to gamers, and not games to males only.

Casual games maker PopCap Games has just announced that a brand new position has been created in the company: VP of Video Game Platforms. Filling in this position would be Greg Canessa, former GM for Microsoft's XBLA service. With this appointment, the company is hoping to be able to further expand its reach to video game consoles, handhelds, as well as related online gaming services.

According to the newly-appointed Canessa,

From the Xbox 360 video game console to handheld videogame devices and more, PopCap's lineup of casual games are really well suited for a wide range of platforms, and I'm excited to have this opportunity to help guide PopCap's future growth.

For those who are not familiar with this man, he is one of those who helped define and manage Microsoft's online games strategy, and has been an early advocate of bringing casual games to the Xbox 360. To date, six titles from PopCap Games have already been released on the XBox and Xbox 360, both of which have proven to be successful.

So, does this mean more Zuma and Chuzzle goodness on all major platforms. We'll find out soon enough in the months ahead.

PopCap Games, the guys responsible for multitudes of office hour distraction games like Zuma and Super Collapse, has revealed the results of what they claim to be the largest survey ever of "casual" computer/videogame players.

Among the many surprising (or so they claim) results, is that most casual game players view playing simple non-violent puzzle games as a form of leisure time that is more important than time with family, or reading, or watching TV.

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of the 2,191 respondents say that they derived stress relief from playing.

Over half the respondents play casual games on a daily basis.

Seventy-one percent of casual gamers are over the age of 40; fully 47% are 50 and older.

“We’ve never set out to make a ‘healthy’ game or a ‘game for women’ – we simply try to make high quality, broadly appealing, FUN games for everyone,” said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of PopCap. “We know from the many emails and letters we receive that some portion of our customers derives health benefits from the games, and that many view playing our games as a major source of fun in their lives, but these survey results are surprising even to us!”

Other motives for playing their puzzle games, as the survey reveals, include the derived mental exercise and the fact that the games can be run from mobile devices.

Those who chose "relaxation" as a motivation state that the simple games provide them distraction from chronic pain and fatigue.

Here's a quick composition of what they say is the Casual Player Makeup:

• 76% of players are female;
• 71% are 40 or older and 47% are 50 or older;
• 46% are college graduates with 14% holding a master’s or PhD; 53% have an annual household income of $50,000 or more;
• 67% are married
• 53% have at least one child.

Something like this has been done before by other casual game developers, and they pretty much came up with almost the same results.

What we find interesting about this is that this make-up describes the typical sub-urban working mother. So folks, the next time your elders give you a long lecture about playing too much games, be sure to tell them that they're probably already as much a gamer as you are.

Franck569 has released his DS homebrew version of Zuma. In Zuma, a puzzle game developed by PopCap Games, gamers must eliminate all the balls rolling round the screen before they reach the Sun God. Once a ball reaches the Sun God, the rest of the herd will follow and the player loses a life.

To stop the balls from reaching the Sun God, the player must fire a colored ball from the stone frog idol's mouth towards a group of two or more of the same colored balls. When three or more balls of the same color come in contact they explode.

Speaking of explosive stuff, Japanese developer Mitchell Corporation accused PoPCap of unauthorized cloning of Mitchell's 1998 arcade game, Puzz Loop. Mitchell contacted PopCap and threatened to sue for stealing idea. Mitchell has re-released Puzz Loop for the DS as Magnetica.

We'll leave the two developers to settle the legal issue between them and go back to Franck569's amuz (Zuma spelled backwards in case you're wondering) for the DS.

This is a demo level version and the developer says it's afflicted with two persistent bugs. The no$gba emulator, though, is working with the NDS rom and supports the rotation. His to do list includes work on:

• Menu
• Other level
• Combo
• Point ranking
• Better graphics

Download: [amuz DS Demo Level]